Monday, July 7, 2008

What's a conservative in Canada?

Red Tory wants to know what defines a conservative in Canada.

He says:

"What if I were to write the following:

'One of the hallmarks of the Canadian political right is its wholesale embrace, to put it mildly, of all things American. Your typical rightie adores American culture, cheers on Washington’s efforts to spread democracy throughout the world and has welcomed the bountiful economic prosperity brought about by free trade and deeper integration with the United States.'

"How accurate would that be?"

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I only know a few Canadian conservatives, and only online, so it's hard to get a complete picture of their perspectives. But I would say that while they admire what's best about us, they're aware and critical of what isn't good about us as well.

Generally speaking, I'd say Canadian conservatives value the same things American ones do -- self-reliance, individual rights, limited government, and so on. But I'm sure they cringe at the fat, loud, camera-toting boob tourists as much as lefties do.

2 comments:

truepeers said...

Well, i don't cringe nearly as much at those tourists as I do when watching the CBC.

I'm a great admirer of many things American. But to my mind, a Canadian conservative should not just want to emulate America lock, stock, and barrel. That's not being conservative; a conservative is someone who recognizes the need for a society to evolve by creatively renewing its own origins, though making hybrids with other cultures when this is the way to finding the freedom without which any society cannot grow.

For better or worse, we're an American people, in the broad sense of the term; but we're not US Americans; we're the inheritors of a legacy of loyalty to the Crown, parliamentary government and the Common Law, and all that has gone with it. We have to start from there in figuring out what steps next to take.

Eowyn said...

Well, you've made an excellent point, truepeers. Canadians AND the U.S. have evolved from basically the same mindset. That's probably why we consider ourselves "brothers," though we are different in some ways.