Ever since Stephen Harper assumed the leadership of the Conservative Party,it's been hismission to weaken what has traditionally been the power base for the Liberals in Canada's biggest cities, namely, immigrant communities. Early on, Harper tapped Jason Kenney to be in charge of outreach to Canada's New Canadians. Today, asked about reaching out to that vote, Harper gave a nod to Kenney who has a line favoured by the PM: "The challenge we face here is the challenge of converting small-c conservatives into big-c Conservatives."But though Kenney and other Conservatives do indeed see some affinity between their views and the views of many New Canadians when it comes to issues like same-sex marriage, faith, crime and other social and justice issues, Liberals and political scientists I've spoken to say the sweet spot in those communities are policies that appeal to enterpreneurs, to risk-takers.In his remarks this morning at a press conference in Ottawa, in response to a reporter's question, Harper touched on this. Here's what he said:

Since I brought the new Conservative Party of Canada together, I’ve made it very clear to our people that one of the things Conservatives have to do is to make sure that we are active and we are relevant in all communities in the country. For all kinds of reasons, conservative parties tended to be weak among Francophones and weak among many groups of what we call new Canadians or ethnic voters. I have made a sustained effort, as have a couple of my predecessors, to build up the presence of the Conservative party among these communities. To quote Jason Kenney, the challenge we face here is the challenge of converting small-c conservatives into big-c Conservatives. It’s certainly not an insurmountable obstacle. I think we will see a growth in support (among ethnic voters). Whether it’s small growth or big growth, these efforts have to continue. We cannot be a party simply of old-stock Canadians. That is not feasible. It’s not right. And it doesn’t make any sense. These are people who believe in opportunity, they believe in enterprise, they believe in family. They are people who are close to our views.