The hidden campaign

It's hard to say what's more disturbing about the Hill Times' latest report on the Cons' ethnic strategy: an apparent pattern of hiding Jason Kenney's interactions with community groups from public view, or the fact that Kenney seems to be downright proud to be blurring the lines between government functions and partisan campaigning:

Conservative MP Jason Kenney, secretary of state for Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity, says he's attended more than 500 ethnic community events since his party took power in January 2006. And counting.

"I don't have an exact count, but personally it would be in the range of several hundred. I'm sure it will be north of 500," he said in an interview last week, adding that his busiest weekend was last year when he attended an estimated 24 events in three days in the Greater Toronto Area, which is crucial political territory for the Conservatives to win more seats in the next federal election.

A vast majority of the events he attends are not open to the media either on the request of organizers or his party's strategic reasons and therefore not listed on his ministerial website...

Right after the last federal election, Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) chose Mr. Kenney (Calgary Southeast, Alta.) as his point man to help woo ethnic minorities by first appointing him his Parliamentary secretary for multiculturalism and later secretary of state for Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity...

Mr. Kenney denies his party is strategically targeting the nine ethnic communities.

"We work with all communities. I meet with a very wide array of communities. Essentially, any community group that wants to get its message across to the government, contacts me. I'm available to meet with them and our government is accessible to them. We don't exclude any group," said Mr. Kenney.

Putting together the pieces of the article, this looks like another prime example of the Cons using public positions and resources for purposes which are obviously subordinate to their partisan efforts. From what I can tell, Kenney's strategy for keeping contact with groups looks something like this:

1. Group contacts Kenney to invite him to participate in an event in his publicly-funded capacity as secretary of state.

2. Kenney's secretarial office uses public resources to plan his attendance at the event.

3. Kenney attends the event under rules established by the Conservative Party which not only prevent the media from attending, but also prevent the public from being informed that Kenney ever participated.

Now, there's probably some room for the public to find out just where Kenney has been despite his own lack of disclosure, as a past schedule would seem to be available through a well-targeted access to information request. And there's plenty of reason to think that some interesting stories may be found in such an investigation.

Most obviously, it's worth wondering just how far public resources have gone in supporting Kenney's attendance at these events. Con cabinet members have already been caught several times failing to report or misreporting their travel expenses - and Kenney's secrecy about the events attended might signal a strong likelihood that there's plenty more where that came from.

In addition, it's also worth wondering just what Kenney has been saying to the groups involved. And if word comes out that the Cons have been making private promises to targeted ethnic groups which differ from their public positions - or which misuse federal power such as their newfound ability to arbitrarily categorize potential immigrants - then there will be all the more reason for both the groups involved and Canadians in general to distrust the Cons.