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'Values' drive Conservative politics

By: Frances Russell

21/10/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 16

CANADA'S once-mighty Natural Governing Party (a.k.a. the Big Red Machine) is beginning to resemble the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland. "(I)t vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of its tail and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone."

One by one, the bastions of Liberal support have fallen. The first to depart were westerners in protest over bilingualism and "pandering" to Quebec in the 1960s. Second, in a mirror image of the West's opposition to bilingualism, nationalist Quebecers rejected the Trudeau dream of one Canada with two founding peoples and languages, switching first to Brian Mulroney's Progressive Conservatives in the 1980s and then to the Bloc Quebecois in the 1990s. Third, rural Canadians started drifting away in the 1960s and are now almost gone, alienated by the belief the Liberals neither understood them nor cared about their issues but governed solely for progressive urban elites with policies like the gun registry and support for same-sex marriage.

Now, the Stephen Harper Conservatives are on their way to shattering the last remnants of the old Liberal fortress among seniors, immigrants, visible and religious minorities, women and city dwellers through the relentless application of U.S. Republican wedge politics and vicious personal attack ads.

The Harper Conservatives have introduced a whole new style of politics to Canada, and the opposition parties must adapt to confront it or see the country changed irrevocably.

Michael Behiels, a native of Alberta's Peace River country, teaches Canadian constitutional history at the University of Ottawa. He says Harper's approach to politics and governance is shaped by his Christian fundamentalism.

"Harper is a fundamentalist 'values' conservative and his evangelical Christian views drive both his domestic and foreign policy agendas," Behiels continues. "On foreign policy, Harper is a dyed-in-the-wool Republican who maintains that the U.S., Canada and the U.K. have a mission, a religious duty, so to speak, to impose an American form of democracy on the world."

On the domestic front, Behiels continues, the prime minister believes "every left-of-centre Canadian is a moral relativist, that is, immoral, and can't be trusted to govern at any level of society."

In a 2003 speech to the conservative Civitas group, Harper expressed the philosophy that informs his politics and public policies to this day.

"Conservatives need to reassess our understanding of the modern left. It has moved beyond old socialistic morality or even moral relativism to something much darker. It has become moral nihilism ... a post-Marxism with deep resentments," he said.

"Serious conservative parties simply cannot shy away from values questions. On a wide range of public policy questions, including foreign affairs and defence, criminal justice and corrections, family and child care and health care and social services, social values are increasingly the big issues."

This is the wellspring for the prime minister's contempt for "socialists," for his treatment of Canada's opposition parties as enemies to be destroyed, for his antipathy to "left-wing fringe groups" working on behalf of the disadvantaged, for his government's crackdown on refugees and his willingness to spend hundreds of millions of dollars building new prisons to facilitate his "tough-on-crime" agenda.

Behiels says Canada's changing demographics and recent socio-economic developments are helping the Conservatives smash the Liberal base. Many of Canada's recent immigrants come from countries where fundamentalist religion, whether Muslim, Christian or Judaic, predominate. And the Conservatives have spared neither energy nor money in wooing them. Their success can be measured in the Conservative penetration of the ring of wealthy, multicultural suburbs forming the 905 area code region of Metropolitan Toronto.

Using polling data from IpsosReid and Angus Reid, a new study by the Centre for Research on Canadian Evangelicalism found growth of evangelical support for the Reform/Canadian Alliance/Conservative parties in Western Canada has been phenomenal, from 33 per cent in 1996 to 71 per cent in the 2008 election. Nationally, 60 per cent of evangelicals backed the Conservatives in 2006.

Behiels sees the next election as a "competition of values. There are values on the right which are deeply imbued with religious fundamentalism but you also have longstanding, deeply-entrenched liberal values in Canada that are just as important to people and must be defended."

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 21, 2009 A10

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16 Commentscomment icon

There is nothing new in juxtaposing "Tories" and "values-driven" policies. An old adage, still valid, waggishly describes the processes of privatisation and socialisation.

