Conservative leadership candidate Deepak Obhrai calls on fellow Conservative Kellie Leitch to halt xenophobic attacks

by Charlie Smith on January 8th, 2017 at 9:47 AM

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The family feud is intensifying within the Conservative Party of Canada.

Calgary Forest Lawn MP and party leadership candidate Deepak Obhrai has called on another leadership candidate, Kelly Leitch, to stop making "xenophobic attacks on immigrants".

"All successive Canadian governments have encouraged immigrants to come to this country and build it into a prosperous democracy, including her own ancestors," Obhrai said in a written statement. "Canada needs immigrants. Her screening proposal and that immigrants pay for it is a Trump-style policy."

Obhrai also accused Leitch, MP for Simcoe-Grey, of "playing divisive and fear-oriented politics that can result in the Conservative Party becoming a rump protest party".

"We have a robust screening process that was set in place by the government of which she was a member," Obhrai said. "She should look at the reasons why we lost the election."

Obhrai was born in Tanzania into a Hindu family and moved to Canada in 1977.

He was first elected to Parliament in 1997 as a candidate with the Reform Party of Canada. He has since been elected six more times.

Leitch's website lists five priorities "for creating more freedom, more prosperity, and protect our unified Canadian identity".

They include screening all refugees, visitors, and immigrants for Canadian values.

Her other four priorities, which haven't received nearly as much media attention, are dismantling the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, opposing a carbon tax, opposing marijuana legalization, and capping government spending.

Conservative leadership candidate Lisa Raitt says Leitch is relying on a political playbook used by Donald Trump.

Last week, another Conservative leadership candidate, Lisa Raitt, condemned the Donald Trump-style politics being played by Leitch and another possible entrant into the race, businessman Kevin O'Leary.

"Kevin O'Leary and Kellie Leitch are both taking lessons from what we just saw recently in the U.S. election, and they're embracing a style of negative, and I would say irresponsible, populism," Raitt said at a news conference where she announced the creation of a new website, www.stopkevinoleary.com.