Kellie Leitch fails her own values test
Editor:
Our local MP thinks that we should screen prospective immigrants for “anti-Canadian values.” She floated this proposal in a survey of her supporters, and in an interview on CBC Radio.
Kellie Leitch has come up with a list of five values – hard work, equality of opportunity, freedom, generosity and tolerance – that she thinks define us as Canadians. Her proposal has been rightly compared to ideas put forward by Donald Trump, with one crucial difference: at least Trump is honest.
His platform is odious, but it’s clear and straightforward: build a wall, ban Muslim immigration, deport undocumented immigrants. Kellie Leitch hides behind code words and uses not-so-subtle innuendo to mask her corrosive message. When she warns us about others who believe “women are property,” and who think “gays and lesbians should be stoned to death,” she doesn’t say “Muslim,” but we all know who she’s talking about.
When she insists that new Canadians must be told that hard work is a Canadian value, she feeds the stereotype of the lazy immigrant living off the generosity of the Canadian taxpayer.
The irony of Kellie Leitch’s proposal is that it violates the very values she claims to support. Trying to screen immigrants for anti-Canadian values is neither tolerant nor generous, and how exactly would it be done? What kind of questionnaire would identify the lazy, intolerant, selfish immigrants who are supposedly trying to get into our country? Her proposal is above all dishonest, which might explain why honesty was left off Kellie Leitch’s list of values.
The idea that we should screen immigrants for anti-Canadian values is a cynical ploy that Kellie Leitch hopes will win her votes in the Conservative leadership contest. She is deliberately appealing to the racist, xenophobic, intolerant minority that has always found a home in her party. In the last election, Kellie Leitch received less than half of the vote in Simcoe-Grey. The majority of us voted for candidates who really do believe in tolerance and equality. Let’s hope the current government follows through on its promise to reform our electoral system so we are not again saddled with a representative who doesn’t share our values.
Brent Preston,
Dunedin.
