More lies about vast, right-wing conspiracy

Did you hear the news about Patrick Brown? It’s not good. He’s apparently some special sort of evil, this guy.

The man who may go on to be premier of Canada’s largest province is “a radical Tea Party fundamentalist.” Scary stuff, that. That’s what Liberal MPP Steven Del Duca said Saturday at the Ontario PC leadership announcement shortly after Brown was declared the winner.

Now no one should expect the opposing party to say nice things about the guy eager to take them out in the next election. Nor is it surprising to see a bit of spin.

But this is a bit much, no?

To be fair, Brown’s main rival, Christine Elliott, started sowing these seeds in the campaign.

That’s the danger of going after your leadership rival too aggressively. It can come back to haunt the whole party in the general election.

But that aside, maybe we should fact check Del Duca’s rather bold statement?

It’s true that in this day the truth is no defence, but let’s give it a shot.

As one Twitter user wrote to me, the Ontario PC party’s “What We Stand For” statement of principles is as good a place to start as any.

Out of the eight statements, these two seem to best explain their philosophical moorings:

“We believe that economic freedom, entrepreneurial spirit and the right to private property are essential to economic prosperity and political freedom.”

“We believe that social justice entails equality of opportunity, including fair and equal treatment for all Ontarians and the provision of support to those in need.”

Basically, this means that they want absolutely everyone to succeed but believe free markets are the best mechanism for shared prosperity, not government control of resources and industries. A reasonable position to hold. Not radical. Not fundamentalist. Sure, Patrick Brown could take the party somewhere completely different, but that’s highly unlikely. None of this matters to the fearmongers, though.

The past decade has shown us that the more centrist the conservative movement gets and the more ground it concedes to the parties to the left of it, the more those parties strive to vilify them as extremist.

Conservatism in Canada, having mostly shrugged off its more unsavoury social elements, is an economic idea. (For the record: Brown said he doesn’t plan to revisit any social issues.)

Conservative opponents know this and they know it gives it broader appeal. So they start telling lies about a vast right-wing conspiracy that just doesn’t exist to toss unsavoury elements back into the mix.

They want it to feel immoral to support conservative ideas. Even though economists who regularly crunch the long-term numbers know that it’s actually getting to the point where it’s immoral to not do so. (Cough, cough. Don Drumond report.) It clearly works. One blogger’s reaction to the Conservative majority win in England has gone viral. Rebecca Roache posted about how she’s unfriended anyone on Facebook who supports the Conservatives. Really.

“Life is too short, I thought, to hang out with people who hold abhorrent political views, even if it’s just online,” she writes.

A genuinely intolerant and closed-minded statement. Here’s the thing: She’s a lecturer in ethics at the University of London. She should be better than that.

This is the irrational mood the Ontario PCs and similar parties across the country are up against. Good luck with that.