Fight for the ethnic vote

By Mata Press Service

As voting day nears to determine who will rule Canada, the Liberal party is desperately trying to woo votes from new Canadians and immigrant families away from the Conservatives.
Led by former B.C. premier Ujjal Dosanjh, who is projected to lose his seat in South Vancouver, and Liberal poster boy Justin Trudeau in Quebec, the Liberal’s last gasp dash involves showing
how the Harper Conservatives are systematically turning their backs on new Canadians by cutting back family reunification visas.
A Liberal government would grant 20,000 visas each year for a period of two years to parents and grandparents intending to reunite with their families in Canada, pledged Dosanjh and Trudeau, the son of former Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.
Their efforts seem to have got the backing from a group of Canadian lawyers and legal academics who claim the Conservative Party is not good for visible minority immigrant communities.
Among the group‘s claims:
• The annual visa quotas for sponsored parents and grandparents are down — not up — by 44 per cent from 20,005 in 2005 to 11,200 in 2011. It now takes nine to 30 months longer to process these sponsorships, depending on the visa post.
• The backlog of skilled worker applicants waiting for a decision has gone up — not down — from 487,000 in 2005 to the current 508,000.
There are 147,768 other families also waiting for parents or grandparents to join them in Canada, according to the access-to-information request obtained by immigration lawyer Richard Kurland that revealed the new government policies.
‘Irresponsible and inhumane’ fumed Dosanjh, as these numbers, fanned and manipulated by Liberal researchers, hit the media headlines.
But the rhetoric and selective numbers used by the Liberals and their supporters don’t tell the whole story, say the Conservatives.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said the Conservative government’s record on immigration shows it reaching the highest levels of immigration of any government in Canadian history.
The Conservative government has admitted it had changed internal immigration targets to stretch wait times for parents and grandparents of immigrants applying to come to Canada to join their relatives.
“We need more newcomers working and paying taxes and contributing to our health-care system. That is the focus of our immigration system,” Kenney told the House of Commons.
While this is a dangerous gamble in Asian communities that prize family reunifications at a faster rate, the Liberal record on immigration is not all that stellar as well.
And their champions, Dosanjh and Trudeau seem to conveniently ignore the past of their party.
Here are some questions put forward by Conservative party researchers, you may want to consider, if you think the Liberals are the best party for new Canadians.

• Why did the previous Liberal government cut immigration by 32%, and family immigration by 38%, during its first 5 years in office (1993-1998)?
• Why did the previous Liberal government leave office with an immigration backlog of 830,000 applications at the end of 2005?

• Why did the previous Liberal government leave behind a backlog of 108,000 applications and a 64 month wait time for parental reunification?
• During the recession of the early 1980s, the Trudeau Liberal government cut immigration in half to fewer than 90,000 landings. During the recent recession, the Harper Conservative government increased immigration levels to over 280,000. Which policy was the right one for the recession: The Trudeau cuts to immigration or the Harper increases to immigration?

 • In the last two years the previous Liberal government held office (2004 and 2005), only 12,500 parents and grandparents were admitted each year. By comparison, the Conservatives have admitted an average of 17,000 parents and grandparents every year since being elected to office. And we will continue welcoming parents and grandparents. Why are the Liberals criticizing the Harper Conservatives for increasing parental reunification over Liberal levels?

• The previous Liberal government admitted an average of 60,200 sponsored family members per year. The Conservative government has increased family reunification, admitting an average of 63,500 sponsored family members per year. Would a Liberal government cut family class admissions back to previous Liberal levels?

• Why did the previous Liberal government impose and maintain a $975 landing fee on new permanent residents? Why did Michael Ignatieff and the Liberals vote against the Conservative Budget that cut the right of landing fee in half?

• Why did the previous Liberal government refuse to apologize for or redress the Chinese Head Tax? Why did Michael Ignatieff not attend Prime Minister Harper’s historic apology in Parliament in 2006? Why did the previous Liberal government refuse to apologize for the Komagatu Maru incident?

•  Last week Ujjal Dosanjh said that the Conservative government has “only let temporary foreign workers come to Canada.” The Conservative government has admitted, on average, 255,000 permanent residents per year, 14% more than the average under the previous Liberal government. And last year we admitted more than 280,000 new permanent residents. Why is Mr. Dosanjh misleading the public about immigration?
So which party has a more generous policy towards legal immigration in Canada? You can decide on May 2 at the ballot box.

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