New Canadian voters are wielding an increasing amount of power in key electoral battlegrounds, but despite traditionally skewing left, a growing number of foreign-born Canadians are lending their support to right wing parties. A new study from a UTSC Sociologist aims to examine why.
UTSC Department of Sociology Prof. Emine Fidan Elcioglu is lead researcher of New Canadians, New Conservatives, a study which aims to examine voting behaviours of new Canadians to help explain this shift to the right.
Prof. Elcioglu notes that Canada has been experiencing a sharp growth in majority-visible minority ridings over the last few years, underlining the importance of foreign-born Canadians as a voting bloc in key political battlegrounds.
And there’s perhaps nowhere this phenomenon is more pronounced than in the Greater Toronto Area, where the study is based. While 29% of the national population are first-generation immigrants, 46% of GTA residents are new Canadians. “This demographic reality makes the Toronto region a fitting site to study new Canadians' voting preferences and political behavior,” said Prof. Elcioglu.
“New Canadians are changing their voting preferences,” said Prof. Elcioglu. “We can no longer assume that immigrants are surefire supporters of the Liberal Party. However, what we don’t know is why more and more immigrants are voting for centre-right and rightwing parties in Canadian elections. Our study aims to uncover the factors that are pushing new Canadians to the right.”
The study will involve interviewing 90 naturalized immigrants who have voted for a party on the political right in a Canadian election, or who have seriously considered doing so, including (but not limited to) the Conservative Party of Canada, the Bloc Quebecois, the People's Party of Canada, the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, and the New Blue Party of Ontario.
Anyone who fits the above description and is interested in being interviewed for the study can apply here. All interviews are confidential.