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.

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.

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.