Who Are These Republicans And What Do They Want With Ignatieff?

A new political website of rather limited content is proclaiming to be an American site run by Republican supporters who believe that Michael Ignatieff is a great American. But who is behind it, and why it is surfacing now remains a mystery. The prime candidate to run such a website would be the Conservative Party, but they deny any involvement.

The site uses video and audio of Mr.Ignatieff’s past statements which pose him in a, depending on your point of view, rather negative light that would seem to belie the sincerity of the website. If you do a domain search on the registrant, all you will learn is that it’s been registered by an anonymous person in the state of Florida. It’s unclear whether the email service actually works, and the telephone number listed is false.

Truthfully, I believe that the site is either the work of a clandestine operative from the Conservative Party, or else someone who clearly wants it to look that way. To begin with, the main page goes into great detail on Michael Ignatieff’s previous positions on torture and counter-terrorism, something that would certainly serve as negative information to the kinds of people who vote Liberal. And the first clue that the website is a spoof, is in the very first sentence, by emphasizing that Mr.Ignatieff once referred to himself as an American in the collective “we”. Termed a “landmark television interview”, it was actually nothing more than a clip from CSPAN.

The main page emphasizes his close ties to America, whilst simultaneously cherrypicking items sure to irritate Liberals:

He stood with us on Iraq.
He defended torture, including coercive interrogation.
He didn’t lose any sleep when Lebanon was bombed by Israeli forces in 2006.
He loves the tar sands.

The quotes and hot links are mainly Canadian news sites, and the tone of the text is often mocking and even contradictory to someone who may genuinely admire Michael Ignatieff. The point, then, is obvious. In the summary about Mr.Ignatieff, it even suggests that he “returned to Canada to seek the job of Prime Minister.” All of the Conservative talking points are there, neatly, concisely, and even bolded and hotlinked for your convenience. They even have a page on how you “can help”, by suggesting you contact Canadian newspapers and explain to the editors why Michael Ignatieff is the “right choice for Americans.”

So while we can’t say for sure that this is a Conservative attack ad of some nature, it’s certainly an attack of varying degrees. The question is only how effective it will be in convincing decided Liberal voters to change their minds.

Related

Kady O’Malley received an email from one of the alleged “Republicans for Ignatieff” on Sunday. She has some interesting thoughts on the entire thing. David Akin received the same form letter. Whatever the purpose for this website, it has elevated to a new level of weird.

Jason Kenney Makes The Right Decision. Again.

I’m really not concerned whether some people think that Immigration’s decision to slap visas on Mexican and Czech tourists is a harsh move. Neither is, apparently, the Minister, Jason Kenney, who waved aside the protests of the Czech government, saying that retaliation for the visa demands is unlikely. As for Mexico, Mr.Kenney said that many Mexican refugee claimants are “economic migrants” and must not be allowed to jump Canada’s immigration queue:

Mexicans are the No. 1 asylum seeker to Canada, tripling to 9,400 from four years ago. But 90 per cent of those claims are rejected.

The Czech Republic is second with 3,000 claims, up from five that were made in 2006 prior to the lifting of a Canadian visa requirement in late 2007.

“In some of the flights coming from Prague, the majority of passengers are making asylum claims,” said Kenney, noting that Prime Minister Stephen Harper first raised the issue of the Czech Republic’s soaring asylum claims with his counterpart in February 2008.

Since then, the Canadian government has been working with Czech officials to find a solution.

“If there’s criticism, then it should be: Why have you waited so long?” said Kenney.

Think about that number for a minute. 9,400 people from Mexico every year, trying to skip the immigration process by applying as a refugee. Not only does it delegitimize the rules for ordinary immigrants, but it takes away valuable money and resources needed for genuine immigrants and refugees. This is nothing more than identifying a potential abuse in the system, and trying to make it more difficult for people from those countries to continue abusing it. Processing a refugee claim, whether legitimate or frivolous, costs the taxpayer on average of $29,000, more than the annual median income for a single Canadian earner. That means Mexican queue-jumpers are costing Canada a staggering $272.6 million a year, with 90% of that money spent being a complete waste.

Mexicans have also begun migrating to Canada in recent years as immigration laws in the United States have begun cracking down more harshly, leaving this country as an easier destination. As for the Czech refugees, Mr.Kenney rightly claims that as full members of the European Union, they could move to any of the “26 other Western democracies” on the continent. Czech nationals filed about 3,000 refugee claims last year, compared to only five in all of 2005 when the visa rule was still in effect.

“Canada has a generous, open immigration system — one of the most generous in the world — but it can only exist if we maintain the integrity of the system,” he said. “We can’t allow the systematic abuse of people who are basically coming to Canada as economic migrants, jumping the queue, by going through the backdoor of the asylum system.”

Of course this has created the usual criticisms and conspiracy theories among those who believe the visa restrictions aren’t based only on the disproportionate number of claims, but on discrimination. Because many Czech asylum seekers are “Roma” [gypsies], some claim that we are turning a blind eye to their discrimination in Europe. But a more thorough investigation finds that money, in fact, is probably the main reason behind the Roma exodus from Czech, citing connections between Romanies in Canada and their “prospecting” of Roma refugees through ethnic networks linked back to Europe.