Vote against immigration bill or else, Liberals told

[Qwerty]

Vote against immigration bill or else, Liberals told

Apr 16, 2008 05:41 PM

THE CANADIAN PRESS

Immigrant activists opposed to controversial immigration reforms issued a warning to the federal Liberals today – vote against the Conservative government's proposed changes or lose political support from new Canadians who fear the bill discriminates against certain ethnic groups.

The ongoing furor over changes to Immigration and Refugee Protection Act brought some 100 protesters outside Liberal MP Bob Rae's Toronto constituency office to ratchet up the political pressure.

"If you're not going to support our issues as an immigrant population, we're not going to vote for you anymore," said Mohamed Boudjenane, executive director of the Canadian Arab Federation.

Critics of the amendments fear they would put too much power in the hands of Immigration Minister Diane Finley and, that by tying them to the budget bill, the government is pushing the reforms into law without adequate debate.

The budget bill is entering third reading, and so far, the Liberals have yet to vote against it – doing so would trigger an election.

"We are hearing the Liberals speak about the harm of these amendments and the lack of transparency in these amendments," said protest organizer Sima Zerehi. "But unfortunately, their talk is not resulting in their vote."

The warnings come on the eve of a vote on a motion, tabled by the NDP last week, which would sever the immigration reforms from the budget implementation bill, meaning the proposed changes would no longer be put to a confidence vote.

The government has said the reforms will alleviate a growing backlog of immigrants, which could swell to 1.5 million by 2012, by fast-tracking those with much-needed skills. Immigrant groups warn the changes will put economic interests ahead of immigration on the basis of family reunification.

Calls to the Liberal party were not immediately returned.

Henry Jacek, a political science professor at McMaster University, said the Liberals should take the warning seriously.

"Recent immigrants have been a bedrock of support for the Liberal party," said Jacek, adding that Liberal capitulation puts the party in "real danger" with voters. "When a political party starts to look weak, they can have a lot of support erode very quickly."

The NDP, on the other hand, continue to stand against the Tories, which could attract Liberal supporters fed up with their party's apparent inaction, Jacek said.

"It's a very wise strategy," he said, noting the Liberals have lent lip service to the fears of new Canadians but have yet to take a stand. "They'll attack the Liberals as being wishy washy and not following up on their own words."

While people don't change their political loyalties ``overnight," over time those loyalties can erode and crumble, Jacek added.

"At some point, they just have to say 'if we retreat anymore, our support is going to melt away from us.' "

Source

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/415253

Edited April 21, 2008 by Qwerty

[Borg]

Dion and his cronies will be the downfall of this country yet.

Borg

[Argus]

Vote against immigration bill or else, Liberals told

Apr 16, 2008 05:41 PM

THE CANADIAN PRESS

Immigrant activists opposed to controversial immigration reforms issued a warning to the federal Liberals today – vote against the Conservative government's proposed changes or lose political support from new Canadians who fear the bill discriminates against certain ethnic groups.

The ongoing furor over changes to Immigration and Refugee Protection Act brought some 100 protesters outside Liberal MP Bob Rae's Toronto constituency office to ratchet up the political pressure.

"If you're not going to support our issues as an immigrant population, we're not going to vote for you anymore," said Mohamed Boudjenane, executive director of the Canadian Arab Federation.

Boudjenane is an NDP member who ran for the NDP provincially in 2006. The Canadian Arab Federation distinguished itself during the Liberal leadership campaign by passing out leaflets calling on people to not vote for Bob Rae because his wife was a Jewess. And they decided to hold their little demo where - outside Bob Rae's constituency offices.

"We are hearing the Liberals speak about the harm of these amendments and the lack of transparency in these amendments," said protest organizer Sima Zerehi. "But unfortunately, their talk is not resulting in their vote."

Sima Zerehi is an Iranian refugee and member of the radical left who campaigns tirelessly against Israel and in favour of open immigration without rules, with no deportions, with anyone who comes here being allowed to work here.

If these are the people the Liberals are sucking up to one wonders whether or not they are placing their own political interests above the interests and well-being of Canada.

"Recent immigrants have been a bedrock of support for the Liberal party," said Jacek,

Gee, doesn't he know how "tasteless" and "red-neck" it is to say such a thing?

[WarBicycle]

The Liberals biggest problem is not the fear of losing the immigrant vote, it the losing of the Canadian born voter's support. We need skilled tradesman more than we need grandparents, uncles and aunts from Third World countries.

[Sean Hayward]

The Liberals biggest problem is not the fear of losing the immigrant vote, it the losing of the Canadian born voter's support. We need skilled tradesman more than we need grandparents, uncles and aunts from Third World countries.

My thoughts exactly. Who do these immigrants think they are, that their petty personal interests are more important than the national interests of Canada, the country that so recently gave them the greatest opportunity of their life and allowed them to live here?

[Qwerty]

The Liberals lose sight of that fact WarBicycle more often than not it would seem to me. The only seem to care about the big cities which most of their vote comes from. They fail to care that outside of the big three or four cities it is almost entirely blue except for in Quebec where we have the BQ but even that is changing to blue more so now. The Liberal faithful seem to think that they are out of the woods but nothing could be further from the truth.

Imho we need to get Liberal voters to vote NDP or Green to further split the left vote while the CPC marches to a majority just as Cretien did when the right vote split in two consecutive elections. If the right vote had been united then we would have had a conservative government back then as the numbers from the two combined right votes were higher than the Liberal total.