LETTER

Conservatives: back to the future or forward to the past?

 

Increasing support for Justin Trudeau's Liberals while support for the “new” Conservative Party plummets, as reported by Canadian pollster Abacus, plus Stephen Harper's resignation as MP, should focus us on the future of Canadian conservatism.

The Poll is clear that the party formed by the "merger" of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party continues to be rejected by Canadians who now recognize the Harper-orchestrated merger did not renew the Progressive Conservative tradition as conservatives thought.
 
One example: The Canadian Wheat Board, created by a Tory government and protected by every government since 1935, was sold to a Saudi-owned Global Grain Group against the will of a majority of wheat farmers in pursuit of the neo-conservative ideology of the Harper Government.  Traditional progressive-conservative policy was ignored.

Harper’s legacy is a Conservative Party bereft of Tory and Canadian conservative principles.

The Abacus Poll concludes, "For the other two major parties, this establishes that they cannot take for granted that their approach to the next election can be about rallying a base against the incumbents: they will need to increase the appeal of their parties among those who would not currently consider them."

Canadians are watching the race to succeed Stephen Harper with interest.  Will the party created in 2003 understand the message sent by Canadians on election day 2015 that is continuing today -- that copy-cat American extreme right-wing conservatism is not supported in Canada? "Will Conservatives go back to the future, or look forward to the past," as writer Michael Harris has asked?

Those of us who share the "progressive Conservative" vision hope the Leader-elect of the Conservative Party will share Sir John A.'s National Dream of One Dominion and put to rest the divisive politics of the last ten years.

Should this leadership not be taken, the Progressive Canadian Party exists to provide a home for progressive conservatives, offering the reasoned alternative to the Liberal Party the Abacus Poll suggests is needed. Progressive Canadians are Progressive Conservatives; Progressive Conservatives are Progressive Canadians.

The Hon. Sinclair Stevens,
Leader, PC Party
Newmarket, Ont.