National Post

How to ‘renew’ the right

‘ Things go up and down, but this is a low point’

- Chris Selley

The prevailing wisdom about Stephen Harper’s incrementa­l conservati­sm was that having shrunk government spending — at least from the peak it attained under his watch — Canada’s no- deficit/ l ow- tax orthodoxy would cement smaller government in place. Tack on a few signature policies, say sayonara to the Canadian Wheat Board and the long- gun registry, and you had something like a legacy.

Welp. The Liberals ran on a promise of borrowing and spending billions, won a majority, and are now busy managing deficit expectatio­ns upward.

These things are “cyclical,” says Preston Manning, who observed in a recent op- ed piece that Conservati­veoriented political parties in Canada are now out of office federally and in eight of the 10 provinces.

“These t hi ngs go up and down, but this is at a low point,” Manning said. “So our whole point is recharging the right — what do you have to do to renew ideologica­lly … what do you have to renew on the policy side, and what you’ve got to do to renew organizati­onally.”

The federal Conservati­ves are better placed to rebuild than some of their provincial counterpar­ts. But their ideologica­l and policy concerns are second to none as the conservati­ves gather in Ottawa Thursday for the 2016 edition of the Manning Centre Networking Conference.

The aftermath of October’s federal election has at times been downright humiliatin­g for Conservati­ves.

Within a month, former i ndustry minister Tony Clement expressed his regrets over the cancellati­on of the mandatory long- form census. He conceded there might be ways to protect both valuable data and Canadians’ privacy. Had the party not made a “collective” decision to ditch it, he said, “I think I would have done it differentl­y.”

Just spitballin­g here: Perhaps he might have chosen not to imply Statistics Canada head Munir Sheikh was on board.

Within two months, former health minister Rona Ambrose, now interim leader of the party, seemed to come around to liberalizi­ng marijuana laws. “Pot dispensari­es are popping up everywhere,” she said. “( Trudeau) said he is … going to keep it out of the hands of kids and so I’m waiting to see his plans.”

Times change, of course. “I’d almost be more worried about somebody who got into government 10 years ago and had exactly the same positions,” Manning ventured. But it wasn’t 10 years ago that Conservati­ves were claiming legalizati­on was a Trudeauvia­n plot to hook your kids on reefer. ( Reefer if you’re lucky!) It was October.

Also within two months, Conservati­ve MP Scott Reid was telling his constituen­ts that electoral reform would make it “virtually impossible to remove ( the Liberals) from power” — in a fundraisin­g appeal, no less. Some conservati­ve- friendly pundits s uggested even ranked ballots would doom the Tories forever. Absent a r eferendum, Ambrose threatened to block reform legislatio­n in the Senate, using a Conservati­ve majority her former boss promised never to appoint.

“In the end,” said Manning, who supports a referendum, “your success should not depend on what kind of electoral system is there.” No kidding. Do conservati­ves really have so l ittle confidence in their solutions? In their powers of persuasion?

Perhaps yes. It recently fell to the Liberals to release the details of the 2012 spending cuts that brought the federal books back into balance. The Conservati­ves never mustered the courage to share them with us, or perhaps they just thought it was none of our business.

Indeed, the Harper Conservati­ves never managed to sell Canadians on many conservati­ve solutions they didn’ t al r eady appreciate — fiscal prudence ( perhaps now in remission) and homeland security. For the sake of the conservati­ve movement, that has to change.

The Manning conference weekend program features discussion­s on many key items: marijuana and electoral reform, as previously discussed; the environmen­t in general and the oilsands in particular.

“Conservati­ves should be stronger and more proactive on the environmen­tal side, and they should be champions of the market- based approach ( to greenhouse gas emissions) rather than just massive government i nterventio­n,” said Manning. Instead, they used carbon pricing to bonk their opponents over their heads, and how many pipelines did it get them?

As big as the necessary rethink is, the program is notably devoid of a keynote speaker. Manning Centre spokesman Colin Craig says presentati­ons by five potential Conservati­ve Party of Canada leaders — MPs Michael Chong, Tony Clement, Maxime Bernier and Lisa Raitt, along with financier/ broadcaste­r Kevin O’Leary — are meant to attract similar interest.

But when i t comes to ideologica­l and policy “recharging,” a good keynote can go a long way. It can unlock principles long since swallowed, as Ron Paul did three years ago with a rapturousl­y received libertaria­n tub-thumper.

Maybe it’s just too soon. Maybe nerves are still too raw for that sort of thing. But in a year’s time the Tory leadership race will be just t hree months away. The need for a comprehens­ive ideologica­l, policy and organizati­onal reset in the meantime is dire.

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