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While the values and practices usually subsumed under the notion of "good citizenship" are said to have changed dramatically over the past 25 years or so, scholars are still struggling to characterize the concrete nature of these changes. Proposing a novel interdisciplinary approach that marries normative theory with empirically driven political sociology, in this paper we examine the explanations and justifications that flanked a plethora of new citizenship policies implemented under the former Stephen Harper-led Conservative government (2006–2015) in Canada. Critically employing Amitai Etzioni's comparative typology of citizenship philosophies, we examine three types of Conservative policy discourses pertaining to citizenship, namely speeches given by the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, speeches given by members of the Conservative Party in the House of Commons, and government press releases. In contrast to Etzioni's optimistic presentation of neo-communitarianism in political and philosophical terms, our study reveals that the exclusionary discourses and practices that accompany this approach in practice demand greater attention. In the case of the Harper Conservatives, we argue that their approach is best understood as a re-communitarianization of citizenship in neoliberal times that creatively, but only sparingly, invokes libertarian and liberal ideals in comparison to its use of what we identify to be (1) patriotic and (2) insecure communitarian discourses. Our findings point to both the exclusionary potentials and realities of neo-communitarian citizenship. They contribute to scholarship that argues the that the destruction of social ties, solidarity and "community" through neoliberal and neoconservative politics is often camouflaged and/or advanced by aggressive neo-communitarian discourses that harken back to or reinvent past ethnic or monocultural nationalisms, while only selectively including "deserving" Others at the margins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focused on the politics and policies of citizenship, immigration, and multiculturalism in Canada, this article employs the concepts of Kenneyism (Kenney-ism, named after Jason Kenney, Canada’s prominent former minister of citizenship, immigration, and multiculturalism) and neo-conservative multiculturalism to reconcile the Conservative Party of Canada’s long-term outreach efforts aiming to incorporate many new, ethnicized, and racialized Canadians into a “minimum winning coalition” with the exclusionary policies and creative discourses the party espoused and implemented during its time in office, 2006–2015. As forms of politics that Stuart Hall termed authoritarian populism, the emphasis on the “authoritarian” dimension of conservative populism foregrounds the often anti-democratic nature of the project both symbolically and substantively. This article outlines the roots of Kenneyism and neo-conservative multiculturalism within a discussion of the party’s evolution from its Reform and Alliance Party predecessors. It discusses five key characteristics and trends of the party’s political and governmental approach that demonstrate both their creative outreach and forms of disciplinary politics and social exclusion—particularly but not only with respect to Muslims, refugees, and temporary foreign workers. It concludes with reflections on the party’s record and the future of Kenneyism as a form of politics after the party’s 2015 electoral defeat and 2017 leadership contest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]