Harper hires 'eminence grise' of ethnic media

[CrunchyCon]

Harper hires 'eminence grise' of ethnic media as communications chief
JANE TABER
From Thursday's Globe and Mail

Stephen Harper has plucked a journalist from the ranks of Canada’s ethnic media to be his new communications director, a nod to the success of the Tory strategy to win over immigrant communities by appealing to their social conservatism.

Angelo Persichilli, the Toronto-based former political editor of the Italian-language newspaper Corriere Canadese and a columnist for The Toronto Star, will take over from Mr. Harper’s long-time communications aide, Dimitri Soudas.

Continue reading here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/pol ... le2148647/

[Julian]

A columnist for the Red Star???

Is this appealing to conservative immigrants or pandering and political whoring?

Harper couldn't give a tinkers dam about appealing to Canadian conservatives.

[CrunchyCon]

Is this appealing to conservative immigrants or pandering and political whoring?

I think the former - that is, appealing to conservative immigrants. At one time the PC party, at least in Southern Ontario but it filtered North, was very anti-Catholic. Which is why the Liberal Party in Ontario had a stranglehold on the Catholic vote. And while Tory anti-Catholicism simmered down over the years, it was not until Jason Kenney came along that Catholics (and subsequently other socially-conservative immigrants) really felt welcome in the party. That, combined with the Liberals shifting to the extreme left on social issues.

This is why numerous socially moderate and socially conservative Catholics and other immigrant groups have moved to the Conservative camp in the last decade (myself included). In fact, the Conservative Party in Northern Ontario is basically run by former Liberals who never felt comfortable with the PC brand, but who liked Jason Kenney and felt at home with Canadian Alliance and subsequent merger.

It's one of the reasons I get a good chuckle every time Liberal lefties refer to the "Reform-a-Tories". They're actually damaging themselves by reminding us that the Conservative party is not the (WASPish) PC party.

[Conservative_Toronto]

Quebecers angered by Harper’s hiring of “anti-French” communications director

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/canada-p ... 48598.html

[WestViking]

Quebecers angered by Harper’s hiring of “anti-French” communications director

On Wednesday, Sun Media's David Akin dug up a Toronto Star column in which the non-French speaking Persichilli decries the number of francophone bureaucrats in Ottawa, and condemns former Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe's "selfish cultural aspiration."

"Many are tired of the annoying lament from a province that keeps yelling at those who pay part of its bills and are concerned by the over-representation of francophones in our bureaucracy, our Parliament and our institutions," Persichilli wrote in April 2010.

"The special treatment given to Quebec is balkanizing this country."

Bravo!