Tuesday, December 27, 2005

On reasonable responses

The Vancouver Sun reports on how the Libs' stance on compensation for the head tax on Chinese immigrants could be a campaign issue. But can anybody even pretend that the issue should run in favour of the Cons, as theorized by one community leader?
"With the Conservative party and the Liberal party taking diametrically different positions on this, that could have an effect," former Vancouver councillor Tung Chan said...

In November, the Liberal government announced a $2.5-million plan to recognize the historic injustice of the head tax, but it did not apologize or offer individual financial redress to victims and their families...

While campaigning in Ontario earlier this month, Conservative leader Stephen Harper changed his position on the head tax issue and joined the New Democratic Party and Bloc Quebecois in condemning the government's $2.5-million plan as inadequate.
The article also cites another Chinese community leader who avoided any mention of specific parties in criticizing the Libs' policy - which seems like a better-grounded take on the issue. But there's no apparent reason why a group concerned about the Libs' unfairly-imposed settlement would show its discontent by throwing its support to a party that was utterly disinterested in the issue until the campaign was underway.

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