The Might of Canada's Right

An extensive network that helped the Conservatives win a majority is focused more on libertarianism than Christian fundamentalism.

In 2005, Bill Bradley, a former U.S. senator for New Jersey and unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, wrote “A Party Inverted,” an influential op-ed for The New York Times, in which he argues that Republican success was due to a strong ideological network based around conservative organizations. He characterized this network as a five-level pyramid.

Beginning at the bottom, the pyramid consists of: the large foundations that fund conservative political activity; research institutes; “the political” tier, composed of conservative strategists who sell ideologically driven policies to the electorate; media sources that disseminate conservative ideas, such as Fox News; and lastly, the president at the time, George W. Bush. Bradley argued that Democratic electoral failure was due to the underdevelopment of a similar organizational infrastructure.

The Canadian right has consciously and effectively built up a similar organizational network, and this helps account for the recent electoral triumph of the Conservative party. Rescuing Canada’s Right: Blueprint For a Conservative Revolution, a 2005 book by conservative activists Tasha Kheiriddin and Adam Daifallah, presents the need for a stronger conservative infrastructure for Canada, and is explicitly inspired by Bradley’s pyramid idea.

Although Canadian academics and journalists have devoted some attention to this conservative network, I believe that it has been covered either superficially, or in a manner that has overemphasized its evangelical or fundamentalist Christian basis. For instance, Marci McDonald’s 2010 book, The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada, envisions a crypto-fundamentalist conspiracy at the heart of Canadian conservatism. Instead, empirical evidence suggests that the Canadian conservative organizational network is biased toward libertarianism and free-market economics. An examination of conservative funders, think-tanks, pressure groups, and media outlets shows how far this network has been developed in Canada. Interconnections within the network can be illustrated by those conservative activists who hold leadership positions in various organizations.

It is free-market fundamentalist ideology that is ultimately more harmful to Canada, and our failure to fully recognize it has only helped the conservative movement. That being said, two other major variants exist within the Canadian conservative network: evangelical Christianity and the Albertan New Right. These ideological strands often clash with mainstream Canadian conservatism.

The first organization to attempt to bring together Canadian conservative groups was the Civitas Society. Formed in 1997, it organizes an annual conference for elite conservative activists that operates under the Chatham House Rule (i.e. individuals promise not to recount what was said, and who said it). Civitas grew out of the May 1996 “Winds of Change” conference organized by David Frum and Ezra Levant, which brought conservative activists together in Calgary in an attempt to unite the Progressive Conservative and Reform parties.

The other main initiative to unite Canadian conservatism is led by former Reform party leader Preston Manning. Founded in 2005, the Manning Centre for Building Democracy reflects the tactics of the American right-wing outlined in Bradley’s article; it even features a pyramid in its logo. The centre’s main efforts are “to identify, develop, and support political entrepreneurs who can advance our common vision of a free and democratic Canada,” which they pursue through various training programs and conferences.