Asians in Canada vote Liberal

Combining two recent themes, here's a comment from "Matra" on the Majority Rights blog:

The situation in Canada may be of interest to some of you as most ethnic minorities here are Asian (the top 7 source countries for immigrants are all Asian) and when we talk about minorities in Canada we generally mean Chinese, Indian, Sri Lankan, etc.

In the last federal election (June 2004) the ruling left of centre Liberal Party once again managed to hold on to power (though with a minority government) mostly because the Conservative Party failed to make significant inroads in the metropolitan areas of Ontario, which have most of Canada’s immigrants. This despite a huge corruption scandal that caused the Liberals to lose a lot of its traditional support. Here are some observations about our election and immigrants (mostly Asians):

* Areas with more than a 20% immigrant population almost all went to the Liberals

* Every single Conservative Party seat in the Greater Toronto area was an area where fewer than 5% were ethnic minorities. I suspect it is also the case for the country as a whole.

* Even in metropolitan areas with a significant Asian vote, where support for the Liberal Party did decline, the main beneficiary was usually the socialistic NDP rather than the Conservative Party. With the exception of a couple of old trade union towns that was not the case in non-immigrant parts of English Canada where the Conservatives benefited from the Liberal decline.

* Unlike white Canadians there were no noticeable voting preferences based on class within the Asian communities. This despite the far greater importance these immigrants normally attach to class and status in other areas of life.

* As far as I know every single prominent political observer in Canada believes the Liberals last minute attacks on the Western/Albertan (ie white, “Anglo-Saxon”, evangelical, “redneck”,) character of the Conservative Party were DECISIVE in securing victory in metropolitan areas, especially Greater Toronto

* In provincial elections, which usually revolve around economic issues, the provincial level Conservative Party, does somewhat better in Asian immigrant areas, though not well enough to win the last election in 2003. It’s generally believed the Conservatives do better in provincial elections with Asians because Western Canada and all it conjures up (ie traditional white Christian Canada) is absent from the campaign.

* In French-speaking Quebec immigrants (more diverse and not quite as Asian dominated than the rest of Canada) voted for the party - almost always the Liberals - that was most likely to defeat the nationalistic Bloc Quebecois, which is supported almost exclusively by the ethnically French community.

Conclusion: Whether they are in English or French Canada immigrants from Asia and elsewhere, no matter what their economic status, nationality or religion is, overwhelmingly vote against the party they perceive to be most representative of the traditional majority culture of the part of Canada in which they live.

You might think that Canada would be one of the least corrupt political systems in the world, but as it became officially bicultural and now multicultural, it has descended into the gross Tammany Hall machine corruption of the AdScam scandal. The difference between Tammany Hall and Canada's Liberal regime, however, is that you could criticize Tammany Hall but you couldn't point out that the Liberal government was corruptly buying off French and immigrant votes without being very recently, criticizing the Liberals for their corruption wasn't allowed because that would be "racist."

A reader comments:

Why Asians are liberal in the Bay Area.

1. They want to fit in in the community so the Asian business community kisses-up to the politicians..who are liberal, the people follow the business community as to who to support and vote for (this especially describes San Francisco). When it comes to business they want a winner, who will almost always be a Democrat in the Bay Area. Confirm's your Blue state theory. They live in blue state and look to others to who to vote for. I see the Asian business community driving it a lot.

That makes a lot of sense: path dependency. If you do business in the Bay Area, LA, or NYC (where a large plurality of Asian voters live), it makes sense to join the local political ruling class, which is Democratic.

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