It's not new. The plotting to find out how best to lure voters of any single persuasion to join, or at least support, one political party over another.
Whether it's soccer moms, or iron-workers, beer-drinking sports fans, or small business owners, political parties target identifiable groups with policies or statements.
Some might call it pandering, others call it the science of demographics in modern politics. The federal Liberals relied on immigrant support for decades, and may still gain some mileage from them if the current Conservative government isn't careful.
But even single-issue groups, although often blinded momentarily by promises, aren't universally stupid. They know when they're being wooed, and they know they can expect to be left at the altar - both in a matrimonial and sacrificial sense.
The latest brouhaha over the Liberals' ham-handed ethnic strategy document has only gained steam because it is so astoundingly ham-handed. Plotting apologies for past historical wrongs based on gaining voter ballots is pretty darn cynical - even for politics and even for the Liberals.
But what appears even dumber - if possible - is the B.C. Liberals' proclivity for writing down their harebrained schemes and sharing those ideas in emails.
In Burnaby we witnessed recently the Burnaby Hospital community consultation committee's email discussions centred on how the report was to be written to focus responsibility for the hospital's woes on the Fraser Health Authority - not the government. The behind-the-scenes plotting would have been comical had it not been for the subject matter.
After all, some folks actually think health care is more than a political football. And we have to wonder why Harry Bloy's name and former campaign workers always seem to end up in these messes. If there's a common thread - that one keeps turning up.
Some pundits have said that releasing the ethnic strategy emails a year after they were written is politically motivated. Seriously? Of course it is. But it's really more like shooting ducks in a barrel.
