How Conservative Really is the Conservative Party of Canada?
How Conservative Really is the Conservative Party of Canada?
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Most people in Canada, if asked what comes to mind when they hear the term “conservatism”, would likely answer “the Conservative Party” or “Stephen Harper” or “Andrew Scheer": most people would likely reference the federal political party, in some way.
It wouldn’t be surprising though if the majority of Canadians aren’t aware that the Conservative Party of Canada, although it is based off of the political ideology of conservatism, has some key differences in principle with the ideology’s founders, and has a lot of diversity within itself.
The 2017 Conservative Party of Canada Leadership Convention
The 2017 Conservative Party of Canada Leadership Convention
The campaigning for the last leadership convention of the Conservative Party of Canada in 2017, it good evidence for how much political diversity really exists within the party. Andrew Scheer, the winner of the leadership race, who is now the head of the party and leader of the opposition, campaigned on the fact that other candidates brought so much division with their opinions stating in his victory speech that the role of the leader is to “find common ground among all those types of conservatives” (Harris, 2017) including libertarian conservatives, social conservatives, democratic reform conservatives and fiscal conservatives (Harris, 2017).
There are many sorts of issues that bring out the diversity of the Canadian Conservative Party. For example, there were a number of different views on the importance of environmental protection with candidates such as Kellie Leitch and Lisa Raitt wanting to eliminate policies on carbon pricing to help the natural resources industry with Leitch going as far as saying that there should be penalties for environmental activists “illegally interfering” with the industry.
This is opposed to Michael Chong whose campaign focused on dealing with climate change issues and who promised to introduce a carbon tax that would be revenue-neutral (Annett & Alam, 2017).
Immigration and immigrant screening was another divisive issue, ranging from people like Brad Trost who wanted to stop entry to Canada from places with any relation to Islamic extremism or terrorist groups, to Leitch who wanted to screen potential immigrants, only allowing them in if they had “Canadian values”, to Deepak Obhrai, who although got little support in the leadership election, blamed the party’s loss in the 2015 federal election on its strict and uncompassionate approach to immigration (Annett & Alam, 2017).
Another hot topic for the party is abortion and marriage equality: there are a number of people like Pierre Lemieux and Trost who strongly oppose these things and wanted to try to reopen the debate and even create laws outlawing sex-selective abortion (Annett & Alam, 2017), while the successful candidate Scheer, although he has the same moral stance on these topics, does not think reopening the debates is a good idea (Romkey, 2018).
Although, there tends to be more agreement on economic issues in the party, with a number of candidates declaring that they wanted to balance the budgets, lower taxes, and open up the airline industry to foreign owners, there were candidates who wanted to take more extreme steps, such as Maxime Bernier who wanted to disassemble and reform policies regarding the dairy, poultry, and maple syrup industries, and Rick Peterson who pledged to eliminate all corporate income taxes (Romkey, 2018).
Despite this diversity, the party is united by a list of principles that it was founded on that are supposed to guide its policy formation on as stated in its constitution (Conservative Party of Canada National Constitution Committee [CPCNCC], 2016). One would assume that given the name of the Conservative Party of Canada, these principles would align with the political ideology of conservatism.
The 3 Components Of The Conservative Ideology
The 3 Components Of The Conservative Ideology
The first of the three central components of conservative ideology, as summarized by Anthony Quinton is that conservatism is all about maintaining tradition by supporting existing institutions and practices and being suspicious of any change (Romkey, 2018). This idea that “tradition trumps” (Romkey, 2018), and that governments should be proactive instead of reactive, comes from the accepted concept in conservatism that human nature is corrupt and deeply flawed (Romkey, 2018).
David Hume, who was part of the beginning of the conservative movement in the 1700s, would justify the importance of defending tradition by saying that the things we’ve learned from experience, what we’ve done in the past, shapes our morals and how we act; isolating ourselves from our past and trying to come up with morals objectively is dangerous, we need to use what has worked to avoid making the same mistakes as we made in the past (Romkey, 2018).
Another component, which is closely related, is that conservatism believes that established laws and institutions are sources of wisdom because they’ve been developed over time and have been shaped by experience (Romkey, 2018).
These institutions, such as schools, churches, and even families, are meant to civilize people, or in other words control people, to make sure they follow traditions and by doing so gain wisdom obtained by previous generations (Romkey, 2018).
If this is the case, only a small state is needed, but a strong one that will “restrain the passions of the people” to make sure they don’t break from traditional ways (Romkey, 2018). Hume would add that it isn’t very important what the form of government is as long as there is a consistent system of laws that keeps society stable (Romkey, 2018).
Seeing society as an organism, where everyone has obligations that work together and are connected to allow society to function, is the final of Quinton’s three components of conservatism (Romkey, 2018).
