What Canadians can Teach American Conservatives about Getting Asian Votes

By Jeff | Wednesday, March 6, 2013 | 14 Comments

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To reinforce ties with Asian Canadians, Canada’s conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently sent out Lunar New Year Greetings and celebrated the New Year with Chinese Canadians in Vancouver. Some Canadians suggest that American conservatives look at Harper as an example. In particular, they point out that Canadian conservatives effectively engage with ethnic communities like Asian Canadians in stark contrast to American Republicans. I was curious about how true that was, so I asked 8Asians resident Canadian Xxxtine.

Xxxtine wanted to first emphasize that this is her opinion and not necessarily representative of all Asian Canadians. Her response:

The joke my boyfriend uses to describe the Tory Government (Conservatives) is that they are more like the American Democrats. Both of our fathers vote Conservative, I lean towards NDP (New Democrat Party). I think the closest government official we have (or that I know of) to an American Republican is Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who invokes such images such as Cartman or Tommy Boy. But even he keeps his distance from lifestyle debates, albeit he is not welcomed during Gay Pride. Alberta is perhaps the most Conservative province because they see themselves as the Northern Texas because of all the oil wells and rodeos there.

I’ve always felt the nature of Canada as a country is quite different from the US. I think it stems back during Pierre Trudeau’s term (80′s) where he firmly stated that the government has no business in the bedroom – gay marriage and abortion are both legal and topics not up for discussion during debates anymore. Topics that arise during election time are healthcare, education and the economy (jobs). How our taxes are being spent is the larger issue and this kind of spending is how the parties differ in their values. Conservatives would put it in the economy for business tax breaks and military, where Liberals and NDPs would put it into education and healthcare. I’m brushing a really broad stroke, but you get the idea.

To answer Jeff’s question directly, the parties do actively attempt to include ethnic communities in their campaign tours. The Liberal and NDP parties do this fairly well. The Conservatives do make efforts, some good and some resulting in quite the PR disaster:

http://www.8asians.com/2011/04/14/canadians-protest-ethnic-costume-photo-op/

It was also during Harper’s term (very early in his term actually) that the government officially acknowledged and apologizes for the Chinese Head Tax. I think payouts were made to an organization and of course, that is in dispute – I unfortunately don’t know its current status.

As Xxxtine points out, Conservatives’ efforts don’t always work. The article about the Chinese New Year in Vancouver also points out a mixed reaction from a Chinese Canadian woman:

“I guess it’s of some significance that the Chinese Canadian community is being acknowledged. But my question is, why are they doing it here, in a casino? Does he think we’re all gamblers?”

Despite some of these setbacks, it’s clear that Canadian Conservative efforts do engage Asian voters, and advertisements like this do not.

While a majority of Asian Americans voters selected Barack Obama in the 2012 US Presidential elections, one poll suggest that many remain uncommitted to either party, and the most nonpartisan cities in California are heavily Asian American. As George Takei has pointed out, some Asian Americans will not vote for Democrats as one signed executive order 9066. Liberal PACs also can send out racist tweets. Republicans in the past have shown they can work with minority voters – George W. Bush increased his support from Hispanics when first elected in 2000 to 40% in 2004. Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties act of 1988, which gave reparations to Japanese Americans who were interned. Asian American voters can be an opportunity for the Republican party – whether they learn from Canadian conservatives remains to be seen.

(photo credit: Remy Steinegger, under the Creative Commons License)

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Politics

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Facebook Comments (Beta)

LTE2

“I’ve always felt the nature of Canada as a country is quite different from the US.”
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It is!
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“and advertisements like this do not”
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An excellent ad that drives home a very important point about international trade and the economy and how it benefits or disadvantages Americans. Somehow we’re supposed to talk about the Chinese yet ignore the fact they look like, well, Chinese?
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“Asian American voters can be an opportunity for the Republican party – whether they learn from Canadian conservatives remains to be seen”
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Asian-Americans have to learn from history and the effects of a Democrat-Progressive agenda on rights, freedom and liberty.
http://twitter.com/yanagiX 楊壹業

“An excellent ad that drives home a very important point about
international trade and the economy and how it benefits or disadvantages
Americans. Somehow we’re supposed to talk about the Chinese yet ignore
the fact they look like, well, Chinese?”

You’re actually defending that garbage ad? You don’t have to caricature Chinese to make points about the benefits of trade, and your last question comically misses the point.

