Read this doc on Scribd: Campaign Manager Training
I am uncomfortable with our party targeting individuals and deciding on their usefulness or lack thereof simply based on their ethnicity. We are supposed to be a party of openness and inclusion, where all Canadians, regardless of race, religion, and background can feel comfortable and welcome.
I strongly encourage our Party to cease targeting voters based on ethnicity and instead focus on recruit the Canadian population as a whole.
15 comments:
With respect, your passion is appreciated but your idea idea doesn't make practical sense in a multicultural party.
You have to have training on how to reach out to people with different languages, know what cultural community associations to touch base with, ensure you have campaign workers that represent different communities, make sure you have policies that reflect our cultural make up, and provide literature on issues that reflect the concerns of minority groups.
Otherwise you get a Reform Party style Caucasian dominated caucus and policies because they make up the bulk of decision makers in Ottawa and elsewhere.
Outreach is critical, getting rid of it would destroy the Liberal party.
I disagree with Jeremy. What this is, is racism. You can reach out to people , and not judge by the colour of their skin. Are we all not equal in this country ? Some people still want to divide by the colour of skin, which is why we still have the racist indian reserves in place. I am a liberal , by the way.
The liberal party is a 'divide and conquer party' and always has been. They successfully played off the regions for years. Now they play off ethnic groups.
They kept the West out for decades in their appeasement of Quebec and the Maritimes. They made Ontario their per while ripping off the West. they literally own the 40 Toronto area seats. How do you think happened?
The Libs don't care about ethnics, only their votes. That's why they bring them in by the boatload and let them set up their ghettos. If they are all in one place they are easier to influence and bribe.
Our traditions are going down the toiled because of the wrong kind of immigration and the Libs don't care. They only want power and control and that has little to do with what's best for Canada.
I could go on, but I am sure you have deleted comments like this before.
Re:"Reform Party style Caucasian dominated caucus" --
Be aware that at one point the Alliance had more visible minorities than other parties. That the Reform party has more caucasions had more to do with its Western base than bigotry. Apart from Asians in B.C., there are far fewer visible minorities in the West. That's changing, but it will be a long time before the West will have as many visible minorities as Liberal dominated Toronto. To use a phrase "Reform Party style Caucasion dominated" -- I think reflects bigotry against a particular region of the country. Having said that, I think it is fine to target ethnic groups for votes. What is NOT o.k. is contributing to groups' animosity towards one another,as I feel Liberals have sometimes done (e.g. Coderre marching with Hezbollah)
"More visible minorities than other parties" Cite your source.
In order to make people feel welcome within our big tent party, shouldnt we be making sure that our message is relevant in all cultural contexts. Now, I don't think its racist to suggest that there is a correlative relationship between, for example, Chinese culture and Chinese ethnicity. It seems not only appropriate, but within our core principles of inclusion and multiculturalism to reach out and target people from ethnic communities.
That said, there is something to be said for 'leadership by example'. It comes right before losing in an election. I want a Liberal government again, and I would be furious with central staff if they didn't play on the same field as everyone else. That means targeting ethnic voters.
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"We are supposed to be a party of openness and inclusion, where all Canadians, regardless of race, religion, and background can feel comfortable and welcome."
Riiight. And the other parties aren't, eh?
Of course the Liberals target minorities..how else do you think they have maintained power in all the large urban centres in Canada for over 40 years?
Bring them in en mass, pander to them and have perpetual loyal voting blocks every election.
Problem is, when you start to pander to groups who are known to have terrorist affiliations, it makes Canadians wake up and take notice.Canadians will not stand for their elected leaders playing footsie with terrorism, no matter how many votes it garners..
You will reap what you sow..
"More visible minorities than other parties" Cite your source.
-- Oops, my mistake -- it was not the Alliance, it was the Cons in the 2004 election. Source: Canadian Parliamentary Reveiw: http://tinyurl.com/5ez2zv Scroll down to Table 3. In any event, my point stands, that it was largely due to demographics (rather than bigotry) that the Reform did not have as many visible minorities. I think it is presumptuous of the Liberals to assume that they are the only "big tent" party -- while ignoring that what they really have is a "big Toronto" tent.
Ummm... overreaction maybe?
How does targeting become an "assessment of usefulness"? That's quite a leap.
If I have three volunteers on my campaign who speak fluent Mandarin, guess what I'm going to want them to do on the phone? Speak to voters who speak Mandarin.
There's hardly anything nefarious about that.
I guess you have just learned what should be common knowledge of the Liberal party of Canada and I would say the NDP and Ontario provincial Liberals do exactly the same thing.
No news to some of us.
The biggest bunch of lying hypocrites.
I would rather encourage Liberal supporters who are against this discrimination to move from the Liberal party.Possibly back to the kitchen barefoot and pregnant if necessary.
LOL, whites, farmers, gun owners, stay at home moms, Orangemen, pro lifers, members of the military, whites, Christians should all feel welcome by LPoC?
Oh wait liberalsim is based on using the state to abuse the above for the advancement of everyone else.
Hell they don't even call to lift affirmative action plans now that men are more likely to be unemployed than women.
Stephane to host a legal gun owners appreciation day soon in Toronto.
People who can't speak an official language should not be allowed to vote.
What kind of targeting would you support? Is it only ethnicity that makes you uncomfortable, or are there others?
Unfortunately for your utopian world-view, all ethinic groups look out for themselves in one way or another. If you want to win their votes you have to target them. The liberals have done that more successfully than other parties. That is why they continue to hold downtown Toronto and Montreal. Certain ethinic groups see the liberals providing the goods to their individual communities.
That is the reality, when you have large numbers of various ethnic groups, you have to target them with specific goodies or you will not get their votes.
PLEASE tell me WHY this makes you uncomfortable. Do you understand that acknowledging that people are of different races and ethnicities is not racist or ethnicist (is that a word?)?
I consider myself a subscriber to many progressive philosophies, though most certainly not all. One of those that I find absolutely abhorrent is this notion at everyone is the same. Just because we are equal, does not mean we are the same!
I mean, you get that "targetting" means delivering a specific message in a way that it is understood by a specific group of people, yes? What is so bad about acknowledging that people from different backgrounds will have different specific interests (as will people within those groups).
It makes no more sense than saying "we shall not target by income." You get that those considered "poor" by our Canadian standards tend not to read the Financial Post, yes? Different ethnicities (like different socio-economic classes) consume different kinds of media. I cite no study, but even without it, I'll bet $100 that the poorest 25% watch inordinately more television than the wealthiest 25%.
People are different.
Why is it so politically correct to pretend that they aren't?
As you can see by Jeremy's comment, "outreach" to ethnic communities (i.e. ethnic voter targeting, but good Liberals don't call it that) is so thoroughly entrenched among Liberal party members that they consider any questioning of the practice to be some sort of violation of their cherished multiculturalism. I think most Liberals today have convinced themselves that they do so out of their commitment to diversity, but as the document you posted shows, it remains first and foremost a quest for votes. So while I admire your principles, I don't see your views becoming at all popular within the Liberals, nor any other party. Parties will do what they have to to get votes, including lots of pandering to ethnic groups.
The early Reform party also tried to maintain lofty principles like the one you are espousing (no pandering to ethnic groups) but it quickly got them labeled "racist". By the time they morphed into the Canadian Alliance in 2000 they were actively targeting several ethnic groups, starting with Sikhs in western Canada (whom they signed up in large numbers). And the ethnic pandering of today's version of the Tories, replete with official apologies and compensation, would make any Liberal blush with pride and fuzzy warm feelings.
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