Tasha Kheiriddin, who appears to have become a regular contributor at the National Post, writes about the Manning Centre’s report on Canadian values in today’s Full Comment. Conducted by Canadian pollsters Allan Gregg of Harris/Decima and Professor André Turcotte of Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication, Ms.Kheiriddin writes that the results suggest that Canada’s definition of the political centre has moved to the right [I would report on this myself, but the report isn't available to the public yet].
The findings aren’t initially surprising. Of the 1,000 Canadians surveyed, 65% described themselves as centrist. Of these, 47% admit voting for the Conservative Party in 2008. Since the actual voter turnout for the Conservative party was only 36%, the survey is already slightly skewed in favour of a conservative viewpoint. This important consideration should not elude anyone.
On moral issues, Ms.Kheiriddin reports, 89% strongly agreed with the statement “nothing is more important than family.” And if that kind of social conservatism is a little ambiguous, she writes that 67% believe in the definition of marriage of being between a “man and a woman”. 60% strongly agree that abortion is morally wrong.
This certainly seems at odds with other polling results that suggest Canada is still a fairly socially liberal country. According to an Angus Reid survey from September of 2009, 61% of Canadians agree with same-sex marriage, while a further 23% agree with civil unions respecting all legal rights of coupling for homosexuals. That’s 84% of Canadians who, in some way, want to validate homosexual marriage.
As for abortion, Angus Reid held a poll on the issue in June of 2008, which found that 49% believed in the unfettered right to access for pregnancy termination. A further 42% agreed that abortion should be legal under certain circumstances. So, again, that means 91% of the country are open to the moral ambiguity of abortion rights. Hardly a ringing endorsement for social conservatism in Canada.
But as Ms.Kheiriddin explains, perhaps that’s because the Manning report found that only 31% of Canadians, less than one third, believe government should play any major role in regulating moral quandaries.
Turning to economics, and again with a large grain of salt, considering 47% of the respondents voted Conservative, 61% feel the government is doing the right thing on the recession, with an equal number supporting its profligate spending.
Does this report make a convincing argument that Canadian values have shifted to the right? I’m not certain it has. If anything, the Conservative Party has moved the spectrum to the left, shifting the centre along with it. This is a continuing part of the Conservative strategy to usurp the Liberal Party in the centre and become the “Natural Governing Party” by adopting Liberal policies and then slowly squeezing the Liberals out of the centre by getting voters to adopt the Conservative brand.
The Conservatives have already used aggressive marketing tactics to fund-raise involving mainly uninspiring themes along the lines of, “well, at least we’re not the Liberals, right?” And although it seems to be working, there’s little evidence that this means a shift in Canadian adoption of conservatism.
Stephen Harper is a Big Government Conservative, after all, and that hardly fits with most fiscal conservative supporters. The massive deficits which will lead to record debt, with the increased bureaucracy, bloated civil service, and creation of regional development agencies and crown corporations, is not at all shifting Canada to the right. Add in the market interventionism, stimulus, and increased spending on social programs, and you wind up with a party that spends like Bob Rae’s Ontario, but cuts taxes like Mike Harris’s. And that still doesn’t make it more conservative.
LOL the absense of liberals bemoaning the stats is rather amusing.
I’d classify myself as a strong small c conservative supporter, and even I’d agree this report is thin gruel. I think rather than showcase a move to the political right, it shows instead the growth of the West, and the aging of the Canadian demographic. I do think both of those trends favour the CPC, but its hardly a seismic shift. Harper’s positioning in the political centre was basically a function of the LPC abandoning it in favour of a Left-wing environmental progressivism that was never going to be a winning political strategy.
Are we “more conservative” depends on how you define “conservative”. Certainly, I think there is an increasing sense that the policies of the Liberal party do not define Canadian values, but beyond that I don’t think I can extrapolate my own experience to society.
In any case, do we mean “fiscal”, “social” or just plain “conservative”. I’d like to think Canadians are more conservative in the Burkean sense of that word, but almost no one means that when they say conservative. They typically mean some form of “right wing” if that has any real meaning.
A lot of people know that fiscal conservatism does not necessarily imply social conservatism, but a lot of people miss the fact that social conservatism doesn’t imply government enforcement of every social value.
For instance, as a Christian I believe that homosexual relationships are not acceptable to God. At the same time, I support government recognition of homosexual relationships. Why? Because as C.S. Lewis said, most people in our society are not Christians and should not be expected to live Christian lives. He was referring to the UK, but you get the idea. Furthermore, I find it quite immoral that homosexual partners are not recognized as “family” when considering issues like deathbed decision making. I don’t consider someone’s long term live in partner to be their spouse, but only a fool would say they aren’t family. Those sorts of situations require legal recognition of gay relationships in our society.
So am I “social conservative”? You tell me.
On the economic front, I believe that certain social programs like universal health care should be funded by government. At the same time I believe private health care should be legal and I support co-payments on the public system, (better known as user fees), to reduce unnecessary consumption of health care services. Such user fees would need to be implemented in such a way as to not destroy the universality of public health care.
Am I a “fiscal conservative”? Do I favour “big government”? Again, you tell me.
I didn’t favour legalized gay marriages when I was younger, and I didn’t think there shouldn’t be user fees on health care.
Cynical Joe makes a good point about the Liberal party abandoning the political centre.
The budget was weak in my opinion and left an opening for Mr. Ignatieff. He should have moved “right” and put forward a vision for a more fiscally conservative Canada. I don’t mean that he should have tried to turn the Liberal party into a right wing party, but rather he should have made the case that the Liberals were the only centrist and fiscally sound party.
Here’s the election campaign:
Do you want progressive politics, but don’t care that you’ll destroy the Canadian economy in the attempt? Do you also want spineless action in the face of Islamic extremism and a middle east policy that unwittingly harbours anti-semites masquerading as anti-Isrel? Vote NDP.
Do you want vaguely centrist policies and lip service to fiscal responsibility while you balloon spending without positive results? Vote Conservative.
Do you want right-wing policies like ending gay marriage and bringing back the death penalty? Go start a new party.
But if you want centrist political policies with sound fiscal management vote Liberal. We went a bit off the rails after we balanced the budget, but we learned our lesson and we’re back.
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Now that would be an interesting election.
I think the Liberals are playing right into the hands of the Conservatives by allowing themselves to be pushed out of the middle.
But again, I don’t think that the Conservatives have moved Canada to the right very much. If they’ve restored a pride in the military, that may be because we’ve shifted as a society away from the peace activism of the seventies and eighties, and become a little more nationalist.
I think attitudes on homosexuality have been shaped quite a bit by popular culture and media. After all, nothing has happened in my personal life to have affected any opinions on homosexuals, since I’ve probably known all of about 2 in my lifetime.
If people followed the Conservative Party, it’s because they were offering acceptable alternatives to the Liberals that didn’t change their sense of what Canada is to them.