OTTOVA – An apology from the Tamil community, improving cricket infrastructure and setting up a visa office in Kathmandu are just some of the promises Patrick Brown has made in hopes of becoming the next leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.
But searching for these promises on the campaign’s website and social media accounts of the mayor of Brampton, Ont., Proved futile.
They seem to exist only in presentations he gives to leaders and members of the country’s Tamil and Nepalese communities, whom he courtesy, among other immigrants and racial Canadians, to buy party membership while the clock ticks until the June 3 deadline.
And while Brown’s main rival, Pierre Poalievre, is attracting crowds of thousands, the former Ontario Progressive Conservative MP and leader is cruising the country, making his case in rooms of up to 20 people.
An overview of his strategy can be found in a series of videos and videos shared on Facebook by those who attended similar events, including a meeting Brown had with members of the Muslim community in British Columbia, 17 minutes of which were broadcast live. on April 1.
“Pierre is more popular in the current Conservative membership. The current Conservative membership wants someone who is more right, ”said Brown, sitting on the couch while others appeared in nearby chairs and listened to him answer their questions.
“My path to victory is not winning party membership,” he said. “My path to victory is to attract new people and have a decent level of support in the party.
He says they have a big campaign in Sikh, Muslim, Tamil and Chinese communities, “all of whom feel oppressed by the party.”
After a short pause, Brown says, “If we can handle this, it’s part of Canadian history.”
Since entering the race, Brown has introduced himself as a fighter for religious freedom, citing his vocal opposition to the controversial law on secularism in Quebec, known for its legislative title on Bill 21. Passed in 2019, it bans government officials from holding positions. wearing religious symbols such as hijabs, turbans, boils during work.
While Brown includes this in his speeches, he goes further: he sees the leadership race as a chance for communities to see their interests better reflected in federal politics and as a way to put both a friend and an ally in the cabinet. the president, who is where he tells them he believes the next Conservative leader is leading after three terms in liberal government.
Among those he targets are Nepalese Canadians. His campaign includes a coordinator dedicated to enrolling at least 5,000 of their community.
In an approximately 36-minute Facebook video shared on April 3, Brown told a room of them in Mississauga, Ont., That as a group, they “never played a significant role in the Conservative Party’s leadership.”
The inclusion will open the door to seeing members of the community represented in the country’s authorities, he said, noting the lack of Nepalese in the government.
“If you’re not part of the process, it’s easy to be forgotten,” says Brown.
At the end of the video, he asks for their help, adding that “I never forget those who are part of my journey. We support each other, we create opportunities for each other. “
The speech followed an earlier live broadcast on March 13, the day the mayor of Brampton, Ont., Launched his candidacy to lead a rally in the Toronto area.
In the video, he promised in a room with members of the Nepalese community that as prime minister he would set up a visa office in the country’s capital, Kathmandu, and invest in cricket infrastructure.
As for the Tamils, Brown acknowledged community leaders and their members for signing up in record numbers during the 2015 Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership race, which he won, and said he had sold a whopping 40,000 memberships.
Speaking at an event in front of members of the Tamil community in Quebec last month, Brown voiced support for setting up a consulate in the Sri Lankan city of Jaffna and promised to apologize to them as prime minister.
“In the years before 2009, Canada was on the wrong side of history,” Brown said.
That same year, the Tigers for the Liberation of Tamil Eelam, listed by Canada as a public security organization based in Sri Lanka, were defeated. Ottawa says on its list that the group, founded in 1976 to advocate for the Tamil homeland, an ethnic minority in the country, terrorized civilians and killed leaders of India and Sri Lanka.
Speaking at a various Tamil event, an approximately three-minute video posted on Facebook shows Brown sitting at a table promising to “lift the ban”, saying he believes Tamil tigers “act in self-defense”.
In a statement to The Canadian Press, campaign spokesman Jeff Silverstein said Brown was behind his political statements. They will appear on his campaign website in a timely manner, as their immediate focus is on selling memberships, he said.
Silverstein added that Brown believes it is time to lift the ban on Tamil tigers, citing the stigma facing community members.
He also said Brown’s relationship with the Nepalese Canadian community dates back 15 years and that his campaign team reflects the diversity of the county.
Brown’s campaign says what he is trying to do is rebuild bridges that the party burned with cultural communities during its 2015 re-election campaign, a question last acknowledged in a Conservative loss report. in the 2021 election. By April 8, according to the campaign, Brown had attended about 200 events in the past three weeks.
Then the Tories, led by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, promised to establish a line for so-called barbaric cultural practices and passed a bill banning the wearing of masks like niqabs during citizenship ceremonies.
Brown is campaigning for the fact that Poliever was in government at the time, and Jenny Byrne, an aide to his current candidacy for leadership, was the party’s 2015 national campaign.
“The Conservative Party will never win if Pierre Poalievre achieves his path and continues to drive out cultural communities by doubling failed policies such as banning the niqab,” Silverstein wrote on Sunday.
“Mayor Brown is working hard to repair that damage and build a winning Conservative Party – and he will never apologize for that.”
To illustrate what is at stake in the race for leadership for racial communities, especially Muslims, Brown cites this story from Byrne and Poalievre.
He mentions the 2015 campaign in a 20-minute video of a meeting with Muslim leaders in Calgary in mid-April. In it, he says he does not want the political polarization created during the tenure of former US President Donald Trump to be brought to Canada. He also added that the country’s right wing has a problem with Islamophobia.
At one point, he tells them that he does not know how “Pierre voted against condemning Islamophobia.” In 2017, both Conservatives and Quebec MPs voted against a proposal submitted by a Liberal MP to the House of Commons.
“This conservative leadership is a battle for the soul of the party,” Brown told the room.
“If you show up, I’ll win.”
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