Splitting Hairs?

What is this "the Catholic vote" and why are Conservatives better at courting it? I wasn't aware that Catholics were a special interest group. (Just told this to my Awesome Housemate. Her response: "Everyone is a special interest group.") Besides which, from the article, it sounds like who Conservatives are really better at courting are Christians (of all stripes) who attend church regularly. Catholics aren't any more likely to all vote the same way as any other portion of the population, and I can tell you this as a Catholic in a Catholic family with (some) Catholic friends who hold wide and varied opinions on things. (And, spoiler alert, very few of these people seem to be leaning Conservatively despite the Virgin Mary associations with the colour blue.) Also, being Catholic isn't at all synonymous with being pro-life or opposing same-sex marriage. Besides, Catholic social teaching tends to be more economically left than the Conservative party. But I digress... this is a personal beef.

Anyway.

There are ways of talking about groups of voters without making them seem like some kind of dehumanized monolithic special interest mass-vote, and it's not "courting the Catholic vote" or "campaigning for the ethnic vote". You can start by not assuming that everyone with the same cultural background is going to vote the same way. Then, you can listen to what people have to say about themselves. All of which to say that I'm really excited about Project 60, aimed at improving voter turnout and political engagement, created by and for First Nations youth. It's the people who feel the most disenfranchised who can speak most effectively to each other--not politicians, or Elections Canada ads that really don't change anyone's mind. And it's the people who feel the most disenfranchised who speak back the loudest, because otherwise their interests aren't spoken at all.