ABSTRACT

Why has the Conservative Party of Canada largely supported high immigration rates and multiculturalism, and put considerable effort into recruiting New Canadians into its electoral coalition? More generally, why is Canada perhaps the only Western democracy without a major, consistently anti-immigrant or nativist party? I argue that none of Canada’s major national parties have adopted an anti-immigration or nativist platform because of incentives established by the interaction of the concentrated metropolitan geography of immigrant settlement, the geography of representation under the single-member plurality electoral system, and the regionalization of parties’ support bases. I demonstrate that Canada’s national parties have a strong incentive to reduce the cost of assembling electoral coalitions by appealing to densely institutionalized cultural communities, principally in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.

摘要

为什么加拿大保守党在很大程度上支持高移民率和多元文化主义，并大力招募新加拿大人加入其选举联盟？更一般地说，为什么加拿大可能是唯一一个没有主要的、一贯的反移民或本土主义政党的西方民主国家？我认为加拿大的主要国家政党都没有采用反移民或本土主义的平台，因为移民定居的集中大都市地理、单一成员多数选举制度下的代表地理以及区域化的相互作用建立了激励机制。政党的支持基础。