The irony of the ad is that Hoekstra is an immigrant, but the actress (Lisa Chan) who played a foreigner is native-born. I fault Chan for not having any self-respect, but if it was between that ad or doing a porn shoot to pay for living expenses, then I can cut her some slack. The good thing is that Hoekstra got his butt whooped in the election by over 20 percentage points. I’m a conservative libertarian, but when a foreign-born naturalized citizen is trying to play the nativist card, I call BS.
LTE2

“You don’t have to caricature Chinese”
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You see caricature, I see a girl mocking Americans for being sooooo stupid. I would suppose if we had major problems with the Russians, I guess we couldn’t run a picture of them for fear of creating offense to Russian-Americans.
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“I fault Chan for not having any self-respect”
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Maybe she’s worried about the direction of the country.
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“The irony of the ad is that Hoekstra is an immigrant”
“I’m a conservative libertarian, but when a foreign-born naturalized citizen is trying to play the nativist card, I call BS.”
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Some of the best Americans I know are immigrants. Some of the most anti-Obama people I have talked to were immigrants from totalitarian states.
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Sorry, in this case I see the attacks on Lisa Chan as racial correctness gone berserk.
http://twitter.com/yanagiX 楊壹業

“You see caricature, I see a girl mocking Americans for being sooooo stupid. I would suppose if we had major problems with the Russians, I guess we couldn’t run a picture of them for fear of creating offense to Russian-Americans.”

Stupid, how? And you’re still missing the point entirely. She’s not “them.” She’s a native-born American; Hoekstra came here as an immigrant. The irony of the ad is completely lost on you.

“Maybe she’s worried about the direction of the country.”

You think trade with China is the wrong direction for our country. Because?

“Some of the best Americans I know are immigrants. Some of the most anti-Obama people I have talked to were immigrants from totalitarian states.”

I never said an immigrant can’t be a good American. I said I call BS when an immigrant is trying to stir up nativist sentiment. See the difference?
http://www.myspace.com/krantzstone Krantzstone

Or how _not_ to do it: the British Columbia Liberal party way
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/03/02/bc-liberal-division.html
LTE2

“She’s not “them.” She’s a native-born American”
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I realize that. Americans do play foreign nationals in media.
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You think trade with China is the wrong direction for our country. Because?
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Trade with China in itself is neither good or bad.
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The trade and current account deficits are the problem. We can not run billions and billions of dollars a year in deficits for both accounts endlessly and expect to have a functional economy or society. For many years the US economy has been running on borrowed money or fiat money.
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China is not the only “problem” but I would say because of the size of the deficits with them, we should have a major concern. I would say China is a good starting point to re-examine trade policy with countries that have an insurmountable advantage in costs.
http://twitter.com/yanagiX 楊壹業

“I realize that. Americans do play foreign nationals in media.”

Not the point. Again, the irony of the ad is completely lost on you: an immigrant tries to stir up nativist sentiment by using a native-born American to play a foreigner.

“I would say China is a good starting point to re-examine trade policy
with countries that have an insurmountable advantage in costs.”

That would be just about any developing country.
LTE2

“Not the point. Again, the irony of the ad is completely lost on you: an immigrant tries to stir up nativist sentiment by using a native-born American to play a foreigner.”
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I did not see irony, I saw an American playing a foreign national mocking our dumb trade policies. I pointed out in my previous post some immigrants take the future of the US most seriously. They became citizens, they work for the interests of the United States and that is good enough for me.
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“That would be just about any developing country”
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Due to it’s size and economic effect, China is not just any other country. Laos or Mali does not warp the world economy like China does.
http://twitter.com/yanagiX 楊壹業

“I pointed out in my previous post some immigrants take the future of the US most seriously. They became citizens, they work for the interests of the United States and that is good enough for me.”

And I pointed out that you are invoking a red herring here. I am not saying that naturalized Americans can never be real Americans. I am saying that I call BS when immigrants try to stir up nativist sentiment. You have never addressed that directly, though you claim you “understand [my] point of view.” I don’t think you’re expressing a view you don’t hold, but I do think you’re being obtuse.

“Due to it’s size and economic effect, China is not just any other country. Laos or Mali does not warp the world economy like China does.”

So you don’t mind having trade deficit = X as long as X is split up into N countries and not concentrated in one (i.e. China)?
LTE2

“I don’t think you’re expressing a view you don’t hold, but I do think you’re being obtuse”
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You must fume when you see the 1961 movie Flower Drum Song, a story about Chinese refugees & immigrants directed by Henry Koster, an escapee from Nazi Germany.
http://twitter.com/yanagiX 楊壹業

Nope.
Steve Pan

please fuck off
http://twitter.com/yanagiX 楊壹業

Your mom says otherwise.
EastAsianNationalist

I vote conservative even when I don’t agree with them. Supporting liberals abroad means helping it spread to Asia. Never forget.

Also, Canada doesn’t have droves of blacks and latinos making every political issue about minority victimhood. Most of us here are too busy trying to make more money.

8 Asians