Why does every Conservative leadership winner go on to be a colossal disappointment?.While most of us are still reeling from Erin O’Toole’s announcement last week of his carbon tax that “isn’t a carbon tax”, all I can feel is a sense of deep disenchantment. Like many social conservatives, I marked O’Toole as my second choice on the ballot, after Derek Sloan. I even wrote a column at my old digs telling others to do the same..With the announcement of a carbon tax that goes into an O’Toole Petro Points rewards program, I find myself in the same position as people 30 years my senior, who recall scraping Mulroney’s stickers off their bumpers after the 1988 election. Was there ever any hope at all? Did O’Toole just get some bad advice? Or were we lied to the entire time?.Those of us who consider themselves loyal conservatives, feel a deep sense of personal betrayal..But maybe we true believers need to open our eyes. The empirical evidence is there for all to see: centre-right parties in Canada and their leaders have not been the disruptors we elect them to be. If one looks to the past or to the present, most Canadian “conservatives” are just Liberals driving the speed limit..Stephen Harper just finished addressing the rebranded Manning conference as a guest speaker, along with former British Prime Minister David Cameron. With US President Donald Trump safely out of office, both Cameron and Harper — clearly tapped to represent pre-2016 Toryism — exhorted the faithful to repent of nationalist populism, and turn to a conservatism more confirmable with global collaboration..Some might argue retirement has changed Harper. But looking back at his government, the policy choices made weren’t boldly conservative: micro-targeted tax credits don’t fix our torturous tax code; scrapping the long gun registry didn’t stop nonsensical model and class bans — some of which happened under Harper — and the minor austerity that closed lighthouses and veterans affairs offices saved nothing compared to the colossal expenses of the CBC and equalization..Our former Right Honorable needed to use those omnibus bills to radically alter Canadian government. He needed to stack the Senate instead of letting the seats go empty to be filled by his enemies later, and he needed to articulate a vision for his movement as well as the country. “Strong, stable, national, Conservative majority government,” looks great on a whiteboard, but it doesn’t mean anything in the real world and its means even less once a party inevitably losses power..Let us turn now to our most prominent Conservatives leaders: premiers Kenney, Pallister, and Ford. Certainly, the COVID-19 pandemic is throwing them through an unexpected loop, but outside that, what about their leadership inspires? Did voting for Kenney get Ottawa to listen, or Ford to bring common sense back to the largest provincial government, or Pallister to reform school taxes on rural and agricultural land?.Premier Ford bringing Toronto to heel appeased his base and sent a clear message to urban latte liberals that no “creature of the province” was beyond being taken down a peg. Premier Pallister did fulfill his less-than-intelligent promise to lower the provincial sales tax, while keeping most distributive taxes high. Premier Kenney’s tough rhetoric victory in Alberta inspired all of us in the West in a moment of triumph, only to see most of the NDP’s policies continue with little harassment..But in policy terms the only thing that Tories seem to know is austerity, which riles up front line civil servants, teachers, or nurses and kills voter support while making useless management teams bigger and richer. Friends and staff of the premiers always receive lucrative, noncompetitive contracts. And in the end, they normally fail to be tough enough to reduce the size of the government payroll in any meaningful way..On COVID-19, “Conservative” governments have been the harshest, striping away liberties more often than their NDP or Liberal counterparts..Danny Williams took down the Maple Leaf in Newfoundland to make a point, and Christie Clark played both the “pro-development” as well as “anti-pipeline” camps to gain concessions from Ottawa. Contrast this to our most “conservative” provinces; their citizens have no more liberties than anywhere else, their governments are no more efficient, and their leaders are no better at fulfilling the promises they make..Which brings us back to O’Toole. If his solution to the questions around climate and revenue is to imitate Justin Trudeau with a policy that makes even less sense, why would anyone vote Conservative? Liberals may as well vote for the real thing, and conservatives have nothing to vote for at all..Canadian conservatism is in dire straights if the most we can do is ape our opposition — and badly to boot..Nathan Giede is the BC Political Columnist and Host of Mountain Standard Time for the Western Standard
