Canada needs a Conservative party that offers a decent alternative

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/03/2022 (1055 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canada needs a decent, sensible, broad-based Conservative party, one able to offer a solid alternative to the Liberals right across the country.

Even if you’re allergic to conservatism in general and Conservatives in particular, you should hope that the leadership race now underway in the Conservative party of Canada results in that kind of party.

There are many on the progressive side of the political spectrum who don’t want any such thing.

Publicly they deplore the Conservatives’ lurch to the angry right and their embrace of the truckers’ convoy, at least until it went completely off the rails. But privately they’re delighted that the Conservatives seem hell-bent on rushing into political irrelevance. That, they tell themselves, means progressive governments in Canada as far as the eye can see.

These people should think again. There may be short-term satisfaction for those on the left in seeing Conservatives descend into conspiracy-mongering and mindless hatred of Justin Trudeau. But that wouldn’t just be bad for the Conservative party; it would be bad for our political life.

First, it would leave the Liberals without a credible challenger on the national scene. Every government needs to be kept on its toes and live in fear that if it doesn’t perform it will face ejection in the next election.

Governments, regardless of party, also have a tendency to get stale and complacent with time. Fresh ideas are harder to come by; feelings of entitlement grow the longer politicians remain in office.

Historically, this has been particularly true of Liberals. If the besetting flaw of Conservatives is meanness, that of Liberals is arrogance — the belief that they are truly the “natural governing party.” A Liberal government that comes to think it can carry on indefinitely without a serious challenge can’t possibly be the best government for the country.

Second, it’s dangerous if people who gravitate naturally to the right think they are shut out of the political process because the party that should be their natural home doesn’t have a prayer of winning.

We’re not talking about the anti-vax/anti-government/anti-everything fringe. There are many people who want to support a fiscally conservative but essentially moderate party in the long tradition of Canadian “progressive conservatism.”

A disproportionate number of them live in the West, meaning the ideological divide manifests itself as a regional division as well. It can’t be healthy for a big slice of the population, and an entire region of the country, to feel they’ll never have a shot at national power.

And third, things do change; the pendulum that has swung to the left in the past few years will inevitably swing back at some point. The Liberals — because of a change in the national mood, political exhaustion or self-inflicted wounds — will eventually lose power. It always happens.

At that point voters will turn to the only alternative on the national scene, the Conservative party. And if the Conservatives have by then turned themselves into the angry party, that’s who we’ll end up with in power in Ottawa.

So the stakes are high in the Conservative leadership race, which began in earnest this past week with the entry of former Quebec premier Jean Charest.

There will be lots of time to assess the policies and personalities of Charest, Pierre Poilievre, Leslyn Lewis, Patrick Brown and other candidates. But it’s already clear that Charest has put his finger on the key challenge for Conservatives — the need to offer a “national vision” and be a viable alternative to the Liberals.

What exactly that means will be debated over the next few months. It won’t be important for Conservatives only, but for anyone who cares about the health of Canada’s democracy.