At a recent news conference in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Prime Minister Stephen Harper remarked: “the Canadian public has become more conservative.” He noted that, 15 years ago, ideas like free trade and fiscal restraint were still divisive. Nowadays, these ideas are more likely to find consensus among the Canadian public—indicating, in Harper’s mind, a more conservative tilt in public opinions. After facing criticism from his opponents Jack Layton and Stephane Dion, Harper qualified his statements: “At the same time, I don’t want to say the Canadian public is overwhelmingly conservative, or that it is necessarily as conservative as everybody in our party.”
Such assertions reveal certain things about the state of Canadian politics. For one, Harper won’t have much luck if he wishes to govern in a fashion that is closer to his party’s ideological underpinnings. Canada may have grown comfortable with NAFTA and balanced budgets, but the perceived effectiveness of such policies is more important than shifts in public opinion. During the 1990s, both Canada and the U.S. saw economic growth and prosperity coincide with an inundation of free trade agreements and fiscal reforms. In 1994, both countries signed NAFTA. A year later the World Trade Organization was born. In Canada, the Liberal Party presided over a fiscal surplus, while down south, Democratic president Bill Clinton signed into law the highest number of free trade agreements in the country’s history. Whether these policies actually contributed to the economic upswing is up for debate—they gained public approval because of the prosperity of the decade.
Current attitudes on free trade provide further proof of this theory of post-ideological efficacy. Over the last two years, the United States Congress welcomed a slew of populist politicians who’ve been critical of free trade. In Canada, Harper says that his opposition has returned to “a pre-free trade, Cold War kind of approach to the economy.” Impending financial collapse aside, both American and Canadian wages have stagnated while economic growth has skyrocketed. The globalization of labour and immigration put competitive pressure on less educated workers. Just as Americans and Canadians approved of free trade in the 1990s when they associated it with boom times, the appeal is lost with a faltering economy.
Evidence of an ideological shift towards free market values would be visible in more “sacred” institutions. Currently, Canadians show overwhelming support of their social safety net, as evinced by the near-permanent institution of universal healthcare. While there was talk of privatizing Social Security in the United States, this has been minimal in Canada. Income and sales taxes are both higher in Canada than they are in the U.S. Perhaps Harper added that qualifier because he’s promised to “make sure that it [the Conservative Party] continues to govern in the interests of the broad majority of the population.”
Harper’s minority government was voted in because it promised a competent and clean government in the face of Liberal corruption. Voters wanted to see what the party could deliver, not witness a mandate worthy of Barry Goldwater. Harper’s record shows: in the past two years, only the 1 per cent shaving of the GST bears any resemblance to small-government conservative economic policy. If Harper’s own projections are to be taken at face value, the election in October will likely bring Harper only continued minority status.
As the federal election dawns, we must remember one thing: for the time being, Canada is far from the fiefdom of Bush’s Republican America (to the chagrin of some and the relief of many others.). Until Harper attains a majority government and can successfully implement more “radical” conservative policies without bringing about his own party’s downfall, we should feel confident that Canadian political ideology remains mostly unchanged.
