Video released by Conservative leadership candidate boasts questionable editing
Kellie Leitch, a candidate for Conservative Party leadership, released a video on Feb. 25 detailing her platform on immigration in Canada.
The video was released to Leitch’s social media accounts and featured Leitch’s prospective immigration policies; which propose that all immigrants, refugees, and visitors to Canada should have to complete a face-to-face interview with an immigration officer.
In addition, Leitch is proposing that this interview include a screening for “Canadian values” of “Hard work, generosity, freedom, tolerance and equality of opportunity.”
Canada used to screen immigrants until 2002, something that Leitch refers to as justification for her policies.
Until 2002, visa officers assigned points for “personal suitability.” This resulted in hundreds of appealed refusals and, in addition to concerns about the lack of consistency and transparency in assigning points, the “personal suitability” criteria was removed from the immigration applicant assessment.
Since its release, the video has gone viral, largely due to its staging and delivery.
The eight-minute video has Leitch constantly moving between sitting and standing, and long pauses in which Leitch stares off-camera. These pauses are intended to be dramatic, but comedy sites like The Beaverton have mocked the constant pausing, which make for a total of one minute and 47 seconds of silence.
A This Hour has 22 Minutes sketch joked that, during the pauses, Leitch was staring at an unknown captor that was forcing her to read a scripted message.
Leitch claims that the video has gone viral because so many people agree with its message and that her immigration policies are resonating with people.
In an interview with the Calgary Eyeopener, Leitch said that the video has received over 500,000 views and that “Over two-thirds of Canadians agree with me.”
According to a poll by Forum Research in September 2016, Leitch does have Canadians’ support for her views, with 67 per cent of the poll’s voters agreeing that immigrants should be screened for “anti-Canadian values.”
Despite this, another poll by Forum in January 2017 showed that only two per cent of Canadians approved of Leitch becoming the next Conservative leader.
The current front-runners of the Conservative leadership race include Kevin O’Leary, Maxime Bernier, Lisa Raitt, and Michael Chong.
Photo courtesy of Cria cow via CC BY NC SA 2.0.