my self impossed, unknown lengthed exile to say, what did Andrew Coyne expect from a guy who not only embodies Toryism but is actually name Tory?
...I don't mean to single Mr. Tory out. As a statement of policy, his platform, or plan, or whatever it is, is a fair reflection of what Conservative parties stand for today, not only in Ontario, but across the country. Which is to say, not much.
Perhaps we should simply say that the conservative moment has passed in Canada. There was a time some years ago when Conservative parties were willing to advocate for smaller government and freer markets, for cutting spending, ending subsidies, deregulating prices and privatizing government services. At the time conservatives believed they were in the vanguard of history. But it appears now to have been a blip.
On that note the exile resumes. Though I may have a movie review or two in me.
Comments (3)
I think the Tory moment has passed because …
(1) Conservative/Progressive Conservatives were never fundamentally very small-government or pro-business in outlook. Think back to the Family Compact which was essentially a cozy Tory arrangement to control government and plunder the populace, and to John A. and his anti-free-trade platform and his prototypical corrupt, big-government boondoggle, cynically renamed “The National Dream” in later years. If Tories seemed more pro-freedom in the last 70 years or so it’s because from the opposition benches they occasionally found it expedient to use the freedom card against the Liberal hegemony as it built up the welfare/warfare state. The rest of the time they would oppose the Liberals by claiming that they were not expanding government fast enough (witness Robert Stanfield the anti-free-market warrior).
(2) There are very few independent, government-despising entrepreneurs left any more in Canada, and their numbers are shrinking. Taxes, regulations and subsidies have captured most businesses and brought them into the orbit of government and squashed smaller, independent businesses or driven them underground. Even the people who work in the remaining relatively free markets don’t understand the free market and have been so thoroughly brainwashed by government schooling that they think that nothing good can happen unless government does it. So if we had a political party with a long and upstanding tradition of free enterprise and limited government, which we don’t, they would have a hard time finding enough voters to carry a single riding anywhere in the People’s Federal State of Bananada.
Posted by Anonymous | June 16, 2007 9:46 PM
Posted on June 16, 2007 21:46
Good Lord! Andrew Coyne wets his pants (again), and we’re all supposed to throw in the towel?
It’s enough to make a poor man rant.
Posted by Occam's Carbuncle | June 17, 2007 12:55 AM
Posted on June 17, 2007 00:55
Enjoy the summer,family and the recess. At least you’re smart enough to recognize fake news when you see it.
Posted by Fergy | June 18, 2007 10:39 AM
Posted on June 18, 2007 10:39