Thursday, November 15, 2012 by Will Horter
http://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/china-canada-treaty
China treaty uproar signals growing rift between Ottawa, grassroots conservatives
Prime Minister Stephen Harper deserves credit for doing something extraordinarily difficult: keeping groups of people who share some values — but fundamentally disagree on others — focused on areas of common agreement, not on their differences, for the past six years.The Prime Minister’s ability to keep his caucus and supporters focused on toning down differences to maintain unity has been impressive. However, now that the Prime Minister has a majority government, cracks are appearing within his party. The growing backlash over potential Chinese control of Canadian resources is just the latest example of a growing trend.
After years of strong party discipline, conservative-leaning voters are starting to speak out against the party position. The controversy about the proposed Chinese takeover of Nexxen and the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Act (FIPPA) are the latest in a string of controversies that seem to have taken Harper by surprise.
This growing backlash from conservative voices is worth exploring more deeply. To investigate this, in late October, Dogwood Initiative reached out to almost 7,000 donors to the Conservative Party of Canada from across Canada to see what they thought about the proposed trade treaty with China. The results were revealing.................
