Where Did Compassionate Conservatism Go in Our Politics?
I encounter Conservative friends and associates every day. Aware that we all have different leanings, we nevertheless roll up our sleeves and get to work building our community, our world. So many of the London Food Bank’s volunteers, donors and clients are conservative in temperament and in political leaning and they help the organization to function throughout the year. I also see others at church, or in meetings where they help us with the work in South Sudan, and I find myself wondering where such efforts would be without their commitment.
Because of this familiarity, I have learned that the majority of these citizens have deep reservations about the manner in which Conservative parties – federally and provincially – are carrying themselves in recent years. If the problem for progressives is that they can’t find a way to come together, for Conservatives it’s that they’re having trouble staying together. It’s not hard to see why. By flirting close to the line with alt-right forces in modern society, both federal and provincial Conservative leaders are hoping to align the same sentiments that Donald Trump was successful in capturing in 2016. It’s a gamble – one which many Conservatives like those I mentioned earlier are reticent to support.
The conservative disposition is one that helped to build core principles in this country. It, along with the progressive dynamic, served as the yin and yang of political values and the tension between them introduced the fluid dynamic that is the nation of Canada. With such a vast rural expanse, conservatism will prove an essential aspect for the foreseeable future.
But that form of conservatism is not what we are witnessing in certain regions. Historically, it stood in opposition to the more radical designs of Liberal and NDP engineering of public life. They believe, and still do, that it remains a dangerous thing for senior levels of government to attempt to control the economy or even communities. It believed – to a lesser degree now – that the great institutions should be supported to “contain” the more deviant and selfish nature of citizens – houses of faith, schools, police, military, businesses, service clubs, etc. And most distrust or even detest abstract arguments about public policy or society - any attempt to relax societal controls so that excesses become more apparent and appealing.
These are genuinely held points of view and they have co-existed more or less peaceably with the alternatives for most of our history. Whether we agree or not, they are to be respected, not just because it is their right but through their historic willingness to support the balance of ideals that run through Canada.
But thousands of Conservatives no longer sense that moderate spirit that guided the Conservative movement over the decades. They are increasingly voicing that something is seriously wrong, not just with the Centre or Left, but with the Right.
We only need to look south of the border to see where this is heading. One of the most repeated headlines in right-wing media has been, “What’s Happened to the Republican Party?” As the Economistnoted in an opening paragraph: “The GOP is no longer recognizable as the party of traditional and moderating values.” Though Donald Trump is blamed for it all, the transformation began years earlier when that historic GOP caution was no longer applied to the free market. From Nixon’s era onward, the financial market became unmoored, rampaging across the globe and ravenous in its appetites for wealth and deregulation. With the era of globalization came a Republican party no longer comfortable in its own skin.
But with the arrival of Donald Trump and all his excesses that the party tolerates, traditional American Republicans are growing more remote from what they see as the ruination of their beloved party.
The same is happening north of the border, including the majority of those Conservatives mentioned at the beginning of this post. They are decent, compassionate, respectful, collaborative and institutional. But it’s highly unlikely they will vote NDP or Liberal. In a word, they are lost. They watch as the Canadian Conservative scene becomes much more extreme in its pursuit or maintenance of power. But it is the increase of hyper-partisanship and rage, reminiscent of Trump, that so troubles the moderate Canadian Conservatives. To them, such traits are demeaning, distasteful, and ultimately unCanadian.
Shannon Proudfoot’s insightful Maclean’spiece of a few weeks ago (This isWhat’s Wrong with Canada’s Right) is instructive. Quoting former Stephen Harper minister James Moore, she reported: “It’s too much. Politics can’t handle it. It’s more than what politics was made for.” Moore is right. When he expressly worries about things “getting dark really fast,” he is pointing to what the next decade is going to look like. And it won’t just be the Conservatives willing to split to country to gain the vote.
I know that there will be many in the Conservative Party that will quibble with this post, but what they can’t countermand are those thousands of their own political kin who no longer feel much affection for politics. So, with the progressives split (see last post) and the Conservatives fraying, it’s only a matter of time until a nation well known for its ability to get along divides even further.