Some tidbits:
"The Harper government has already prioritized spending on fighter jets and prisons and championed corporate tax reductions, a course that will most likely necessitate social program reductions."
The Conservatives have indeed increased military spending, but the corporate tax cuts are a Liberal program that they've continued. If and when social programs are actually cut, we'll have something to discuss. "Most likely will necessitate" isn't a great argument.
"According to the Canadian Election Study, Conservative gains among immigrant voters were overstated -- vote splitting between Liberals and New Democrats in suburban Toronto facilitated Conservative gains in large part. Nonetheless, the Harper government was able to claim the language of moderation on immigration and multiculturalism."
Vote splitting between the LPC and NDP did help the CPC, but it doesn't entirely explain the result. If this were the only explanation, then Harper would have had majorities in every election the CPC has fought. Vote splitting theorists simply don't understand that Blue Grits exist, and when we're not voting Liberal, we'll vote Conservative.
"Annual visa quotas for sponsored parents and grandparents dropped dramatically between 2005 and 2011 from 20,005 to 11,200, with actual sponsorship applications taking nine to 30 months longer depending on location of visa application. While the rationale may be that sponsored elderly immigrants use social services and do not contribute to tax revenue, this raises a fundamental question of why members of immigrant communities cannot have their elderly parents and grandparents nearby to look after, a privilege which non-immigrants enjoy."
You've already answered your question, its because non-immigrant parents have already contributed to the tax system.
"Something else to note, when the Maengs, a family of landed South Korean immigrants in Moncton, New Brunswick, faced deportation because of the costs of caring for their autistic son, it was the provincial government of New Brunswick -- in stepping up to cover related healthcare costs -- and not the federal government which acted to ensure this family could stay in Canada."
Well, that's because healthcare is a Provincial responsibility, not a Federal one. Apparently huffpo doesn't understand this.
"While Conservative gains among immigrant voters are overstated, looking at Greater Toronto it is interesting to note that Conservatives made limited seat gains in Scarborough, where there is a relatively large Tamil population, while sweeping ridings in Mississauga and Brampton, where there are relatively large Indian and Pakistani populations (although at this point the exact demographic breakdown among different groups in these ridings is uncertain)."
Generalizations about ethnic groups, assumptions about their voting motivations, all while admitting that you don't have the numbers to back any of it up. Nice.
"Could Conservatives be targeting certain groups, Indian and Pakistani -- misleading them on facilitating a swifter immigration process -- while writing off others such as Tamils who came as refugees? "
This is one of my biggest pet peeves: the media's patronizing attitude towards immigrants. If we voted Conservative, we must have been "misled" into doing so. Is it possible that immigrants who voted for Harper are very well aware of his policies, and support them? Nah.
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