A Discourse on Race, Ethnicfiii, and Equality Della

THE REFORM PARTY OF CANADA: A DISCOURSE ON RACE, ETHNICFIII, AND EQUALITY by DELLA KIRKHAM, B.A. A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Sociology and Anthropology Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario September, 1994 copyright 1994, Della Kirkham National Library Bibliothéque nationale 1*1 ofCanada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, nie Wellington OttawaON K1AON4 OttawaON K1AON4 CaMda Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la fome de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. ABSTRACT Long considered by both academics and established political phes as merely a vesse1 for regional discontent, the Reform Party's success in the 1993 federal election indicates the need to subject its platform and underlying ideology to a more rigorous analysis. This is especidy true of the party 's race and ethnic-related policies which have gamered a significant amount of media attention. The racial-ethnic discourse of the Reform Party is discussed by examining its positions on: immigration; multiculturalism; Aboriginal issues; langage rights and the Constitution; the family and women's issues. This examination is informed by the premise that we are witnessing the rise of new racial discourses and ideologies. In many instances, the meaning of race is being transfonned or reinterpreted in a conservative direction. The iink between the racial and ethnic discourse of the Reform Party, and the trend toward the new right rearticulation of racial ideologies is made throughout the thesis. To Perry who continually chullenges me ro be a more rigorom inrellectual, but whom out of a differeent Loyalty, I mut now open- disagree 1 would formally like to extend my gratitude to Professor Daiva Stasiulis and Professor Rhada Jhappan. Their standards provided an ided 1 could only aspire to. 1 am also indebted to the Reform Party of Canada. In particular, Tom Flanagan, Stephen Harper, Dimitri Pantazopouios, and Deborah Grey who al1 wnsented to be interviewed. 1 would also like to extend my appreciation to Mary Ellen Shaw, the party's archivist in Calgary who generously gave me access to material in Reform's archives. On a more personal note, thanks go to George and Anne Bjarnason, whose ample generosity sustained my while 1 did my field research in Calgary. I rnust also thank my parents who instilled in me at a very early age the significance and importance of politics. Growing up in an environment that relished good political debate has provided much of the motivation to undertake this project. Finally, and most importantly, my thanks to Stephen, who dways believed in me, especially during those moments when 1 did not. TABLE OF C0NTENT.S PAGE ABSTRACT DEDICATION TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION cm1 Undentanding Racial and Ethnic Oppression: A Conceptual Framework CHAPTER 2 Portrait of a New Party c-3 The Reform Party and the Cult of the Free Market cm4 Rearticulating the Goals of Immigration: Reform's Use of "Code Words" cm5 "Hyphenated Canadianism " : The (Multicultural) Ties That Divide CHAF'TERO " Equaiity " versus " Special Status" : Reform's Prescriptions for Social Harmony cm7 De-legitimizing Group Identity: Rearticulating Equality and Reinforcing Inequaiity CONCLUSION NOTES REFERENCES APPENDIX vii A series of rather dramatic events has transpireci in recent Canadian politics. These include the failure to deai with Quebec's constitutionai demands, the ongoing attempts to define a new relationship with First Nations communities. and a recently negotiated continental free trade agreement. Al1 these events have taken place within the context of an uncertain econornic climate leading many Canadians to Iose faith in the capacity of political leaders to guide them out of the current economic and political tunnoil. It is within this context that a new voice on the Canadian political landscape has emerged. The Reform Party of Canada had its founding assembly in October 1987 and has steadily increased in popularity culminating in its f&y-two seat victory in the October 1993 federal election. While the party has often been portrayed by both media and academic commentators as merely a vesse1 for regional discontent, its recent electoral success suggests that the party may have more staying power than previous movements born out of the politics of western alienation. Since Reform appears to have found a place on the main Canadian politicai stage, at Ieast for the moment. it seems appropriate to subject its agenda to a more ngorous anaiysis than that offered in the ment past. This is the object of the present study. This thesis examines the Reform Party's discourse on racial and ethnic issues. There has been significant interest in the Reform Party's position on issues of race and ethnicity and since its hception, the party and its members have been plagued by innuendos concerning their latent, if not overt racism. While Reform offtcials have 2 steadfastly maintaine. they are not advocating any hidden racist agenda, both media commentators and political opponents have been quick to suggest othenvise. Indtxd. certain instances of extremist tendencies in the party have been brought to light, but to date no systernatic analysis of the party's discourse relating to race and ethnicity has been undertaken. The purpose of this thesis, then, is to explore the discourse of the Reforrn Party as articulateci in its race and ethnic-related policies including immigration, multicultumlism, and Aboriginal issues. Other policy areas that wil1 also be examined for raciallethnic meanings are Refom's positions on official languages, the Constitution. the family. and women's issues. My analysis is informed by the premise that we are witnessing the rise of new racial discourses and ideologies in Canada (as elsewhere). This is occumng within the wider context of the re-emergence of "right-wing" politics since the seventies. The first part of my study locates the Reform Party within this wider context and argues that it represents the clearest expression of "new right" ideology in Canada at the federal level. With the rightward shift, a new era of racialized politics has also emerged. Indeed, 1 argue throughout this thesis that a part of the larger project of the new right is the reaniculation of racial meanings. My analysis demonstrates that this too is the project of the Reform Party. A review of the party's discourse on race and ethnic-related issues will show that through the use of "code words" - ie., non-racial rhetoric used to disguise racial issues - Reform attempts to rearricuiare understandings of race and ethnicity from those that existed previous to the emergence of the new right. The party's most sophisticated attempt at rearticulation is found in the promotion of its "equality model" 3 which stresses equality of individual opportunity, while explicitly rejecting equdity of outcorne. As such, issues of racial and ethnic inequality are considered as matters of individual or private concern and not issues to be addressed by the state and public sphere. The attempt to rearticulate meanings of race and ethnicity is best understood as a reacrion to a number of social, economic and political events that have occurred in the post-war era. Like other western capitalist democracies, Canada expenenced a post-war boom - the result of a consensus, or compromise negotiated between the state, capital. and labour. At the risk of over-simplification, the elements of this consensus included: an "open door" to foreign investment, particularly from the United States, in order to promote economic development; the introduction of social policies aimed at offsetting the negative effects of the market and industrial capitalism; and the use of Keynesian policy instruments for the macro-economic management of the economy. Precipitated by the world economic cnsis in the 1970~~this consensus began to break down. Indeed. by the 1980s, each of its elernents had been discredited and challengeci. The breakdown of the post-war compromise led to renewed ideological conflict and a more apparent set of political struggles around (but not limited to) class, region, and language. In the absence of a consensus to frame the debate, new political agendas ernerged in the 1980s (Carneron, 1989). The scene cm be characterized as foilows: Canada entered the 1990s with a redesigned economic strategy and new political thinking about social questions, both of which reflected the abandonment of many of the post-war certainties. If' the 1970s was a decade of hesitancy about future directions, by the end of the 1980s the country was weii-launched on the path of more market-orienteci mechanisms to distnbute the economic pie. These involved a retrenchment of govemmental responsibility for seeking or creating greater social and economic equality. (Clarke et al , 199 1 : 150) Ernbedded within this new political thinking is a racial subtext. The efforts to diminish the state's role in off-setting the inequities caused by a capitalist free-market system have occun-ed as a reaction agairist the gains made by racial and ethnic minonties in the sixties.

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