Canada's Liberals try to boost share of important immigrant vote

By David Ljunggren
OTTAWA, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Canada's opposition Liberals,
locked in a three-way tie ahead of an Oct. 19 election, promised
on Friday to do more for the immigrant community, which used to
vote en masse for the party but has since drifted away.
Liberal leader Justin Trudeau said he would boost the number
of family members who could join immigrants already in Canada,
saying this would help drive a sluggish economy.
"When Canadians have support - like family involvement in
child care - it helps to drive our productivity and economic
growth," Trudeau said at an event in Brampton, Ontario.
Most recent polls show the Liberals, the rival center-left
New Democrats and the ruling Conservatives all deadlocked at
around 30 percent of the vote. If no party manages to break
away, Canada looks set for a period of unstable minority
government.
The ethnic vote is enormously important in Canada, which is
home to significant Chinese, Indian, Italian, Filipino and
Ukrainian communities.
The Liberals have traditionally favored immigration and
under Trudeau's father, former Liberal prime minister Pierre
Trudeau, Canada accepted well over a million people.
For decades it was assumed that newcomers to Canada would
vote Liberal but since taking power in 2006, the Conservatives
have made enormous efforts to build ties to ethnic communities.
As a result they picked up dozens of seats, especially in
the region around Toronto, which was one of the reasons Prime
Minister Stephen Harper won a majority in the 2011 election.
Pollsters say the Liberals are much more competitive in the
area surrounding Toronto, Canada's largest city.
Under the Conservatives, who took power in 2006, Canada
changed the immigration system to focus more on attracting
skilled workers from abroad while slashing back programs that
allowed family reunification.
Critics of the previous system said allowing in elderly
relatives put an unfair burden on the healthcare and social
security systems.
Trudeau said the Liberals would make the system more
compassionate by doubling the number of applications allowed for
parents and grandparents to 10,000 each year.
Canada, which has a population of about 36 million, aims to
attract 285,000 immigrants in 2015.