Her spin doesn’t save her proposal from being a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.
In Europe, the United States and Canada, immigration is shaping up to be the hottest political issue of 2017. Across the pond, French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is calling for the banning of all religious symbols, including Muslim headscarves, Jewish kippas and Sikh turbans. In the United States, President Donald Trump today issued his revised executive order banning travel from six majority Muslim countries for 90 days, supposedly in the interests of national security.
And in Canada, Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch is fleshing out her policies on “immigrant screening”, through the release of a new video and a new email message.
I’ll give Leitch this much: She identified the issue early, staked her claim and has been mining it for support ever since. Never mind the fact that most of the other candidates are treating her like radioactive waste, or that her original campaign video plays like a campaign video parody.
That spot has over 100,000 views on YouTube alone, and over 500,000 views in total, according to her campaign. And viewers aren’t all tuning in to laugh at the bizarre production values: Like it or not, there is an appetite for anti-immigrant rhetoric in Canada — among Conservative supporters more than others.
Leitch, of course, denies that she is anti-immigrant. She says she just wants to make sure we get the right ones, who uphold “Canadian values.” Her email sets out the questions she thinks immigrants should be asked in this regard:
“Are men and women equal, and entitled to equal protection under the law?”
“Is it ever ok to coerce or use violence against an individual or a group who disagrees with your views?”
“Do you recognize that to have a good life in Canada you will need to work hard for yourself and your family, and that you can’t expect to have things you want given to you?”
Read the full article on iPolitics.