Tories are happy to ride Modi’s wave
Sometimes, it’s enough to be the opening act or to simply content yourself banging the cowbell behind the lead guitarist.
That’s been Stephen Harper’s role during the three-day Canadian visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and it has provided a nice boost to the Canadian prime minister.
It has also been a boost to a bevy of Conservative backbenchers who merely have to declare, “I’m with the band.”
While much of substance has come from the Modi visit — a uranium deal, relaxed visa rules and a start on trade and investment that has much room to grow — the real payoff for Harper might come when IndoCanadian voters go to the polls in October.
The Conservative party was seeking to raise money on Modi’s visit before he landed in Vancouver.
There is incontrovertible evidence of Harper playing an international role with both eyes fixed on the electorate at home, but three days of Modi Mania may yield the motherlode for a government that used an intense outreach to the so-called “ethnic vote” as a key to its 2011 majority.
Wednesday evening at the Ricoh Coliseum, a chant of, “Harper! Harper! Harper!’’ was heard, a chant rarely heard in this country after nine years of Conservative rule.
This is the territory of the incumbent.
Only the leader gets to talk tough against Russian aggression in Ukraine, take his MPs with him for a prolonged visit to Israel or squire the Indian prime minister across the country.
Harper hasn’t basked in the adoration of crowds for a visiting leader like this probably since a newly inaugurated Barack Obama arrived in Ottawa in 2009, waving to admirers on Parliament Hill while Harper smiled, a half-step behind the new president.
That was the apex of a now troubled bilateral relationship.
Harper has a rapport with other world leaders, including fellow climate change laggard Tony Abbott of Australia, and fellow G7 veteran Angela Merkel of Germany.
But neither Abbott nor Merkel would fill the Ricoh Coliseum and no Canadian prime minister could get away with touring the country with an American leader, even if Harper and Obama were political soulmates.
Harper and Modi do appear to be political soulmates.
Harper said Modi’s priorities of growth, job creation and lower taxes mirrored his. He even found comfort in Modi’s slogan, “Minimum Government, Maximum Governance.”
A formal state dinner has become an endangered species under Harper, but Modi received one in Vancouver Thursday evening.
This is the longest Harper has spent with another world leader since his time with Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel in 2014. That’s not a coincidence. Take a look at the receiving line at the airport in Toronto and Vancouver for Modi.
There you will find Conservative MPs with some of the largest IndoCanadian populations shaking hands as the cameras whirred.
There was Brad Butt of Mississauga-Streetsville, where 19 per cent of the population is of South Asian heritage, and there was Bob Dechert of Mississauga-Erindale, where the South Asian population stands at 15 per cent.
Kyle Seeback of Brampton West, where 27,000 residents claim South Asian heritage, was there.
In Vancouver, there was Nina Grewal of Fleetwood-Port Kells, where 22,000 residents list their country of birth as India, and Wai Young of Vancouver South, where up to 15 per cent of the population is from India.
The Conservatives swept Brampton ridings in 2011 and having incumbents smiling in photos with Modi will not hurt their re-election chances.
Similarly, when Harper journeyed to Israel and was treated like royalty by Netanyahu, his travelling entourage included MPs with the largest Jewish voting concentrations in the country, including Peter Kent of Thornhill, home to the largest Jewish community in the country.
It included Joe Oliver of EglintonLawrence, Mark Adler of York Centre, Joyce Bateman of Winnipeg South Centre, John Carmichael of Don Valley West and Chungsen Leung of Willowdale.
It is also no coincidence that the last foreign leader to address Parliament was Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who publicly thanked Harper for his support in his address last September.
The Ukrainian diaspora in this country is roughly equivalent to the Indian diaspora — about 1.2 million — and it can swing at least 10 Canadian ridings.
We are told Harper’s Israeli support is a question of morality, his Ukrainian support is aided by a longtime suspicion of Vladimir Putin and his embrace of Modi rooted in years when the Indian leader was shunned by many in the international community.
Accept that or not, but whatever the motivation, this adds up to a difficult task for Liberals seeking to wrest back the so-called “ethnic vote.’’ Tim Harper is a national affairs writer. His column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. tharper@thestar.ca Twitter: @nutgraf1