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The article is titled “Why are so many second-generation South Asian and Chinese Canadians planning to vote Conservative?.” It was originally published on April 10, 2025 and is authored by Emine Fidan Elcioglu, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Toronto.

After months of political decline, the Liberal Party of Canada is showing signs of recovery, buoyed, some suggest, by a surge of national pride in the face of Donald Trump’s tariff war and threats to Canadian sovereignty.
But this apparent rebound obscures a more surprising political shift: the growing appeal of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) among immigrants and their children.
Traditionally, immigrant and visible minority communities have supported the centrist Liberal Party. In the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), where over half of all residents identify as “visible minority” (the category used by StatCan), Chinese and South Asian Canadians have long formed a key part of the Liberal base.
Yet recent polling tells a different story. An October 2024 survey found that 45 per cent of immigrants had changed their political allegiances since arriving in Canada, with many now leaning Conservative.
Meanwhile, another national survey from January 2025 found that a majority of East Asian (55 per cent) and South Asian (56 per cent) respondents expressed support for the Conservative Party, far outpacing support for the Liberals or the NDP.
Nationally, racialized citizens now make up over 26 per cent of Canada’s population, with South Asians and Chinese Canadians the two largest groups.
While detailed racial breakdowns remain rare in Canadian polling, the few available data points suggest a meaningful shift. This pattern also reflects a broader trend: South Asian and Chinese Canadians in the GTA are increasingly politically active, with rising turnout and growing partisan diversification.
Ramping up outreach
The Conservative Party, for its part, has taken notice. Under Pierre Poilievre’s leadership, the CPC has actively recruited racialized candidates and ramped up outreach in suburban swing ridings — particularly through ethnic media advertising and messaging focused on economic self-reliance and family values.
This rightward shift among racialized voters may seem counter-intuitive. The Conservative Party has historically represented white, affluent voters, and under Stephen Harper (who led from 2006 to 2015), implemented policies that curtailed immigration, tightened citizenship rules and cut social programs in ways that disproportionately harmed racialized communities.
Why, then, would racialized Canadians increasingly turn to the right?
In a study I recently published, I interviewed 50 Canadian-born children of South Asian, Chinese and white immigrants living in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). I argue that this shift is not a contradiction but provides a window into how racialized groups navigate inequality, exclusion and the search for belonging.
While there are many reasons 2nd-generation racialized Canadians may support the Conservative Party, this study highlights one under-documented explanation. Voting for a right-wing party that represents the interests of white, wealthy citizens can be a way for second-generation South Asian and Chinese Canadians to seek acceptance when power is linked to whiteness..
The hidden costs of fitting in
In other words, many of these racialized Canadians don’t vote Conservative because they’re unaware of inequality. They vote Conservative because they’re trying to navigate it.
Growing up in precariously middle-class households, the young adults I interviewed watched their immigrant parents face deskilling and downward mobility despite arriving in Canada with professional credentials.
They saw their families pressured to “Canadianize” their names and accents, only to be sidelined by employers who still favoured whiteness.
And they were raised in a society where multiculturalism celebrates cultural symbols but often ignores structural racism.
In this context, support for the Conservatives reflects not ignorance of marginalization, but a way to move through it. Aligning with the right becomes a signal of belonging.
As one young South Asian Canadian man put it:
“You’ve arrived. You’re a Canadian. So, start voting like one.”
This desire to belong doesn’t emerge in a vacuum. It’s shaped by racial scripts that reward conformity and penalize dissent — most notably, the model minority stereotype.
The price of acceptance
The model minority stereotype casts Asian Canadians as hardworking and quietly successful. On the surface, it sounds like praise. But in practice, it hides inequality and demands silence in exchange for conditional belonging.
That acceptance is fragile. After Sept. 11, 2001, many South Asians, particularly those perceived as Muslim, were quickly recast as dangerous outsiders.
A similar dynamic resurfaced during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Asian Canadians faced a sharp rise in racial harassment. In both cases, those once celebrated as “model” citizens were suddenly treated as threats.
In some contexts, political restraint, like staying quiet or avoiding protest, can function as a survival strategy. But that’s not what I observed in this study.
The second-generation Canadians I interviewed were not politically quiet. They were vocal in their support for the Conservative Party. For them, voting Conservative was a way to assert they already belonged, not by asking for inclusion, but by showing they did not need to. Conservatism became a marker of success, self-reliance and alignment with those at the centre of Canadian life.
Canada’s official embrace of multiculturalism reinforces this logic. While often praised as a national strength, multiculturalism can obscure how racism really works. Structural barriers are hidden behind feel-good narratives of inclusion.
Rethinking belonging
In Canada, ideas about who belongs are often shaped by race, class and respectability. Racialized people must not only prove they are hardworking and law-abiding, but also demonstrate that they’ve “fit in.” For some, voting Conservative becomes a way to show they’ve done just that — a way of saying: “I’m not like them. I’m one of you.”
But this strategy comes at a cost. In reinforcing the very structures that marginalize them, racialized voters may gain individual recognition while deepening collective exclusion. And in rejecting equity-based platforms, they may forgo the policies that could build a more just society.
This dynamic isn’t limited to the second generation. A recent CBC survey found that four in five newcomers believe Canada has accepted too many immigrants and international students without proper planning.
Some immigrants are increasingly expressing exclusionary views, often toward those who arrived more recently. This, too, is a form of aspirational politics. And it shows just how deeply race, precarity and belonging are entangled in Canada today.
None of this means that racialized Conservative voters are naïve. Their decisions often reflect a clear-eyed understanding of how power works.
But if we want a fairer political future, we must reckon with the ways race, class and nationalism shape belonging — not just at the ballot box, but in the stories we tell about who gets to be “Canadian.”
As sociologist Ruha Benjamin reminds us, inclusion shouldn’t be treated as an act of generosity. It’s not about “helping” the marginalized — it’s about understanding that we’re all connected. When fear shapes policy and public goods are stripped away, everyone suffers.

Why are so many second-generation South Asian and Chinese Canadians planning to vote Conservative?

April 10, 2025 • My Project Name

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