For many years, conservatives at the federal and provincial level have been running on two basic core ideas: reducing the control government has over your life, and fighting against entitled politicians living off your tax dollars..While other issues come and go, those two ideas have been at the core of what conservatives promise their supporters..It’s how they justify their fundraising asks, and how they differentiate themselves from the other parties..In both Alberta and Ontario, the two ostensibly conservative governments explicitly ran on a populist platform of returning power to the people from the elites, and ending the entitlement that was perceived to have characterized those they defeated..Federally, the Conservatives regularly rail against Justin Trudeau’s entitlement, slamming the perception that he believes the rules apply to everyone else, but not to him..And yet, we are watching and seeing that Conservative politicians are turning out to be a bunch of entitled hypocrites, who demonstrate the same behaviour they attack in others..In Alberta, eight MLAs, and other UCP officials – including Jason Kenney’s Chief of Staff – travelled outside of Canada during the Christmas season, at a time when the government has told everyone to avoid ‘non-essential travel,’ made it illegal to have dinner with their families, threatened fines and violent force against “violators”, and imposed a reckless second lockdown that is destroying small businesses..In response to this display of elitist entitlement, Jason Kenney said he would not sanction those officials on his team who travelled. In his view, there is one set of rules for (his) politicians, and another set of rules for the rest of us..That’s textbook entitlement; exactly what so many Conservatives (rightfully) accuse the Liberals and NDP of..In Ontario, Doug Ford gave a massive gift to big box stores, letting them stay open while shuttering small businesses. Twice. Ford regularly talked about how bad he felt about doing it, then kept on doing it, even as government’s own data showed an extremely low risk of infection from small businesses. Where COVID-19 is more likely to spread – in big box stores – Ford has left things mostly open for business..Ford has also purged people like Belinda Karahalios who had the guts to stand up against increasing government power, despite Ford having previously promised not to kick people out in those circumstances. He already had in the case of libertarian-populist Randy Hillier..Then, things reached peak arrogance when Ontario Finance Minister Rod Phillips went on a Caribbean vacation while Ontarians were locked down, which he then tried to hide to by sending pre-recorded social media posts as if he was locked down at home, and releasing a Christmas message praising the sacrifice of Ontarians as he was really living it up on the beach..Ford initially acted as if he was outraged at the ‘revelation,’ but it then turned out he knew about it two weeks ago..After an immediate firestorm of controversy – including from conservative supporters – Ford was left with no choice but to fire Phillips. .Of course, Ford only had a problem with Phillips’ vacation when it caused political problems for him. He apparently thought nothing of how disgusting it is for Ontarians to be locked down away from their families while the same politicians pushing the lockdowns are going on vacations overseas with their own families..To get a sense of how insane this all is, consider this tweet by @Martyupnorth_:.“Am I understanding this correctly? If 10 members of my family flew to Hawaii and had a big Christmas party, without masks, for a week, I could go to work upon my return to Alberta, as long as I “voluntarily” isolated for 14 days. But I couldn’t have that same party here in AB?”.This upside-down world is the kind of arbitrary abuse of government power that would be expected from those obsessed with more government power..How are these Kenney and Ford ‘conservatives’ acting any better right now than the Trudeau Liberals?.Conservative politicians by contrast, portrayed themselves as different, as people who would respect individual freedom and tear down the entitlements of the left..Just ask yourself this question:.What would be the difference, right now, if Rachel Notley was in power in Alberta, and Andrea Horwath was in power in Ontario?.Would they have been more restrictive than the Tories?.Would they have done more, or less for small businesses that have been shut down?.Would they have taken any more freedoms away?.Chances are, those two NDP leaders would be acting just as the two Tory premiers are right now. .You may be wondering why I’m focusing on conservative hypocrisy here. Haven’t all the parties been hypocrites? .Of course..After all, we just saw NDP MP Niki Ashton announce that she was in Greece to visit her sick grandmother, despite most non-governmental Canadians being unable to see their own sick relatives within Canada..Yet, to his credit, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh acted quickly in that case, removing her from her critic roles, while Doug Ford only fired Rod Philips after it became public, and Jason Kenney has, well, done nothing whatsoever. .For all their elitist trappings, Singh was tougher with a hypocrite in his own ranks, than ‘populist’ Kenney and Ford have been with the much worse hypocrites in their own..The issue is that those conservative politicians explicitly promote themselves as anti-establishment..A key feature of their appeal is that they will not abuse our taxpayer dollars and will seek to protect our freedoms..Instead, when the chips were down, they have often betrayed what they claimed to stand for, using government to restrict our rights, crushing local businesses while protecting global corporate power, and exempting themselves and fellow politicians from the damage and pain the rest of us are dealing with..That kind of betrayal is enough to make people ask a very simple, and – for the conservatives – dangerous question:.If conservative politicians act just as bad as they claim the Liberals and NDP are acting, why the hell should anyone vote conservative?.Free-thinking voices within Canada’s conservative parties (if any are left), must come up with an answer to that question, and they must do so fast..Spencer Fernando is a columnist for the Western Standard and the owner/author of spencerfernando.com from Winnipeg, Manitoba.
