A spectre is haunting the Conservative Party of Canada—the spectre of decay and death. The Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) officially died on Wednesday, 1 December 2021, the day one of its own members, Rob Moore (MP for Fundy Royal) tabled a motion that allowed the controversial Bill C-4 (banning and criminalizing conversion therapy) to pass without any Committee hearings or further debate in the House, and move straight to the Senate.
The death of the CPC was confirmed by the Conservatives in the Senate several days later, on 7 December 2021, when CPC senator, Leo Housakos (Acting Leader of the Opposition, no less) moved second and third readings of Bill C-4 to deem Bill C-4 read, and passed without further debate or Committee hearings. Like their House of Common lackeys, not one CPC senator objected.
Moore, Housakos and their ilk don’t seem interested in hearings and debates. They clearly lack any sense of the legitimacy of Parliament.
The actions by the CPC, in both the House and the Senate, were not only a betrayal of the party’s membership, but of all Canadians because, in bypassing Committee hearings and Parliamentary debate, they have effectively neutered Parliament. This represents an extremely dangerous precedent. Now, any issue can be railroaded past public scrutiny and made the law of the land without any semblance of accountability or meaningful consent of the public.
CPC Demise a Long Time Coming
It would be easy to blame Erin O’Toole for the CPC’s death. However, he is merely the puppet of the Eastern Establishment Tories, consisting of individuals living in the Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal area. No principled conservative has ever been invited to join it. Whether you call them Red Tories, Pink Tories, or Rainbow Tories, their common denominator is found in keeping themselves in privilege and power, controlling the party at the expense of Western Canada and social/fiscal conservatives everywhere. Whatever this “establishment” is, it is not conservative. From policies, such as carbon pricing, gun control, denial of conscience rights for health care workers, and fiscal restraint, to ousting and demonizing people, such as MP Derek Sloan, Maxime Bernier, Senators Lynn Beyak and Denise Batters, the Conservative Establishment has gone out of its way to show contempt for conservative principles and ideas, as well as those who espouse them.
Realignment and the Possibility of a Realistic Alternative
Looking at the current political landscape in this country, we are strangled in our legislative bodies with nothing but left-of-centre political parties. The lack of representative political parties is not a sustainable proposition. A majority of Canadians comprise the Centre to Right-of-Centre. Despite what CBC and others in the government-bought-and-paid-for media tell us, Canada is not a Left-of-Centre society.
For those who care to take off the Official Narrative Blinders long enough, they will observe that there is a political realignment occurring in this country, a Conservative/Libertarian/Populist realignment, evidenced by Maxime Bernier and the People’s Party of Canada (PPC). The fact that, twenty years ago much of the platform of the PPC would have been indistinguishable from that of the Conservative Party tells you all you need to know about how irrelevant the CPC has become as a voice for Conservatives, Libertarians and Populists in Canadian politics.
The rise of the PPC signals the end of any hope the CPC has of forming a government. Social and fiscal conservatives, libertarians, and populists are fed up with not having a party that gives expression to their beliefs and values. That is why the PPC will only continue to do well in the polls—they are the only ones with something viable to offer Canadians after years of the failed Liberal/Conservative policies of BIG government, huge deficits, and state intervention.
The need for and Challenge of Unity
Just as there is a spectre haunting the CPC, so too is there a spectre challenging the Centre and Right-of-Centre. It is the challenge of unity. The only way that social and fiscal conservatives, libertarians, and populists can form a government is by uniting within a single party. There is no denying the natural synergy between true conservatives, libertarians and populists. Properly developed and based on putting Canada and Canadians first, the idea of “uniting the right” has never been more promising or more essential.