Tories target diasporas in foreign-aid talk tour | Embassy – Canadas Foreign Policy Newspaper

Good piece in Embassy Magazine on some of the diaspora politics of the Government and “shopping for votes”:

Harper government members have reached out to immigrant communities in places where their numbers are strong: Haitians in Montreal; Ukrainians in Saskatoon and Winnipeg; Somalis in Edmonton; Asians in Vancouver and Surrey, BC; and people of Caribbean origin in Brampton, Ont., for instance.

They’ve dropped by the Calgary Afghan Charitable Society to announce money for UNICEF in Afghanistan; stepped on stage at a Vancouver festival, billed as the largest Filipino cultural event in Canada, to say they’re doling out $500,000 to help a conflict-affected island in the Philippines; and sat across from Ukrainian-Canadians at St. Vladimir Ukrainian cultural centre in Windsor, Ont.

…. Pollster Nik Nanos of Nanos Research said he saw the roundtables as part of the Conservatives’ broader “segmentation strategy” to piece together a winning coalition.

“This is quite, what I’ll say, niche politics: where one single group will not put them over the top, but a combination of successful outreach initiatives to these groups could incrementally help the Conservatives,” he said.

He pointed to the government’s staunch support for Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, for instance.

“There are ridings in Saskatchewan where in very close races, a one, two, three or four per cent shift of public opinion in favour of the Conservatives can just make it a little better for them in that particular riding,” he said.

Tories target diasporas in foreign-aid talk tour | Embassy – Canadas Foreign Policy Newspaper.