J. P. Lewis - The Blueprint: Conservative Parties and Their Impact on Canadian Politics

J.P. Lewis and Joanna Everitt

In his 2006 election night victory speech, Stephen Harper argued, Our national identity was not forged by government policy. It does not flow from any one program, any one leader or any one party. Our Canada is rooted in our shared history, and in the values which have and will endure (Harper 2006). Harpers statement seemed to imply that the new Conservative government would be building upon past government traditions and styles; however, in reality the party was driven by an agenda that represented a new approach to political policies and practices in Canada. Indeed, although pundits, journalists, and politicians frequently referred to the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) as Tories, they had more in common with the former Reform and Canadian Alliance (CA) parties than they did to the former Progressive Conservatives (PC). While often downplayed to reassure voters that this new party was not too extreme, the agenda of the CPC was closely linked to its Reform and CA roots and served as a blueprint for substantial institutional, policy, and procedural change in Canadian politics.

However, like any blueprint or initial draft, not all ideas and goals are carried to fruition, and this too was the case for the conservative agenda that drove the right during the 1990s and early 2000s. In examining the journey of the federal conservative parties of the right (PC, Reform, CA, and finally the Conservative Party of Canada) from opposition to minority government to majority government we uncover insights into how internal and external political pressures affect the policy positions and temper the core ideologies and goals of political parties.

While not all aspects of the conservative agenda were accomplished during the Harper governments term in office, as the result of institutional constraints or electoral pressures, the last twenty years of federal ). Rather, we argue that, despite constraints that often make it difficult to reform politics or procedures, traditional Canadian political institutions and groups were approached in new ways by the Conservative government, and this had the effect of restructuring our governmental practices and processes. Evidence of these changes is found in the Conservative governments impact on three central features of Canadian politics political processes (elections, political parties), political actors (advocacy groups, ethnocultural minorities, gender, Quebec, Indigenous peoples, mass media), and political institutions (Constitution, Parliament, the executive, federalism). As well, consideration of the governments approach to foreign policy provides a further measure of the impact of these changes and is significant as a result of the emphasis the Conservative government and Harper placed on international affairs.

This book seeks to illustrate how the experience of conservative parties in Canada since 1993 reflects the contemporary evolution of Canadian politics in both policy and practice. By focusing on conservative parties pre- and post-merger we find how new and old political ideas and approaches survive, and how others are rejected. In doing so, we aim to highlight the contradictory story of the Conservative Party of Canada a party and government that was both pushed by political ideology and pulled by political strategy.