PING!
Posted on 05/26/2006 6:28:00 AM PDT by GMMAC
Canada finds its 'inner Conservative'
George Koch and John Weissenberger
National Post, Issues & Ideas Section
Friday, May 26, 2006
CALGARY - "In our budget, all parents with pre-school children will now receive a Universal Child Care Benefit of $1,200 directly. Because we believe parents, not governments, should make their child care choices." -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper, speaking Wednesday in London, Ont.
In the past, policy advocate and essayist Harper might have expressed such a position with words like: "Statist solutions to the child care issue are sub-optimal." The rhetorical adjustment -- reflected in virtually every announcement and decision of the new government -- goes a long way toward explaining the federal Conservatives' growing popularity.
Just before the 2004 election, we wrote on these pages about a curious phenomenon: The Conservative position on a wide range of policy questions consistently outpolled the party itself, sometimes by a wide margin. While only a small percentage of Canadians defined themselves as "conservative" or "on the right," large percentages held various conservative views.
Fifty-three percent, for example, opposed the federal gun registry. These voters should have been owned by the Conservatives, for they alone advocated scrapping the billion-dollar fiasco. Strong majorities wanted government to adopt family-friendly tax policies; or to be tough on crime, illegal immigration and bogus refugees. Large percentages even held socially conservative views.
In short, many millions of Canadians held views compatible with, or to the right of, the then-new Conservatives in 2004. Yet a mere 27% of respondents planned to vote Conservative.
Thus, it wasn't the party's policies that were holding it back in 2004, but other weaknesses -- in particular, the perception it was a mere regional movement.
We concluded the key to growth lay not in abandoning conservatism and lurching leftward, as many Red Tories and media commentators demanded. Instead, the party should work to link itself to popular policies, helping more and more voters discover their "Inner Conservative."
This week's news that the Conservatives have climbed to 43% voter support -- a level unequalled in 20 years, and a gain of seven points since the election -- suggests this is occurring. A majority government, if not in clear sight, is at least on the radar.
Party strategists recognized the trend just in time for the 2004 election campaign. That campaign offered numerous policies with 50% or greater public popularity.
Many planks for the 2006 campaign were shaped by intensive polling carried out during 2005. Party strategists constructed specific profiles of voter types who needed to be attracted in order to win an election.
This process was driven by people who believed in conservative policies. Their goal was not to transform the Conservatives into a "Liberal-lite," but to make conservative policies palatable to a broad mass of voters.
It's true the Harper Conservatives diluted or downplayed some policies from the Alliance and Reform party eras. But they largely held the policy line, retaining core ideas while making over their political outerwear in non-threatening shades of wrinkle-resistant rhetorical fabric.
Dramatic measures like the single-rate income tax were dumped. The replacements -- the GST cut and the targeted credits -- were sniffed at by right-wing theoreticians, but became hugely popular. Such moves convinced more Canadians the Conservatives were a government-in-waiting.
On daycare, the party shifted from its critique of statist daycare schemes to a plan that offered parents "choice." Most people intuitively like "choice," and this helped the party recast itself into an upbeat bunch offering a positive alternative. The child care benefit remains true to conservatism, but it transformed what was almost a moral issue into a practical matter -- and millions of voters evidently like the Conservative approach.
Similarly, on defence, the talk has shifted from American-style "hybrid aircraft carriers" to giving our frontline troops the kit they need. On the environment, the Conservatives have moved beyond merely opposing Kyoto, shaping a populist policy focused on tackling actual air pollution.
Meanwhile, Harper hammers the theme that his government is delivering on its campaign promises, aiming to build public confidence in the party's fitness to govern. Given the popularity of their policies, we think the Conservatives haven't yet filled their natural political space.
- George Koch is a Calgary freelance writer. John Weissenberger is a member of the Conservative Party's National Council. More of their writing can be read at their weblog, www.drjandmrk.com.
© National Post 2006
"While only a small percentage of Canadians defined themselves as "conservative" or
"on the right," large percentages held various conservative views.
BINGO !!!
PING!
Stephen Harper is a good man and may turn out to be a very good prime minister. He's extremely cerebral, but that's something of a tradition in Canadian politics. William Lyon Mackenzie King and Pierre Trudeau were both brilliant -- King was perhaps a genius.
how about Mulroney?
I hear commentators now agreeing that SH is the smartest Canadian politician since Pierre Trudeau.
the guy must be an extremely sharp politician, because he resurrected a party that had gone into virtual meltdown, AND overcame the intense negative stereotype that the word "conservative" had attained in Canadian society through 30+ yrs. of official liberal media bashing.
It's amazing how many young women I listen to these days who erupt (at the mention of anti-Abortion) if they feel their 'rights' are being threatened, as the MSM tells them.
I love women, but they are soooo gullible, which is probably the reason 99% of advertising and television ads are aimed at them. They seem to be mindless automatons once they come out of University, where they are the majority in attendance.
It is great to see the conservatives doing so well. The future of Canadian democracy rests with the success of the conservatives.
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