Tories Are Wrong About Being Right

In which the Tories are revealed to be about as conservative as the Liberals are liberal, give or take a couple hundred Libya-bound bombs.

Much has been made of Stephen Harper's recent assertion that “Conservative values are Canadian values,” a dig at the well-trodden Liberal phrase. Jeffrey Simpson of The Globe and Mail agrees with Harper to some degree, arguing that the Tories have merely gravitated toward Canadians' beliefs and not vice versa. “The Conservatives became more traditionally Canadian or, to put matters another way, have learned that Conservatives had to evolve from something much more ideological into something more malleable,” says Simpson. Little of the Tories first five years in power bore the hallmarks of conservatism, as they were happy to dole out stimulus funding and pork projects while challenging "no sacred cow handed down from decades of Liberal and Progressive Conservative governments.” It's basically just a repackaging of the classic Liberal big tent strategy, which amounts to little more than holding up a wetted finger to the wind.

The National Post's Scott Stinson elaborates on the myth of Canadians following the Tories, airing a laundry list of far-from-conservative policies ushered in during their tenure. “The things that critics most often point to as evidence of a Conservative right-wing agenda – the refusal to make abortion funding part of his maternal health initiative, the cancelling of federal money for a gay pride parade or a theatre festival – seem more like isolated sops to his base rather than indicative of a trend,” says Stinson. Especially when compared next the 40 per-cent increase in public spending since they took office, or “[defending] the supply-management practices that inflate consumer prices for goods such as milk and eggs,” the Tory version of conservatism ought to leave the Reform hangers-on wondering why they shacked up with the PC in the first place.

The lone realm that the Tories have clearly shifted rightward is in foreign policy, with bold pronouncements from Harper & Co. on the need for a “courageous warrior” in a world where “a sea of troubles” surrounds Canada. Paul Wells of Maclean's perceives this new militaristic bent as Harper's need to find a new enemy to confront, what with the Liberals and Bloc having been defeated. “The opposition is a bit of a toothless foe these days. The world will make an excellent substitute enemy,” writes Wells. That analysis helps explain why Harper was so keen to give Canada a leading role in the Libya mission, or why Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird launched a boycott of North Korea's chairing of a UN disarmament committee. “The argument contributed mightily to building voter support for a stronger Conservative government,” notes Wells. “Might as well keep making it.” But there's only so long that one can keep raising fears over foreign spectres and expect the public to keep buying into it. At some point, voters are going to realize that there's more to want from your country than its willingness to drop bombs and grandstand in front of the UN.