It says in all the papers the well has run dry. The commentators keep writing that Canadian conservatism has died on the vine, that four years into his reign of tactical obsession and fiscal profligacy, Stephen Harper has forgotten why he ever went into politics.
"Where's the big, strategic agenda for the next election?"� John Ivison quoted a senior Conservative in the National Post. "I haven't found one yet."� In the same paper, Terence Corcoran ran a string of columns identifying programs the feds should cut, because Harper seems unwilling to do the work himself. And Andrew Coyne delivered his annual post-budget verdict of despair and mourning. "Those Conservative faithfuls who have been hanging on all these years, in the hopes that, eventually, someday, with one of these budgets, this government would start to act like conservatives, must now understand that that is not going to happen. Conservatism is not just dead but, it appears, forgotten."�
But it's a funny thing. If Canadian conservatism is dead, somebody forgot to tell Canadian conservatives.
Earlier this month, the Crowne Plaza hotel in downtown Ottawa played host to two consecutive conferences, a small one by the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada followed by a big one by the Manning Centre for Building Democracy. Both were well attended by current and former ministers, employees and strategists of the Harper government. Both drew energetic crowds of activists and ordinary people. Both gave free rein to an unabashed social conservatism that is rarely mentioned, and even less frequently championed, by even prominent fiscal conservatives in the big papers and magazines. And the mood at both gatherings was overwhelmingly optimistic, because the kind of conservatism that appeals to these organizations is demonstrably on the march in Ottawa and across Canada.
Look at the victories in only the past few months. At the quasi-governmental agency Rights and Democracy, a Harper-appointed board majority comprising unequivocal supporters of Israel's Likud government and evangelical Christian social activists began firing employees left over from an earlier, more secular regime.
Harper announced, in the vaguest terms, a new plan to make women and children overseas the focus of Canada's development assistance. When Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff insisted that such programs include funding for contraceptives and abortion, as they have consistently done under past Liberal and Conservative governments, Conservative MP Shelly Glover said no such schemes would be funded in the future. Bev Oda, the minister for CIDA, backed her up. When Ignatieff pushed back, he wound up on the front page of the Catholic Register newspaper next to the headline, "Ignatieff Urges Abortion for World's Poor."�
In Winnipeg, the Christian charity Youth for Christ managed to secure $3.2 million in federal infrastructure stimulus funding toward building an $11.5-million community centre in one of the city's toughest neighbourhoods. Even without provincial support, which is usually sought for these stimulus projects, the Youth for Christ centre looks set to go ahead. NDP MP Pat Martin didn't like the idea of government money going to an organization that seeks converts. "What if this group was called Youth for Allah?"� he asked.
(The project seems an odd fit for the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund, whose website says it will prefer "construction-ready"� projects that can "be built during the 2009 and 2010 construction seasons."� Youth for Christ declined to answer questions from on how quickly construction can begin and when it can be completed. However, a spokesman for John Baird, who is responsible for the infrastructure program, said Youth for Christ is committed to finish by March 31 next year"”just inside the fund's final deadline.)
In Vancouver, the Insite safe-injection site for heroin addicts, which was once championed by federal Liberals like Allan Rock and Ken Dryden, learned Harper will appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada in his long-running legal battle to shut the centre down.
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How long has gay marriage been legal in Canada now? Has the sky fallen yet? Have all our kids turned gay? Has the divorce rate gone up? Has the heterosexual marriage rate decreased? Has YOUR marriage been affected?
I fail to see how social conservative values actually benefit society, since they are only aimed at denying rights to people because they are different. It's all just an excuse to express fear and hate about something they don't understand.
Interesting side note, look at some of the most anti-gay senators in the USA and who they end up caught in bed with.
There is a difference between evidence leading to a conclusion or thesis; and a thesis looking for evidence to support it.
This column is a good vehicle to continue to deliver the Rights and Democray meme, but I wonder: Was the trip to the Manning Conference intended to select more material to add new flesh to the thesis?
Manning also made much of the Gregg poll in his recent G&M op-ed – in his continuing efforts in pushing his Blue/Green agenda. Is environmentalism part of a social conservative movement, or does it lose out to the fiscal conservative's self interest?
The blueing and greening of the political centre http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/the-...
Thanks Paul for this, great read.
Harper is a dictator.
It is hard to belive these people are building Democracy, when they want to go against the Canadian Charter of Rights and pass Police State Laws like "Random Breathalyzers"!
While I don't hold with impaired driving, turning away from the Charter of Rights with Draconian Parasite Globalist laws somilar to those they are now passing in the USA, does not make for a Democratic country! What is next with this type of Nazi reforms – Random Bedroom Searches? No thanks "Big Brother", I don't want you in my face 24/7 – 365
Oh, see, and you were so close to getting through that post without taking it on the chin from the moderators. There was even a funny joke to be made about "random breathalyzers" and "Rahim Jaffer" or "Jean-Pierre Blackburn," but you had to go and ruin it all by dropping in a Nazi reference. Thankfully, this was always likely to be your last comment on a Macleans article, you just didn't know it yet.
Recent polls show Canadians are turning to the right>It was helped along by lefties like Ujjal Dansanjh and Jack Layton who have gone totally overboard on this censor bit by parliament. If they go ahead and push this it will end up in another election and they will lose.Even those on the left have or have been connected with our military Counting second world war and Korean veterans there must be millions of veterans in Canada who served at least a minimum of 3 years65 years There is over 400000 members in the Royal Canadian Legion.Add in the next of kin and the geographical locations all across Canada and the left is in big trouble regardless of the present polls.Canadians are loyal to their heroes whether it be Olympic heroes and the amount who showed up just to see the torch carried across Canada or our military.These guys have picked a fight with the people of Canada on the whole when they strike at our military and pretend it is all government fault..When the voters connect during the election campaign with the information the Tories will put out there will be a lot of overpaid missing opposition MPs in the next election. Detainee tortured by his own people vs Canada's military Now who do you think will win?
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