It says something like this: Tories always seek to socialise everyone else's morals, whilst privatising their own profits for their own specific benefit. In contrast, "Lefties" always seek to privatise their own (and others') morals, whilst socialising everyone else's profits for the common good.

The 19th century, and much of the 20th, exemplified this adage. For example, UK Tories sought to socialise morals and dictate religious affiliations. As for privatising profits, they sought to do this via import tariffs (especially tariffs on imported food). UK Liberals had fewer concerns about others' morals and religions. As for economic philosophies, Liberals believed in "the cold winds of competition" and supported free trade.

There was nothing benign in Liberals' support of free trade. UK factories were among the most efficient. They could undersell almost everyone. Free trade in food was consistent with the so-called "cheap food policy". Its income-effect allowed UK factory-owners to pay lower wages to workers in their "dark satanic mills".

Harper's "cold winds" economic philosophy appears very similar to 19th century Liberalism. As such, it does not necessarily resonate in rural Canada. This reality, rather than personal values, probably explains Harper's "values" shtick.

I often agree with F.R.'s views, but the argument that the Harper Conservatives model themselves on fundamentalist American Republicans does not ring true. They share a "tough on crime" rhetoric, yes, but so do many of our provincial NDP politicians. The Harp-Cons do not make anti-gay, anti-abortion or pro-capital punishment rhetoric central in the way that fundamentalist Republicans do, and occasional crank comments from rural back-benchers appear to be a source of embarrassment to the Harp-Con elite.

Harper's whole history (including with the NCC) shows him to be nothing so much as a cold-blooded neo-liberal with a marginal interest in "value politics."

As for the comment attributed to Harper, that the left has moved to "nihilism ... a post-Marxism with deep resentments," I have spent enough time in universities to know that description does in fact fit a large swath of the academic left.

It does not, of course, fit the many committed activists working on behalf of the many disadvantaged groups and individuals in this country and Harper's attempt to subsume the latter with the "nihilists" is clearly disingenuous.

It is equally true that the Liberal Party elite has always been soft on principle; thus the history of campaigning on the right and governing to please the neo-liberal sophisticates, whose latest achievement is the economic collapse.

The real contest is between neo-liberal amorality and the moral standpoint of compassion and solidarity.

There is deep seated resentment and over-generalization in the Russel's borrowed thesis, verging on the point of libel.

"the prime minister believes 'every left-of-centre Canadian is...immoral...'"

Let's compare this with the PM's quote in the same article:

"the modern left...has moved beyond old socialistic morality or even moral relativism to...become moral nihilism ... a post-Marxism with deep resentments"

The PM's comment was about amorality, not immorality. And he was subsequently judged on his, quote, "beliefs." Often those who call others prejudice, have their own glaring out like a waving red flag.

Hmmm. A general comment about the moral purposelessness and socialism of the left, versus, "every lefty is Immoral and Incompetent."

This is not a balanced article; PREJUDICE does make for lousy opinion --

"bias: a partiality that prevents OBJECTIVE CONSIDERATION
of an issue or situation - WordNetWeb"

@ watchingout

I have to remark on the irony of `watchingout' - of course, s/he used a pseudonym - condemning the supposed intolerence of Prime Minister Harper, and then turning around and defining for everyone what constitutes a `real Christian.'

Such attitudes are behind virtually all the holy wars (i.e. Protestants and Catholics both looked at either as being not `real Xians') and the authoritarianism which `watching out' condemns in PM Harper.

Irony indeed.

For the millionth time: Harper is NOT an evangelical. He's never sought to impose his beliefs - if he indeed has any - on anyone.

This is much more than can be said for Dion, Ignatieff or Jack Clayton.

i love how some people consider 'values' to be a dirty word.

thankfully, canadians are no longer scared by columns like these, and the vicious anti-harperites are now in the small, albeit annoyingly vocal, minority.

name-dropping 'republican' or 'christian' should not be an insult or accusation in itself. treating it as such is very poor journalism and poor communication in general. you should stop treating your readers like idiots.

