There are several timeless conservative principles of political philosophy that in the past 30 years have been abandoned by all our political elites, and that if restored as fundamental guiding principles, would renew and galvanize conservatives. And if adopted by any political party, these old/new-again policies, which transcend regional interests, would make it, in the eyes of most of mainstream Canada, the occupant of the politically moral high ground and the party of daring reform, compassion, competence, and adult responsibility. It would set that party apart in a really positive way.
The Canadian state, particularly in the area of large resource projects—a huge part of the Canadian economy—has been shorn of its full sovereignty and law-making and law-enforcing powers, with the inevitable results of major resource projects being cancelled or delayed, a dwindling of predictability and trust in the marketplace, the flight of capital from Canada, and, as evidenced by the unchecked indigenous blockades in British Columbia and Ontario earlier this year, a serious and dangerous diminution of the rule of law. I can think of no other country in the world where this situation is permitted to exist.
There is another result of this new de facto, tri-sovereignty regime. Despite utopian predictions of how this “nation to nation”-oriented regime would improve the lives of indigenous Canadians, the opposite has happened. All the indicators of social success show that despite all these new indigenous powers, the situation—which structurally is essentially one of benign and unintentional quasi-apartheid—just keeps getting worse for the vast majority of powerless and marginalized indigenous Canadians. More power and money won’t improve their situation. Only structural change will, which can only occur under a dual-sovereignty regime.
In 1790, the great conservative philosopher Edmund Burke wrote “Reflections on the Revolution in France,” his magnificent rebuttal to the anti-conservative utopians in France who were bent on destroying the country’s past and all its present authority in order to forge a “brave new world.” He wrote that “the house of commons cannot renounce its share of authority. The pact of society forbids such surrender. The constituent parts of a state are obliged to hold their public faith with each other and with all those who derive any serious interests under their engagements. Otherwise competence and power would soon be confounded, and no law left but the will of a prevailing force.”
Conservative Brian Lee Crowley has written to the effect that Canada’s real resources are not our natural resources. Rather they are our “more important endowment of rules, institutions, and behaviours … the rule of law … a moderate, predictable and stable taxation and regulatory burden.”
The Supreme Court and all our political elites have wrongfully, in the name of distinctly anti-conservative “progressivism,” renounced a significant share of our Crowns’ “share of authority” in favour of First Nations, and permitted First Nations to argue that they are in effect sovereign “substates” within the state of Canada. In so doing they have broken “their public faith” with Canadians and with their “serious interests,” such as promoting equality under the law, the rule of law, and the proper working of the marketplace.
As predicted by Burke, the federal and provincial governments’ “competence and power” have been confounded by this fragmentation of sovereignty, diminishment of the power of the state and of its revenue, and of Mr. Crowley’s strong rule of law, to the detriment of all. And all this in the unthinking, ahistorical, and illiberal name of “progress.” And all this contrary to the above fundamental conservative principles, which in their application have created the fantastic world we Canadians are so lucky to live in.
The restoration and advocacy of the above basic Enlightenment, conservative principles would set any Canadian political party positively and completely apart from the other parties. By bravely going back to conservative roots and policies, this party would set out on an inspiring mission for Canada which—even though it would require profound legal reforms and take years to accomplish, and would encounter ferocious opposition from vested interests—would inspire the admiration and respect of most Canadians. It would deeply tap into Canadians’ rich vein of conservative, racially decent, “better angels” instincts toward equality, peace, order, and good government.