New immigrants find values reflected in Conservative party
Calgary East MP Deepak Obhrai and I always have lunch at Zul and Zarina Boga’s Samosa Gardens restaurant at Sunridge where the East African food is as appetizing as Deepak’s political perceptions.
Obhrai was one of the tens of thousands of Asian entrepreneurs kicked out of Tanzania by the rigid socialist Cuban-style government there that figured bureaucrats could better run their businesses for the profit of the state.
Naturally, the Tanzania economy went into a nosedive and had to be bailed out by various international organizations courtesy of western taxpayers.
Obhrai eventually ended up in Calgary, where, starting from scratch, he built a chain of drycleaning outlets.
A commendable fellow all the way.
Now, here’s a little chuckle at
Deepak’s expense.
Each time they call a federal election, Obhrai calls me worried his opponents are going to beat him.
That he wipes the floor with them—sends them to the cleaners—never stopped him worrying about the next battle.
Yes, I’ve sighed many a time over Deepak dripping beads of perspiration as voting day approached.
But, guess what?
At last he appears to have taken my advice that his record representing his constituents, and his work in the House of Commons, is unassailable.
He’s actually leaving Calgary for a week or so to campaign for Stephen Harper’s Conservative candidates in heavily ethnic ridings in Toronto.
As chairman of Harper’s Multicultural Election Advisory Council, with officials in all major cities coast-to-coast, Obhrai and his team are advancing to let ethnic Canadians know who their friends really are.
Seat-rich Toronto is where both Jean Chretien’s and Paul Martin’s Liberals have repeatedly painted Preston Manning’s Reform party, Stockwell Day’s Canadian Alliance, and Harper’s Conservatives as racists.
They have run underhanded, dirty campaigns no respectable political leader would ever tolerate.
Yet, hey, the Liberal strategy for an election campaign is about winning seats by any means possible, not playing a gentleman’s game.
Grit mudslinging is all the more obnoxious since the Conservatives have more “visible minority” MPs than any other party.
Naturally, this especially rankles the New Democrats, who somehow feel the ethnic vote should belong to them.
Coincidentally, the NDP has not a single “visible minority” MP in its 19-member caucus.
The Liberals claim since they opened the doors to immigration, all immigrants owe them allegiance.
What hypocrisy this all is.
Obhrai believes the sham that only Liberals care about new immigrants and visible minorities is about to be exposed.
“They may have opened some doors to immigrants from poorer nations, but when the immigrants arrive here, every promise they made to them is broken.”
Many immigrants from Asia, the Middle East or Africa come to Canada with accredited skills in medicine, engineering, architecture or some other discipline.
“Then when they get here they find their qualifications aren’t accepted and they find they are working as cab drivers, janitors or labourers.”
Few can deny that.
A week ago, a very nice cab driver told me he had a petroleum engineering degree, had worked for British Petroleum (BP) in the Middle East, but couldn’t find a job in his field here.
Every time he tried some government or professional association, an obstacle was thrown in his face.
You’re good enough for British Petroleum—one of the giants of the oil industry—but not good enough for Canada?
It doesn’t make sense.
We all know Canada has a huge shortage of doctors—partly because as finance minister, Martin cut medical school funding drastically—but doctors come here from Commonwealth countries and aren’t allowed to practice.
Again, it doesn’t make sense.
Obhrai notes immigrants are adventurous, risktakers and entrepreneurial by nature.
They often showed great courage by coming to Canada where they work hard, save hard, and start up small businesses.
Just the type to which Conservative policies should appeal.
Soon, Obhrai and deputy leader Peter MacKay will have the party’s first meeting with the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce in Ottawa.
“With our economic and pro-business policies we can certainly build bridges there.”
He points out, too, that Martin offended many Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and Orthodox Jews when he rammed homosexual marriage through Parliament.
“These are deeply religious and highly moral ethnic men and women and they were aghast at what Martin did.”
The Grits are surely two-faced on immigration and visible minorities just as they are two-faced on just about every other issue.
My betting is the Conservatives and my pal Deepak Ohbrai are about to make inroads into former Liberal territory.
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