Try coming up with your own opinions for once Francis. Rehashing extreme left-wing conspiracy theorists, and getting paid by the WFP to do so, seems like a easy way to make a quick buck while furthering your anti-Conservative quest.
Also, I don't believe the fundamental BS one bit, but you wouldn't have the stones to write the same about any other "fundamental" anything. It's OK to attack Christians, but any other group is strictly a no-no.
You do have one thing right - the Liberals have lost rural Canada. They DO pander to people like you.

Now that the challenge offered up has been answered, let me answer some of the other questions.

Papa Smurf: The problem is not that the values that drive Harper are Christian. The problem is that the values that drive Harper are the values that are Christian, but not in-line with the teachings of Christ. They are the ones that have no place in a free society. Such as, "make everyone believe what we believe, and punish those who refuse to change to suit us."

I have never seen Francis Russell speak out against people who want to feed and clothe the poor and the sick, which are Christian values.(amongst other faiths) She does not speak out against the good Christian values, only the bad ones.

To Joh: I'm sorry, but the post limit is insufficient to even begin to address your issues.

To watchingout: Interesting perspective, but unfortunately, Christianity, like all religions, has its good side and its bad.

To hollinm: The reason we don't have national daycare and still have child poverty is quite simple. Not enough money. People are not willing to pay the amount that would be necessary to solve these problems. As an HVAC designer, I can design a state-of-the-art ventilation system for a client, but if they cannot afford it, it will never be implemented.

To your other assertion, usually the left sticks to attacking their track record/actions. It just happens that this writer decided to attach the cause of those actions.

Every single Prime Minister we have had in my memory has been a person of faith, of one kind or another. We live in Canada, that means that having a faith does not disqualify you from serving on the school board, local politics, federal politics, or as prime minister. The question is who is going to win this battle between Christian values (conservatives) and no values at all (Liberals). I think I know the answer. ps, describing conservatism as "American" is a cheap shot. Conservatives are mostly the same in all countries. People no longer buy the American fear angle, remember who's in charge there now!

Here's part 2

"The Liberal Party of Canada recognizes that human dignity in a democratic system requires that all citizens have access to full information concerning the policies and leadership of the Party; the opportunity to participate in open and public assessment of such means, and such modifications of policies and leadership as they deem desirable to promote the political, economic, social, cultural and general well-being of Canadians.

To realize this objective, the Liberal Party of Canada strives to provide a flexible and democratic structure whereby all Canadians can obtain such information, participate in such assessment and militate for such reform through open communications, free dialogue and participatory action
both electoral and non-electoral. This Constitution sets forth the institutions, systems and procedures by which the Liberal Party of Canada, in co-operation with its provincial and territorial associations and electoral district associations, works to implement these ideas on behalf of all its members."

Source: Liberal Pary of Canada Constitution

To the first poster, name unknown. Here's part 1 of a try at answering your challenge.

"The Liberal Party of Canada is committed to the view that the dignity of each individual man and woman is the cardinal principle of democratic society and the primary purpose of all political organization and activity in such a society.

The Liberal Party of Canada is dedicated to the principles that have historically sustained the Party: individual freedom, responsibility and human dignity in the framework of a just society, and political freedom in the framework of meaningful participation by all persons. The Liberal Party is bound by the constitution of Canada and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and is committed to the pursuit of equality of opportunity for all persons, to the enhancement of our unique and diverse cultural community, to the recognition that English and French are the official languages of Canada, and to the preservation of the Canadian identity in a global society.

In accordance with this philosophy, the Liberal Party of Canada subscribes to the fundamental rights and freedoms of persons under the rule of law and commits itself to the protection of these essential values and their constant adaptation to the changing needs of modern Canadian society.

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