A much more multicultural Conservative than Trudeau

OTTAWA | The enigmatic mayor of Brampton, Patrick Brown, candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada, will rub shoulders with his five opponents for the first time on Wednesday evening, after having campaigned almost exclusively with cultural communities.

At the Château Kabab restaurant in west Montreal, his promise to attack the State Secularism Act is hitting the bull’s eye.

“No one should ever lose their job because of their faith. Everyone deserves the same chances in Canada,” he pleads to imams and community organizers who listen to him attentively.

Mayor of the most multicultural city in the country, the one that donated $100,000 to support three groups that are challenging Bill 21 in court, the 44-year-old Ontarian fell into the political pot at a young age.

It was Carole Charest, the sister of his childhood idol and opponent in the race, Jean Charest, who led him to his first Conservative convention when he was 15 years old.

He has since been elected federally in the Harper government, then became leader of the Conservative Party of Ontario in 2015. In 2018, he resigned and was elected mayor of Brampton, after his career swerved over allegations of sexual misconduct that ultimately turned out to be unfounded.

The multi-ethnic suburb

Throughout his career, he courted cultural communities, particularly those in Southeast Asia.

The strategy is not innocent; 41 ridings in the country have more than 50% visible minorities, explains Andrew Griffith, former director general of Citizenship and Multiculturalism at Immigration Canada, and author of numerous books on inclusion in the country. Most are located in the suburbs of major cities.

Do better

“To win a general election, the Conservatives absolutely have to win in those ridings,” said Mr. Griffith.

However, in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, the party only elected a handful of MPs last fall.

It is therefore in the ear of influential Muslims from the suburbs of Montreal that Patrick Brown came to speak, at the end of April, on the occasion of Ramadan.

He toured a few mosques, surprising a community unaccustomed to politicians reaching out to him, notes theEcho of the Levantone of the few media to have had access to the candidate during this visit.

On the other hand, he avoids the traditional media, whose The newspaperto which his team did not respond, despite our repeated requests.

Promises that are tailor-made

Conservative Party leadership candidate Patrick Brown is running an underground campaign in which he makes controversial, tailor-made promises to the multiple ethnic communities he woos.

“He is leading a campaign in a submarine, out of sight. We will only see its size when it comes out of the water, that is to say when we will have an idea of ​​​​the number of members it has recruited, “explains Rodolf Husny, former adviser to the Harper government. .

The goal is not to win over existing members, but to attract enough new ones to win, says Husny. He points out that members often vote en masse on a single issue, a reality Mr. Brown understood well when attacking Bill 21.

Divide and rule

From locust infrastructure to the visa office in Nepal, to a national apology to Tamil Canadians to whom he promises to remove the Tamil Tigers from the list of terrorist entities, Patrick Brown has a specific message for each community. And that does not fail to raise eyebrows.

“Some Canadians are concerned that Mayor Brown is sowing division in our country. He has been criticized as the one who manipulates the ethnic vote to boost his campaign,” said Jamil Jivani, one of the moderators of the debate in which the candidate did not participate last week.

“Brown says one thing in one room and the exact opposite in the other room,” confirmed Pierre Poilievre.

No political program

However, all the other candidates, two of whom have an immigrant background, preferred to reach out to immigrants, “natural conservatives”, according to Leslyn Lewis.

None of the aspiring leaders, however, offers a real structuring policy on the number of immigrants to receive and how to ensure their economic and social integration, notes multiculturalism expert Andrew Griffith.

In this regard, the mayor of Brampton, who has not published a program detailing his ideas, is not a model of inclusiveness, points out a city councilor from the City, Gurpreet Dhillon. Only 15% of the City’s leadership team is from a visible minority, while 37% of Brampton’s workforce is.