JANUARY 2020 Page 21 CONTENTS
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C2CC2CJOURNAL JOURNAL | JANUARY 2020 page 12 CONTENTS FUTURE OF CONSERVATISM SPECIAL SERIES: Part 1: The Enduring Appeal of Red Toryism PAGE 1 Ben Woodfinden C2C Journal’s name is a deliberate double-play on our central aspirations – to be read from coast to coast and to nurture important conversations between Canada’s conservatives. While we may not always get along perfectly, having just lost an entirely winnable federal election in which the Conservative Party topped the popular vote, now is a critical time to have a wide-ranging and civil debate about the future of conservatism in our beloved country. Ben Woodfinden kicks off C2C’s new special series on this important topic with a thoughtful essay about a Canadian political tradition that enjoyed plenty of success in our past, and deserves to be revived today. March or Die, Canadian-Style PAGE 9 Peter Shawn Taylor Few Canadians have any connection to our depleted military, fewer still enlist, and the number who consider joining a special branch of a foreign country’s forces that began as a way to soak up society’s dregs must be vanishingly small. Yet that was the path chosen by Joel Struthers, and his five years spent in the French Foreign Legion don’t seem to have done him any lasting harm. Peter Shawn Taylor shows that the historical aura of the kepi-clad brawlers still exerts a romantic tug on certain modern-day hearts in this fond portrayal of one Canadian’s life in the Legion and his remarkable work since getting out intact. Canada’s “Climate Crisis” Is Entirely Political PAGE 13 Gwyn Morgan Maurice Strong died of old age before seeing his predictions of climate apocalypse come true. But don’t worry: there are plenty of putative replacements for the late organizer of the original “Earth Summit”. They’re younger, more credulous, far shriller and even less scientifically literate. If the planet won’t heat up and destroy industrial civilization as predicted, they’re here to help make sure that the latter, at least, occurs one way or another. Gwyn Morgan peruses selected lowlights from the current “climate crisis” spectacle and laments our Liberal government’s credulous genuflection before the prophets of doom when Canada’s industry actually has the means to help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. C2C Journal on PressReader Each month, C2C Journal prepares a selection of its best articles for publication in this easy-to-read, printer-friendly layout published by PressReader. For our complete lineup of stories, please visit c2cjournal.ca The Enduring Appeal Of Red Toryism By Ben Woodfinden ince the disappointing federal marketing-execs.” liberalism, albeit with a decades-long election result in October, Missing from these articles – and lag. Granted, much of the post-election SCanada’s conservatives have been much other commentary on social commentary has also been in the nature engaged in a slow-burning civil war about and mainstream media besides – are of “friendly advice” from external sources what went wrong, who should lead the substantive attempts to outline what who normally sneer at, if not loathe, Conservative Party of Canada and what conservatism ought ultimately to be conservatism and would never consider the overall future of Canadian voting Conservative under any conservatism should be. Out circumstances. So why care? of this is emerging an apparent One key reason for concern consensus – at least judging by is that social-progressivism the weight of public commentary represents a strong current – that Canadian conservatism within the Conservative will become irrelevant unless it Party. The party’s ostensibly embraces social progressivism. retrograde electoral platform One column in The Globe and and messaging has been Mail by two political consultants offered as an explanation for suggested that the Conservatives its electoral loss and a reason “should consider breaking from the for Scheer to be toppled. (He past” to “resonate more broadly announced his resignation in across the country,” while another mid-December.) Peter Mackay, column in the Toronto Star by a The resignation of Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer offers an a former senior minister in opportunity to rethink the relationship between Canadian conservatism and political strategist called for leader social purpose. the Harper government and Andrew Scheer “to overcome his current favourite among many pride about Pride,” i.e., to demonstrate about. Most discussions have not moderate eastern Conservatives, was his acquiescence to social progressivism. extended beyond superficial observations eager to plunge the knife in Scheer’s Another in Maclean’s suggested that about branding and electoral positioning back and advance this narrative, saying Conservatives have a “branding problem” that, if implemented, would make that social conservatism “hung around and called for the party “to think like conservatism nearly synonymous with Andrew Scheer’s neck like a