The gradual shift toward progressive politics in Canada

Bent Andreassen who is an avid contributor to the debate in 'The Antioligopolists' Forum' on Facebook asked me a very important question today and one which deserves a thoughtful and detailed response. He asked why conservatives in Canada sold out to ‘progressivism’? To understand we must examine the following. Who were the original conservatives in Canada? Who were the Classical Liberals in the English sense? What did each believe and why? Where and when did these beliefs originate?

Let us begin with the British conquest of New France and the battle for Québec: The Battle of the Plains of Abraham,13th of September 1759, was a pivotal moment in the Seven Years' War and in the history of Canada. A British invasion force led by General James Wolfe defeated French troops under the Marquis de Montcalm, leading to the surrender of Québec to the British. The resulting colony would swear allegiance to the British Crown yet continue to pay tithes to the Catholic Church, live under Civil Law and endure the seigneurial system, an institutional form of land distribution established in New France in 1627 and officially abolished in 1854. In New France, 80 per cent of the population lived in rural areas governed by this system of land distribution and occupation. It was also a form of feudalism.

However, in what is now Ontario, as well as on the East Coast, something very different happened. It is said that roughly one half of the population of the original 13 Colonies in what would become the United States were not in favour of armed rebellion against the King. Although many of them were Classical Liberals as well as religious dissenters, they believed that discourse and debate would eventually cause the King to relent and end the injustice of taxation without representation and grant them representation by population. During the Revolutionary War many of the loyalists lost their land and were forced to take refuge in the British colonies to the north and east. Their loyalty to the Crown had cost them a great deal yet we also owe an even greater debt to them. Loyal to the British Crown they may have been, but they were no fans of absolutism and tyranny. They had reform on their minds to create a freer, more democratic and open society. Unlike their American cousins, these settlers, now known as United Empire Loyalists, used reason, discourse, and parliamentary debate to bring about democratic reform. It took much longer than the American Revolution had done to bring about suffrage yet the slower more discourse based process established a vital tradition in Canadian politics, that of reasoned, tempered debate. This group of liberty lover therefore became our first liberals in the English sense of being Classically Liberal. They favoured free trade, laissez-faire, maximum personal liberty under law, and a minimum of government intrusion on personal freedoms, low taxation and the freedom to worship and associate with whomever one wished. This group was comprised of farmers, small business interests, tradesmen and religious dissenters such as Methodists, Presbyterians and the like.

So, who opposed them? Why the Tories of course! Tory is still the name used to describe conservatives in Canada. What did the Tories represent? The Monarchy, the Church of England, the status quo and keeping the underclasses in their place. Who supported the Tory point of view? Senior government officials, military officers, the judiciary, bureaucrats, the High Church clergy, bankers and big business interests who hoped to maintain the stable British, stayed, status-quo. The entitled in other words.These folks were certainly not interested in sharing their privilege with the common rabble.

In understanding our history, we may begin to appreciate where the loyalties of differing voters are most likely to lie. It is also reasonable to assert that people today often vote based upon family loyalties irrespective of how political parties have changed over the years. It was the Classical Liberal element in Canada who did the most to move the nation toward democratic reform, it is also reasonable to state that it was the Tories who did the most to establish the institutions and system of governance required to support such reforms. Our first Prime Minister Sir. John A. MacDonald, who was a Tory, is renown for centralizing sufficient power (a great deal less than we have today) to unify the Dominion while driving an impossible railroad across the continent. Without his unifying vision the nation as it exists today would not have been possible.

In this way and in the historic sense both Liberals and Tories added greatly to the Dominion of Canada. Yet sadly this is woefully and blatantly no longer the case. Each has deserted its original vision and therefore lost its validity only to be replaced with a miasma of postmodern nonsense which hasn’t an ounce of historical or philosophical integrity. The moment we forget where we have been, we cannot possibly know where we are so that we may steer a course toward more responsible government. The lack of philosophical and spiritual insight informing today’s political discourse is stunning. It is small wonder that religions from abroad are replacing our ancestors’ deep passion for Christianity, and the free and open society it gave us! You may read my blog about the co-opting of Classical Liberalism by postmodernism here; https://therealistsadvocate.blogspot.ca/2017/03/the-coopting-of-liberalism-by-social.html