I think most of us can agree that Stephen Harper's particular take on conservatism is not very conservative. He has campaigned and governed mostly from the centre since the writ was dropped last election.
Stephane Harper also has no desire to move the conservative government greatly towards the right and in fact has taken great pains at moving the Conservative party towards the centre.
Why is this?
The Conservative Party's hidden agenda is to displace the Liberals as Canada's natural ruling party.
Today N.L. Harper was campaigning, and in addition to down playing the rift (and in fact praising Premier Williams) he talked about his views on the Canadian electorate:
“I think the Canadian public has become more conservative. At the same time I don't want to say the Canadian public is overwhelmingly conservative or that it is necessarily as conservative as everybody in our party,” he said.
Conservatives know we are a big tent party, even if the Liberals don't, even if the Liberals like to call us regressives, or ideologues, or whatever other names slip of their tongues.
No, we Conservatives know that the Liberals sole claim to fame is their acceptance of conservative principles in free trade and enterprise, low taxes, and balanced budgets.
We saw the Liberal Party in the 1990s flip its positions on all these issues and adopt small c conservative positions. But there's also been a revival of pride in institutions that conservatives have traditionally backed, Mr. Harper said, meaning “not just [in] things like Medicare and the [Canadian Broadcasting Corporation] but [also] in our national military and other institutions.”
The Liberals backed these policies as they knew they were the key to a prosperous nation, and the key towards destroying their main rivals, the Progressive Conservatives.
The Liberals and P.Cs were similar in many aspects but one of their key differentiators were their fiscal policies. The P.Cs were much stronger proponents of free trade, open markets, and balanced budgets then the Liberals. When the Liberals realized they could take over that middle spot, they knew they could hold a lot of those swing votes. Of course the Liberals also had the vote splitting on the right to help seal the deal.
Harper knows the key to displacing the Liberals as the natural governing party of Canada is tied strongly to holding the middle, and that is what they will do. They will hold the middle and force the Liberals and the rest of the left further and further left.
Stephen Harper will be patient, he can afford to be patient, the left is fractured and divided. He will hold the middle, govern from the middle, and slowly reintroduce Canada to conservatism.
Just as magnetic north shifts a little every year, Harper knows that he can shift the centre a bit to the right year after year.
We have seen this in Canada as well, with many provinces voting in Conservative governments, in fact only 5 Liberal governments remain in power provincially/terrotorially, and really, two of them are often considered very centre or even a little right of centre. Even Quebec, supposed a bastion of liberal values voted in the ADQ as the official opposition. Jean Charest is also typically considered small c conservative, comes from his roots in the PC party.
Canada is slowly becoming a little more conservative.
The next time someone talks in hushed whispers about the so called hidden agenda, and how we will round up all the gays, dismantle medicare, or put soldiers in the streets you can remain them that it would absolutely positively not happen.
Stephen Harper will govern from the middle, that is the only way to displace the Liberals. It is also one of the reasons I support the Conservatives.
We're better off with Harper.
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