Stephen Harper and George W. Bush |
Bill Tieleman’s 24
Hours Vancouver / The
Tyee column
Tuesday September
22, 2015
By Bill Tieleman
Last
month's Muslim rioting in France, this month's clashes between old-stock
Australians and Muslim immigrants on the beaches of Sydney -- these may well be
portents of a troubled future."
-
Right-wing Republican strategist David Frum,
December 2005
Prime
Minister Stephen Harper made no mistake last week referring
to "old stock Canadians" versus "immigrants and refugees"
-- it was deliberate and calculated.
It
is coded language also used by the Republican strategist who helped come up
with U.S. President George W. Bush's "axis of
evil" phrase to describe Iraq, Iran and North Korea in 2002.
Hard-right
conservative and former Bush speechwriter David Frum has repeatedly used the
term "old stock" to refer to non-immigrant citizens in Australia,
Germany and the United States -- and to controversially contrast primarily
white voters with Muslim immigrants.
Harper's
intent in using the term is clear: it appeals to a right-wing base frightened
of immigrants and refugees.
The
question remains as to whether the Harper Conservatives' new Australian
political consultant Lynton Crosby
-- critics call him the "Lizard of Oz" -- put "old stock
Canadians" into Harper's talking points for The Globe and Mail debate.
Certainly
Crosby is known for injecting anti-immigrant language into former Australian
Liberal prime minister John Howard's campaigns and those of British
Conservatives.
"During
the 2005 election, he approved Conservative campaign slogans -- 'It's Not
Racist to Impose Limits on Immigration,'" the Guardian newspaper reported
in March.
Crosby
was a key player in Prime Minister David Cameron majority win in this year's
United Kingdom election, another reason Harper hired him.
Origins
of 'old-stock'
But
Frum -- a Harper fan and Canadian whose sister Linda is a Conservative senator
appointed by the prime minister -- has been publicly using "old
stock" to describe non-immigrant voters for some time.
Beyond
his 2005 comments on "old-stock Australians" and Muslim immigrants,
in 2010 Frum wrote:
"Because of very low birth rates among old-stock Germans, the proportion
of foreign-born is highest among those younger than 20s."
It's
unlikely that Harper is not well acquainted with Frum's writing, since he
regularly fawns over Harper, as in a 2013 CNN column:
"U.S.
conservatives deeply admire Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper... Well they
might. Harper has achieved more from a weaker position than any conservative
leader of recent times," Frum wrote.
And
Frum defended Harper vigorously when he was criticized in a New York Times
article in August: "How precisely did the Canadian prime minister silence
debate, suppress information, and squelch democracy?" Frum wrote,
suggesting the column on Harper lacked facts when they abound,
from scientists to Supreme Court justices.
So
it's almost inconceivable that Harper -- a well-read, former head of the
right-wing National
Citizens Coalition -- would not understand the coded meaning of
"old stock Canadians."
Frum
is also blatant about bashing non-European Union immigrants and refugees.
"Europe
is learning that today's refugees are at high risk of becoming tomorrow's
high-school dropouts, tomorrow's unemployed, and tomorrow's criminals,"
Frum, executive editor of the Atlantic magazine, wrote in a July column
ominously titled:
"Closing
Europe's Harbors -- The urgent case for stopping the flow of illegal migrants
across the Mediterranean."
Frum
has been beating the same drum for years, writing
in 2010: "This immigrant population is disproportionately connected to
almost all of the social problems of modern Germany."
And
in a series of tweets this month, Frum
said:
"Wherever
stat is calculated - e.g. UK, Germany - non-EU immigrants draw more in benefits
than they pay in taxes."
"Non-EU
migrants and their children hugely disproportionate in prison populations -
sometimes an outright majority."
"Immigrants
from outside the EU twice as likely to be unemployed as natives."
"Immigrants
from non-EU countries are twice as likely as natives to drop out of secondary
school."
Harper's
debate comments were nowhere near as inflammatory, but seem rooted in the same
basic argument -- that immigrants and refugees are trouble.
Motivating
the base
Harper
used
the phrase "old stock Canadians" in response to a question about
changes to health care available to immigrants and refugees.
"The
fact of the matter is we have not taken away health care from immigrants and
refugees. On the contrary, the only time we've removed it is when we have
clearly bogus refugee claimants who have been refused and turned down.
"We
do not offer them a better health care plan than the ordinary Canadian
receives. I think that's something that new and existing and old stock
Canadians agree with," Harper concluded.
When
asked the next day what he meant, Harper carefully avoided repeating the phrase
-- and was less-than-clear in explaining
why he used it or what it meant.
"I
know that that is a position supported widely through the Canadian population,
it's supported by Canadians who are themselves immigrants and also supported by
the rest of us, by Canadians who have been the descendants of immigrants for
one or more generations," he said.
Not
convincing -- nor is it likely someone using coded language would then explain
what the code actually meant.
Harper's
comments are a pale version of Frum's foaming invective, but the intent of his
"old stock Canadians" is clear -- to appeal to a right-wing base
frightened of immigrants and refugees, to motivate them to vote in this
election.
And
it's an approach that's reason enough for voters to reject Conservative
politics of fear.
.