Canadian Politics

Merger killed conservatism in Canada

Last week the National Post ran a series of articles debating whether or not conservatism in Canada is dead. Whether it is actually “dead” is a good topic for debate but there is no getting away from the fact that if not dead, conservatism in this country is certainly weak.

One comment that was made in the series was that the Conservative Party of Canada must obtain power before Canada can see the implementation of any conservative policies. The necessity of power in order to enact policies and principles may hold true in some countries but historically in Canada, the holding of power has not been a requirement to see a party implement policy.

During most of Canada’s history, the country has been governed by the Liberal Party of Canada. When all is said and done, the Liberals have never had an original policy idea since its inception. All of Canada’s social programs such as universal health care and old age pensions, originated with the CCF, the predecessor party to the NDP. When the CCF came up with a social policy that seemed to find favour with Canadians, the Liberals would adopt it, water it down to make it less socialistic, pass it into law, and then take credit for it. Most of what Prime Minister Paul Martin calls “Canadian values” are policies that originated with the socialists and passed into law by the Liberals. The CCF/NDP has had a tremendous influence on the shape of the country without ever coming close to holding power.

During the 1990s then-Finance Minister Paul Martin got the reputation as being a real right-winger. It was no coincidence that Martin slashed spending and cut taxes at a time when the Reform Party went from a one seat wonder to an opposition party of some substance. As the country and much of the world moved rightward, the Liberals went from stealing NDP policies to “borrowing” ideas from the Reform. Now unfortunately, the Reform Party and its successor, the Canadian Alliance, is no more.

The conventional spin is that the new Conservative Party of Canada is nothing more than the old Reform Party. The new party can’t wait to obtain power so that they can jail women who seek abortions and build concentration camps to house gays and lesbians. But the reality is that from its founding, the CPC was nothing more than a reincarnation of the old Progressive Conservative Party – slightly more fiscally conservative than the Liberals but essentially just another centrist party.

Despite the fact that former PM Kim Campbell ran a terrible campaign in 1993, it was the visceral hatred of Brian Mulroney that dropped the once mighty PCs down to two seats. But Canadians have short memories and Brian Mulroney did not forever doom the Progressive Conservative Party. When Peter C. Newman released his book, The Secret Mulroney Tapes, Canadians’ anger at the former PM raged again – and lasted for about 20 minutes. What kept the Progressive Conservatives from bouncing back was not Mulroney but the fact that Joe Clark was again chosen as leader. Clark acted as though his party was still the great national party it was in days of old. The guy who once acted like he had a majority government when he had a minority thought he led a real government-in-waiting. Under different leadership; by someone who realized that the party had to be rebuilt to attain its pre-1993 status, the party would have bounced back and provided a serious challenge to the corrupt Liberals.

Had the merger not taken place the Progressive Conservatives would eventually be posed to knock off the Liberals by appealing to those many middle of the road Canadians who currently support the Liberals but who are fed up with the sleaze and corruption. And the Canadian Alliance would have remained as a true conservative party that could play the same role on the right as the NDP does on the left; influencing policy without ever coming close to gaining power.

Were we in a minority situation with both the PC and the CA parties, the country might still have an “NDP budget”. But the Liberals might have equally passed a Conservative Alliance budget in order to stay in power.

Currently Canada has no major small “c” conservative party and two centrist parties. Conservatism may not be dead in Canada but with Stephen Harper and the Conservatives, it is certainly on life support.

Arthur Weinreb is an author, columnist and Associate Editor of Canada Free Press. His work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Men's News Daily, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck and The Rant. Arthur can be reached at: aweinreb@rogers.com

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