Edmund Burke, another pioneer of conservatism who was an English politician in the 1700s who argued against the French revolution, used the analogy that society is a “social fabric”: if you pull one thread, if you change one thing, the whole fabric can unravel (Romkey, 2018).
So because of this, conservatives traditionally didn’t believe in individual rights and equality, or the concept of distributive justice because everyone had their own obligations that needed to be fulfilled in order for society to function (Romkey, 2018). Burke did state though that freedom can be good, if kept under control and used for good, to help improve society (Romkey, 2018).
Comparing The Conservative Party of Canada With The Original Conservative Ideology
Comparing The Conservative Party of Canada With The Original Conservative Ideology
So how do the principles in the Conservative Party’s constitution compare to the central components of the conservative ideology?
There are definitely some similarities such as principle 2.1.3 which talks about “embracing our differences and respecting our traditions”, 2.1.16 which states that Canada should “continue its strong heritage of national defence, supporting a well-armed military, honouring those who serve, and promoting our history and traditions”, and 2.1.17 which promotes protecting the environment because of the fact that it is a “vital part of our heritage” (CPCNCC, 2016).
2.1.5 and 2.1.9 also make mention of following the Constitution of Canada, and the constitutional monarchy (CPCNCC, 2016) which can be considered a “consistent system of laws”. They also address the importance of the parliamentary institutions and the democratic process (CPCNCC, 2016).
2.1.13 agrees with the principle in conservatism of having a small state, by saying it should be fiscally prudent and only help people out when the individual or other parties are reasonably unable to (CPCNCC, 2016).
Social obligations are also brought up in 2.1.14 in that individuals are supposed to “provide for themselves, their families and their dependents” (CPCNCC, 2016) but does not necessarily state gender roles within a family which original conservatives would have advocated for (Romkey, 2018).
There are some differences though between the party’s constitution and the ideology’s principles, such as 2.1.2 and 2.18 that suggest that the party is open to diversity in terms of religion and culture (CPCNCC, 2016), which isn’t consistent with the religion and culture the country was founded on, breaking tradition and potentially leading to sudden change in society.
2.1.21, which is about the belief that there should be “reasonable access to quality health care regardless of their ability to pay” (CPCNCC, 2016), contradicts not only the social obligations aspect of the conservative ideology but also the aforementioned
2.1.14, another principle in the same constitution, although this could be justified by saying that government-funded health care has been institutionalized for a long time and has worked in Canada, so it is a tradition that can be trusted.
Neo-liberalist, pro-free-market, pro-free-trade principles such as 2.1.12, 2.1.15, and 2.1.22 (CPCNCC, 2016) are another example of principles that earlier conservatives may not have agreed with, but have now become part of tradition, and a large part of what the current Conservative Party of Canada stands for (Romkey, 2018).
Neo-Liberalism Influence on Conservative Party in Canada: Do People Know What They Are Voting For When They Vote Conservative?
Neo-Liberalism Influence on Conservative Party in Canada: Do People Know What They Are Voting For When They Vote Conservative?
The influence of neo-liberalism on conservatism in Canada, has actually only really been around since the 1980s when Canada was influenced by the ideas of U.S. president Ronald Reagan, and U.K. prime minister Margaret Thatcher (Christian, 2006).
Conservatism as a whole is rooted in the idea of “toryism” which started to have influence in the 1700s in Britain and was about defending the interests of the people in the highest class of society, the people in power or the autocrats (Romkey, 2018).
When America declared independence from Britain in 1776, they adapted the idea of toryism to their more individualistic, liberal ways (Christian, 2006).
Since Sir John A. MacDonald founded the Conservative Party of Canada in 1854, conservatives in Canada have generally been closer to Britain’s version of toryism in that they’ve often put more of an emphasis on nationalism, collectivism, and as a result even socialist ways of thinking, because of Canada’s monarchical ties with Britain (Dart, 2010).
These kind of conservatives are called “red tories”, a phrase coined in the 1960s (Romkey, 2018). Brian Mulroney became Prime Minister during the administrations of Reagan and Thatcher and was the first real “blue tory” leader in Canada, being influenced by American neo-liberalism which is evident by his negotiation of the free trade agreement with the US (Christian, 2006).
Blue tories are not only economically right-wing but also are generally less supportive of social issues than red tories (Romkey, 2018). This influence has carried on until today as mentioned, with both the current Conservative Party leader Scheer, and the previous leader Stephen Harper, falling under the “blue tory” label (Romkey, 2018).
As mentioned in the quote to introduce the question for this paper, it has become a trend in Europe and America for people to turn towards conservatism (McCullough, 2017, p. 29).
If the same is true in Canada for the next federal election, if more people start to become attracted to conservatism and vote for the Conservative Party, one has to wonder, with all the diversity within the party, and with all the change the party has gone through over history as it’s diverged away from its ideological roots, how many of these people will really know what they are voting for.
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