I wonder if extremism is taking over the conservative movement in Canada as it has in the United States. I also wonder if we should worry about that. My own view is that we should.
Now, those who are expecting a tirade here against Pierre Poilievre, the new leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, will be disappointed. Some of his antics during the leadership race were disturbing, to say the least. But he is barely into his tenure and has not yet clearly signalled where he will end up on the Conservative spectrum.
Pierre Poilievre wants to win the next federal election and simply cannot achieve that if he pivots solely to the far right. Former prime minister Brian Mulroney pointed that out to him just last week.
And those who think I have gone soft on Poilievre would also be wrong. I have not. He has a great deal to prove but he also has an opportunity to hold the Conservative Party together by leading from the centre. There have been some brief signals in that direction but only time will tell if he has what it takes to accomplish that in real terms.
My more immediate concern about conservative extremism lies outside of Ottawa, particularly in Alberta and Quebec and to a degree, in Saskatchewan.
Last week, Danielle Smith became Premier of Alberta. She has not yet been tested at the polls, but she brings with her a record of right-wing extremism that is alarming.
I should say here that I was born in Edmonton and over the years have spent a good deal of time in Alberta as much of our extended family remained there. Most of them were Conservative and all were strong Albertans and proud Canadians. Three generations of my Western family have received the Order of Canada.
However, I can’t imagine any of them being the least bit comfortable with a premier whose first priority is to introduce a Sovereignty Act to limit the constitutional powers of the federal government in that province. Nor do I believe they would have tolerated the incomprehensible statement made by Premier Smith at her first press conference that unvaccinated people during the COVID-19 pandemic were, “the most discriminated against group that I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime.”
In relation to the proposed Sovereignty Act, Premier Jason Kenny, while still in office, called it “cockamamie” and believed it to be illegal and a recipe for business and investment to leave the province. He also strongly defended the right of Alberta’s Lt. Governor to withhold Royal assent for any such legislation until its constitutionality is confirmed. Danielle Smith lambasted both of them for taking that position which is, at its base, following the rule of law.
As for the Premier’s statement related to discrimination of the unvaccinated during the COVID-19 pandemic, perhaps she should have a chat with the physicians, nurses, and other healthcare workers across Canada, who treated sick and unvaccinated COVID patients with kindness, dignity, and respect and at danger to themselves while doing so. Perhaps as well, she should have talked to people who, during her lifetime, were discriminated against for being gay, fired because they had a disability, not allowed to get credit or a bank loan without their husband’s consent, or indigenous communities who still don’t have access to clean water.
In Quebec, the Legault Government is the first government in 48 years that is not either Liberal or Parti Quebecois. It is essentially conservative, Duplessis- like in character. That in itself is not a huge problem for me, but the extremism sometimes disguised as populism is.
Bill 21, which clearly discriminates against people whose religion requires them to wear head coverings, is a clear violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights, and Bill 96, legislation that undermines English language education in Quebec, is also discriminatory.
What is particularly upsetting about this is that the Government of Canada, which has a primary responsibility to protect and defend the Constitution has done squat when it comes to staring down Quebec’s nationalistic tendencies, especially those that are contrary to Canadian law and custom. To be fair, there is a paucity of comment on these important issues to our Canadian identity from most politicians of all stripes in Ottawa, with Muskoka-Parry Sound MP Scott Aitchison being a rare and, to me, welcome exception.
I think it is time to define what conservatism in Canada is, or at least what it should be.
In a recent interview with journalist Mercedes Stephenson, outgoing Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said this: “ Conservatism, therefore, means protecting what is best about what we have inherited. Not being opposed to thoughtful reform but opposing radical overnight change and the destruction of institutions. And some of what I see now, populism with a snarl, is not conservatism. It is about tearing things down and blowing things up. And that concerns me.”
I believe that to be an accurate analogy of what we are seeing in recent times and how conservatism, in a Canadian context, is going off the rails. And THAT concerns me.
Extremism and “snarly” populism are, in my view, becoming rampant in Canada. They are challenging our values as Canadians and dividing our country. We need to pull back both on the far left and on the far right.
Is our current NDP-supported Liberal Government capable of doing that? Of rejecting divisiveness and territorial acrimony, standing firmly for Canadian values, and finding common ground for all Canadians? Would a Conservative Government do any better?
On both counts, I wonder.
Hugh Mackenzie
Hugh Mackenzie has held elected office as a trustee on the Muskoka Board of Education, a Huntsville councillor, a District councillor, and mayor of Huntsville. He has also served as chairman of the District of Muskoka and as chief of staff to former premier of Ontario, Frank Miller.
Hugh has also served on a number of provincial, federal and local boards, including chair of the Ontario Health Disciplines Board, vice-chair of the Ontario Family Health Network, vice-chair of the Ontario Election Finance Commission, and board member of Roy Thomson Hall, the National Theatre School of Canada, and the Anglican Church of Canada. Locally, he has served as president of the Huntsville Rotary Club, chair of Huntsville District Memorial Hospital, chair of the Huntsville Hospital Foundation, president of Huntsville Festival of the Arts, and board member of Community Living Huntsville.
In business, Hugh Mackenzie has a background in radio and newspaper publishing. He was also a founding partner and CEO of Enterprise Canada, a national public affairs and strategic communications firm established in 1986.
Currently, Hugh is president of C3 Digital Media Inc., the parent company of Doppler Online, and he enjoys writing commentary for Huntsville Doppler.
Don’t miss out on Doppler!
Sign up here to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
Local news in your inbox so you don’t miss anything!