stinking C2CC2CJOURNAL JOURNAL | JANUARY 2020 page 12 albatross.” This approach appears to be volume of essays), with “the priority of characteristic that has come to make supported by a considerable proportion of the individual and his rights over society.” liberalism a never-ending project, for a rank-and-file Conservatives. It’s entirely It thus rests on a particular view of philosophy that regards creating a society possible that it could be reflected in the human nature, one that “affirms the self of free and equal persons as the highest Many present-day conservatives seem eager to embrace Thatcher’s individualism as the essence of conservatism, as they regard politics as a binary battle against the statism and collectivism of the left. Rather than being genuine opposites, however, radical individualism and collectivism are two sides of the same coin. party’s choice of its next leader. If so, the sufficiency of man alone.” good will be constantly on the lookout for consequences would be incalculable. Many liberals would reject Taylor’s new barriers to freedom and equality that For this reason alone it’s critical to put characterization of liberalism as must be overcome. forward and debate options that rest not “atomism,” but at the core of most Accepting this characterization of on prevailing social fashion or momentary variants of liberalism is an emphasis on liberalism does not require rejecting marketing-driven impulses, but on age-old the primacy of free and equal individuals. freedom and equality, and many of principles and coherent political models The liberal idea of man thus elevates the achievements we associate with that have demonstrably worked. liberalism are laudatory. A Some Conservatives are sure recognition of the inherent to advance a vision centred on equality and dignity of all people, lower taxes, less regulation, regardless of race or gender, more economic freedom and and the emancipation of slaves, continued globalization. Others serfs, women and other minority are likely to draw inspiration groups were both morally worthy from the recent success of and necessary. Universal human conservative populism in a dignity and equality are not number of other countries. But innately “liberal” ideas, but it is if Canadian conservatives look undeniable that liberals, and back on their own history, they’ll liberalism, have helped actualize find a largely forgotten tradition them. But unrestrained and that offers a distinctly Canadian left entirely to its own devices, contribution for the future of the internal logic of liberalism conservatism: Red Toryism, and the pursuit of absolute properly understood. freedom and equality in every sphere of human life corrodes The small “l” liberal briar patch every barrier and constraint that inhibits this. Human beings are not For this reason, liberalism atoms. We are not born into often ends up being a the world as self-sufficient destabilizing force. This rational decision-makers. We point has been made by are formed by society and by liberals and non-liberals alike. others. Our nature as socially Early 19th century French and historically situated beings political philosopher Alexis is undeniable, and yet much de Tocqueville, in the second Liberalism ushered in the Age of Enlightenment, but over time it has become a political philosophy is built on a destabilizing – and often chaotic – force. volume of his magisterial denial of this. While liberalism Democracy in America, feared is often presented as metaphysically autonomy, and its pursuit thereof, the kind of atomism much later described and anthropologically agnostic, in reality to the status of the highest political by Taylor − seeing it as going hand-in- it is built on a specific conception of the good. It leads to a relentless quest for hand with a tyrannical form of democratic person. Liberalism begins, according to emancipation and along with this the collectivism. Present-day Harvard law Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor erosion and removal of all constraints professor Adrian Vermeule has aptly in his essay Atomism (from a collected on personal action. This is a defining described the relentless and destabilizing C2CC2CJOURNAL JOURNAL | JANUARY 2020 page 2 in an interview that “there’s no such thing authority steps forward to regulate and as society. There are individual men govern every aspect of our lives. and women and there are families.” This This relationship between radical suggests that at her core the UK’s “Iron individualism and collectivism is not Lady” was ultimately a (small-l) liberal, accidental. In his under-rated classic The though this was perhaps masked by her Quest for Community, the late American deep patriotism, her love for all things sociologist Robert Nisbet warned that English and her tough foreign policy, all of the drive towards totalitarian collectivism which set her at odds with liberals. in the 20th century was rooted in the Many conservatives today indeed natural human yearning for belonging and insist they are the heirs to a purer, community.