Conservative Party slowly learning real cost of promoting culturally divisive policies

Our analysis shows that the Conservative government’s controversial ban and the subsequent court ruling that eventually overturned the policy had a profound and unexpected impact on the 2015 Canadian federal election: a Liberal victory largely at the expense of the NDP.

Former Conservative MP Tim Uppal, left, who was the spokesperson for the niqab ban as the minister of state of multiculturalism in the Harper cabinet, apologized for not pushing back at the time against his party's culturally divisive policies. He was joined by Calgary-Nose Hill MP Michelle Rempel Garner. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has refused to do the same, despite being the immigration minister responsible for the policy change. The Hill Times photographs by Andrew Meade

Opinion

BY AENGUS BRIDGMAN, COSTIN CIOBANU, AARON ERLICH

June 30, 2021

Recently, concerns over the growing problem of Islamophobia in Canada led to a push for political leaders to apologize for a controversial niqab ban that was introduced a decade ago by prime minister Stephen Harper’s government. Issues of hate-motivated violence and Islamophobia were thrust into t...

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