The outrage over Christy Clark’s outreach plan
A ‘quick win’ strategy to target ethnic voters moves the B.C. Liberals even closer to a loss
“Welcome to Bollywood East,” B.C. Premier Christy Clark enthused in January during a glitzy announcement that the province was spending $11 million to host the Times of India Film Awards in Vancouver. Clark dismissed insinuations the April 4-6 event was a sop to Indo-Canadian voters weeks before the May 14 provincial election, calling it “an incredible opportunity for us to sell our province.” But as a series of devastating leaks made clear in the past week, it also now appears part of an effort to buy ethnic votes for the B.C. Liberals with taxpayer funds.
It was a chastened Clark who appeared in Victoria on Monday in an attempt to keep her restive caucus in line, and to face the legislature for the first time since the opposition New Democrats released a leaked draft copy of a 17-page “Multicultural Strategic Outreach Plan,” a strategy to woo ethnic votes that was circulated to senior party insiders and staff, many of whom were collecting a paycheque from taxpayers. Among the strategy’s key points was a plan to issue government apologies for “historical wrongs,” such as the Chinese head tax and the refusal to let Sikhs disembark when their chartered ship, the Komagata Maru, arrived in Vancouver in 1914. Such apologies offer “quick wins” for the Liberals, the document said. The memo was circulated on Jan. 10, 2012, by Kim Haakstad, a Clark confidante and then the premier’s deputy chief of staff.
http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/03/06/the-outrage-over-christy-clarks-outre...
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