The Conservative Party of Canada and the Politics of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism (2006-2015)

This dissertation assesses the modern Conservative Party of Canada and governments (2006-2015) discourses, political approach and policy record in the fields of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism. This is done in the context of the partys evolution from its Reform Party and Canadian Alliance predecessors on the terrain of a Canadian settler colonial state with significant racialized and ethnicized (im)migrant and refugee populations from whom some electoral support is required to achieve and exercise power. The main argument of this dissertation is that the Canadian Alliance Partys absorption of the former Progressive Conservative Party of Canada saw the birth of a new Conservative Party that at its core remained an exclusionary political force whose authoritarian populist approach to politics and policy reinforced and further intensified existing social hierarchies between settler colonial and (im)migrant Canadians, particularly with their treatment of Muslims, refugees, migrant workers and prospective citizens. Their policies and policy-making approach also greatly accelerated the further decline of permanent in favour of temporary or two-step immigration, family class immigration, and the public and parliaments role in making immigration policy. To achieve and maintain power, however, the Conservative Party project had to be connected to an attempted hegemonic political project that could obtain enough support to win elections and govern. This dissertation develops and employs the descriptor and concept of Kenneyism and neoconservative multiculturalism respectively to explain and explore the disciplinary yet creative neoconservative political project the Conservatives undertook in these fields and to win office. Support for the arguments advanced comes from an anti-racist critical political economy analysis of Conservative and predecessor party platforms, speeches and policies and the consideration of a wide variety of primary and secondary sources. The analysis incorporates prior research on political parties and considers and employs critical literatures on citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism in Canada. These are considered and synthesized into an approach to help further our understanding of neoconservative ideologies and discourses in these fields. Several cases are explored to contrast and illustrate the rhetoric and governing realities of the Conservatives authoritarian populist approach and their effects on (im)migrants, refugees and many ethnic Canadians.