Click here to support local news
Hugh you seem to constantly lament actual Conservatives that stray from your far Left leaning, big government, stance. Anyone with a right of centre or pro Canada first stance is labled a “Trumper”. Thank god people like Smith have refused to be swayed by the those like you who want to back fabians and globalists, big pharma and the central banking WEF scoundrels that are running Canada into the ground. The further a politician is from your ideal “conservative” I would argue, the better off the constituents and Canadians as a whole are. All we have to hope is that PP leans further right and moves away from any engagement with woke legacy media and the laurentian conservative swamp.
Unfortunately, as a reader, I know what to expect in your commentaries. I wish otherwise.
Correction. In my comment about Alberta joining the USA, I said Alberta employers would have to start paying $2000 per month. That should read “up to $2000 per month” for an employee with a family” It varies by state and the average for an individual employee is $575 per month or $6,900 per year.
Greg Reuvekamp, If Alberta joined the USA, they would have 1% of the seats in Congress vs 10% of the seats in the Canadian parliament. And in the last 15 years, Canada has built more pipelines (Transmountain and Coastal Gas Link) than the USA. And employers would have to start paying about $2000 per employee per month for employer-paid health care. What would be the advantage for Alberta to join the USA? Alberta is better off in Canada.
How do we hold the government accountable without a free press?
Nationally subsidized media get to cherry pick topics of little or no value instead of concentrating on issues affecting Canadians. Hardly a word about health care or long term care after a pandemic where lives were lost. prior to the provincial election. They no longer hold are elected officials accountable through investigative journalism. That is how we found out the Federal Liberals were funnelling money back to the party coffers through and ad agency in Quebec.
When you have to look to European Parliament publications and Alternative media to find out about events taking place around the world it all becomes glaringly obvious what is considered news worthy these days. There is rioting in countries all around the world and they get little or no attention. This despite the fact that these entire populations are facing insurmountable challenges, starvation famine, people are dying.
Without accountability ladies and gentleman there is no democracy. That is something that all Canadians should agree on regardless of their political affiliation.
Hugh Mackenzie: I too wonder about Conservatism in Canada; also about Liberalism and about the government style we call Democracy. With the right wing/ left wing party politics we have now, our government is just 4 year patches of elected dictatorship. Re-election and power at all costs. The people be damned!
We may feel that Poilievre can’t win on wierdness (my word) alone, but we had a southern president elected just like that.
We have heard the comments and observed the antics of Poilievre, but you comment “he has not yet clearly signalled where he will end up on the Conservative spectrum.”
So how will it shake out for Danielle Smith of Alberta, with her “record of right-wing extremism”?
To both I would apply the adage ‘If it walks like a duck and, talks like a duck …..” Simplistic perhaps, but I find that to be the way with ducks (ditto for extremists).
As you state, we have a long history, with all parties guilty, of ducking and hiding from a couple of problematic facets of our nation. Both are at odds with our assertion that all people are equal, but feel that the problem can be dealt with by assuring some, that they are different.
“We need to pull back on both the far left and the far right.” Amen!
But if we ever found a person who could and would do that, would they ever survive a four term, and a re-election? The number of egos and attitudes that would have to be confronted!
I wonder if that could happen.
But, for the sake of my country, I certainly do hope.
Where Is The Centre
Hugh I would like to know where the centre is ?
Paul Martin and Jean Chrétien balanced the budget by reducing transfer payments to the provinces and we’re applauded. Premiers like Mike Harris who had to implement the cuts to things like health care were vilified.
Harper a right wing conservative prorogued parliament and was taken to task by the papers. Trudeau prorogued parliament after saying he would never do that was given a pass by the papers
Parliament shut down during Covid understandable. Zoom not too effective.
Parliament still in covid protocol while the liberal leader campaigns among crowds of people not social distancing seems unusual.
Carbon tax is good for consumers as they will travel less. Yet the Liberal leader flies back and forth across Canada and around the world at no cost to himself.
Catholic church’s burn by disgruntled aboriginals possibly. Virtually, no press. A swastika on a building ,lots of coverage.
Logging roads blocked by USA backed protestors, very little press. The suggestion that some of the funding for the trucker protest was USA, raised lots of press and very little proof.
Via rail is shut down for 2 months by a native band from the Belleville area and the government negotiates. Truckers come from east and west to Ottawa, and did not sneak up on them, are not met or spoken to. After 3 week are deem to be insurrectionists.
Alberta and Saskatchewan want control of their resources and this is an attack on confederation. Quebec as you indicate uses the not withstanding to suppress religion and language rights and all we hear is silence.
Hugh as I said before where is the centre?
Trudeau is rooting for the gravel-throwing, extreme far right Conservative PPCs.
The PPCs will stop Poilievre, not JT.
Anti-everything PPCs got 800K votes last time.
People should be worried about that.
“The party that ran on an anti-immigration, anti-lockdown platform that has been endorsed by white nationalists, Neo-Nazis and other far-right groups has become a home for anti-vaxxers, anti-government protesters and gun rights activists,”
800K less for Conservatives.
Cons continue to fragment and self-destruct.
To appeal to Canadians Cons have to lean left.
To appeal to PPC voters they have to lean right.
They can’t do both.
https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/the-ppc-got-more-than-800000-votes-and-that-should-worry-all-of-us/
This presentation from Geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan spells out why it is in Alberta’s best interests to leave Confederation and join the USA sometime in the next 20 years. He also spells out why demographics in the West vs East make this scenario likely. What exactly is Trudeau’s sales pitch to the West to make them want to stay? So they can enjoy watching his next costume change and listening to his hypocritical lecturing like the rest of us have to? Miserable, weak leadership from Trudeau is directly threatening Canadian unity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX4PbrOpb1Q