XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ont.politics   
   From: ConsRCons@govt.cda   
      
   No kidding?  A politician cozying up to jewish groups to find funding   
   for his party?  Who wouldda thought it . . . .   
   And if anyone doubts where Israel gets its financial support for the 120   
   illegal settlements that 350,000 israelis now occupy on Palestinian   
   lands, then just read this article.   
   _________________________________   
   The Hill Times - Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2014   
      
      
   PM’s historic Israel trip also aimed at Conservative partisan interests   
   in Canada, pollsters say   
      
   Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s unprecedented and spectacular visit to   
   Israel with an ‘accompanying party’ dominated by nearly 200 leading   
   members of Canadian Jewish communities and pro-Israel fundraising and   
   lobbying groups is aimed as well at Conservative partisan interests in   
   Canada, leading pollsters say.   
      
      
     PARLIAMENT HILL—Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s unprecedented and   
   spectacular visit to Israel with an “accompanying party” dominated by   
   nearly 200 leading members of Canadian Jewish communities and pro-Israel   
   fundraising and lobbying groups is aimed as well at Conservative   
   partisan interests in Canada, leading pollsters say.   
      
   Ekos pollster Frank Graves said Tuesday he believes the trip is “all   
   about fundraising”—with the entourage including  Conservative Senator   
   Irving Gerstein, who heads the party’s fundraising arm—while Nanos   
   Research pollster Nik Nanos told The Hill Times the Israel jaunt and the   
   government’s wider all-out support for Israel is its most high-profile   
   target yet of a specific community of voters in Canada.   
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   “Through its staunch support of the State of Israel, it effectively   
   signals that it is the friendliest political party to the interests of   
   Israel,” Mr. Nanos told The Hill Times.   
      
   “The hope for the Harper Conservatives is that if they can stack up   
   traditional Conservative bedrock support with those ridings with strong   
   Jewish communities, it can put into play ridings that might naturally   
   fall to the opposition parties,” he said.   
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   “The Harper government has been very systematic in its approach with   
   different segments of the electorate,” Mr. Nanos said.   
      
   “Realistically, it has been part of the winning coalition strategy—to   
   identify and signal to pockets of voters from different cultural   
   backgrounds, this has manifested itself on a range of issues, many   
   trade-related, like freer trade with India or with Asian Pacific   
   countries,” he said.   
      
     “The Harper government’s policy towards Israel is likely its highest   
   profile signal to a specific community in Canada,” Mr. Nanos said.   
      
   Mr. Graves also said Mr. Harper’s outspoken support for Israel, refusing   
   at one point in the trip to acknowledge Canada’s official policy against   
   the expansion of Jewish settlements in West Bank Palestinian areas, and   
   the size of the delegation have underlying domestic aims.   
      
   “I am pretty certain that this is all about fundraising,” said Mr.   
   Graves, who argued much of the voting segment of Canada’s Jewish   
   communities switched to the Conservatives soon after Mr. Harper first   
   won power.   
      
   “We have done some work on this and the Jewish vote basically moved to   
   Harper in 2006 and has been there pretty solidly since, never before,”   
   he said. “So I don’t think it’s about converting more of that vote. But   
   fundraising is another issue.”   
      
   It is hard to imagine the federal Conservative Party is in need of money   
   compared to the other major parties, after it raised $5.2-million during   
   the last three months of 2013 and $18-million during the entire year,   
   once again more than the other major parties combined.   
      
   But, in an email to supporters after the year-end funding drive,   
   Conservative Party president John Walsh avoided referring directly to   
   the number of donors who contributed to the party—after its number of   
   contributors in the second and third quarters of 2013 declined   
   significantly.   
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   Analysts blamed the loss of financial supporters on the Senate expense   
   scandal that virtually paralyzed the government after a new session of   
   Parliament began in October.   
      
   [THE TARGET RIDINGS]:   
      
   The official delegation of 31 MPs, Senators, and aides who accompanied   
   Mr. Harper on his government aircraft included Sen. Gerstein, the   
   party's chief fundraiser as chair of the Conservative Fund Canada, and   
   his wife, Gail Gerstein.  The Cabinet contingent consisted of Foreign   
   Affairs Minister John Baird (Ottawa West-Nepean, Ont.), Employment and   
   Social Development Minister Jason Kenney (Calgary Southeast, Alta.),   
   International Trade Minister Ed Fast (Abbotsford, B.C.), International   
   Development Minister Christian Paradis (Mégantic-L'Érable, Que.),   
   Industry Minister James Moore (Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam, B.C.)   
   and Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver (Eglinton-Lawrence, Ont.), a   
   member of Toronto's Jewish community who won his Commons seat with only   
   46 per cent of the vote in 2011 and whose riding also includes a   
   significant segment of the Toronto Jewish community.   
      
   The visit to Israel, with an accompanying party that includes a   
   half-dozen representatives of fundamentalist and evangelical Christian   
   churches as well as 22 rabbis, may shore up Mr. Harper’s image on the   
   religious side of the political spectrum, Mr. Graves said.   
      
   “The pitch may be more to shore up the religious, evangelical right,   
   which is still a very useful group to have onside,” he said.   
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   “The best predictor of support for Harper was religiosity, not   
   denomination, so this sort of moralistic mission will have potential   
   resonance with that group, and also may well serve to give him a   
   relatively safe bully pulpit to re-establish himself as a principled   
   leader,” said Mr. Graves, who said Mr. Harper’s image has been   
   “corroded” by ethics issues involved in the Senate scandal.   
      
   (Page 2 of 2)   
      
   But a spokesman for Prime Minister Harper rejected the suggestion that   
   reasons behind the PM’s trip also included the generation of financial   
   and political support for the Conservative Party.   
      
   “The delegation accompanying Prime Minister Harper on his visit to the   
   Middle East consists of business and community leaders from across   
   Canada,” said Stephen Lecce, Mr. Harper’s deputy director of   
   communications.   
      
      
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