Jason Kenney and the new Conservative base

Jason Kenney lands in Montreal today to discuss Canada’s immigration levels and how best to integrate new arrivals — a top-of-mind issue for one of the Conservative Party’s newest and most important constituencies.

The stop, part of a series of consultations, comes as Kenney redefines his relationship with this new segment of the Conservative base after three years of targeted outreach in his role as minister of citizenship and immigration.

In the 2008 election, new Canadians made up the majority of the population in only three of the Conservatives’ 143 ridings. The Liberals, despite winning almost half as many seats as the Tories nationally, took the lion’s share of seats with immigrant majorities.

On the eve of the 2011 federal election campaign the situation did not look much better for the Conservatives. 

An Abacus Data poll conducted at the end of March, just as the campaign was being launched, found that 38 per cent of immigrants intended to vote for the Liberals, 32 per cent for the Tories and 21 per cent for the New Democrats.

But when Canadians cast their ballots, the Conservatives increased their crop of ridings with immigrant majorities to 12. Almost half of the seats gained by the Tories throughout Canada had immigrant majorities. The NDP won only four seats with immigrant majority populations while the Liberals won five. 

You can read the rest of the article on The Huffington Post Canada website.

It's too hot to add anything else.

I cracked yesterday and posted the individual riding projections for Ontario. You can find them in the right-hand column by clicking on the "Riding Projections" image.

I'll do the same for the other provinces as the models are completed, which should be within the next few weeks.