XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ab.politics   
   XPost: ont.politics   
   From: ConsRCons@govt.cda   
      
   It worked for Christy Clark in BC's last election . . .  she threw   
   MILLIONS of dollars at the southeast asian community - just months   
   before the election.   
   And they vote in big numbers and for those politicians who throw their   
   communities the most goodies.   
      
   Here's Stephen Harper keeping up the practice . . . .   
   __________________________   
   Friday, January 17, 2014 - thestar.com   
      
      
   Inside Stephen Harper's ‘secret ethnic media’ session: Tim Harper   
      
   It's good politics for the PM to target media in vote-rich communities,   
   but he is wrong in his view of the role of the so-called ethnic media.   
      
      
   OTTAWA—“We’ll take a few pictures before everyone goes.’’   
      
   With those words, Stephen Harper wrapped up a 45-minute encounter with   
   media in Vancouver last week, a session that has taken on a life on its   
   own, and now goes by the name the “secret ethnic media meeting.’’   
      
   The assembled journalists laughed on cue at the prime minister’s   
   witticisms, one thanked him on behalf of those who had fled Iran from   
   the “bottom of our hearts,’’ no one challenged Harper, followed up with   
   a second question or pushed him on the Senate, tax dollars wasted on   
   government advertising, the unemployment rate, or even gaps in his own   
   security on day when protesters got within inches of him at the   
   Vancouver Board of Trade.   
      
   In other words, it worked just as Harper wanted.   
      
   Because these encounters do unfold as planned, they will continue   
   operating in this fashion, micro targeting so-called ethnic voters,   
   sanitizing public encounters by using polite moderators to toss out   
   innocuous questions, posting their own thoroughly scrubbed version of   
   events on a website entitled 24/7 or launching a dedicated webpage to   
   leverage support (and money) to laud Harper’s historic trip to Israel   
   next week.   
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   The so-called mainstream media reacts poorly when Harper goes behind   
   closed doors to meet with “cultural media” with no mention on an   
   itinerary and no access for other journalists, but this is not a new tactic.   
      
   What was new this time was, thanks to Vancouver’s 24 Hours, we have an   
   audio tape of the session, and it is revealing in Harper’s view about   
   the role of the media.   
      
   It also makes one wonder why this is exercise took on the trappings of a   
   state secret, complete with leaked audiotape.   
      
   In fairness, Harper has done interviews with major networks and   
   newspapers in this country, including four at year’s end, and at least   
   two this week, but a 45-minute roundtable with no agenda is a non-starter.   
      
   Harper himself explained why it was important for him to engage with the   
   so-called ethnic media, which he called some of the larger media in the   
   country with some of the most loyal readers and viewers.   
      
   “You are vital to us getting our message to Canadians and helping keep   
   the Canadians you speak to informed about the national life of our   
   country,’’ he said.   
      
   Harper didn’t invent this direct appeal to ethnic voters, but he has   
   refined it and the reason is obvious.   
      
   There are 30 new seats up for grabs in the 2015 election, six of them in   
   British Columbia, 15 in Ontario, most carved out of the teeming suburbs   
   around Vancouver and Toronto, all home to heavy concentrations of ethnic   
   voters, all of them already held by Conservatives who are determined to   
   keep this edge against any incursion from Tom Mulcair’s New Democrats or   
   Justin Trudeau’s Liberals.   
      
   These voters get their news from the outlets represented at the   
   Vancouver event.   
      
   This is not to denigrate the journalists present, because we all have   
   agendas based on our readership and trade deals with India and Korea are   
   top of mind if your market is recent arrivals from those countries.   
      
   Harper was the relaxed, statistics-spouting politician Canadians rarely   
   get to see, taking a shot at allies who have jumped on the Iranian   
   “bandwagon,’’ cautioning Canadians to ensure they can handle their debt   
   load if interest rates jump in the next “two or three years” and   
   offering a blunt assessment of the abuses of the temporary foreign   
   workers program that mushroomed under his watch.   
      
   Harper will get the coverage he covets in media that serves areas with a   
   high concentration of votes he also covets.   
      
   That’s good politics and most Canadians couldn’t care less if other   
   journalists are shut out.   
      
   His reluctance to sit down and talk about issues with the national media   
   may not be puzzling but his view on the role of the ethnic media is   
   troubling.   
      
   It is not our role, whether we represent The Toronto Star or Asian Star   
   Weekly, to play a “vital” role in getting the government’s message out.   
      
   Both Liberals and Progressive Conservatives once played a variation of   
   this game, giving priority to local reporters on trips outside Ottawa,   
   in the belief they would toss softer questions to their leader.   
      
   That blew up when the local reporters decided they didn’t want to play   
   that role and asked tougher questions than the Ottawa gang.   
      
   If Harper really thinks the ethnic media are there to help him deliver   
   an unfiltered message, one of them is going to rise up and bite him   
   before anyone poses for any pictures.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)