The Future of Canadian Conservatism

Being “conservative” in Canada often has little to do with ideological commitments.

Being conservative’ is more about your willingness to break unspoken rules of political etiquette by saying inconvenient truths out loud.

The range of policy-based discourse in this country has become extremely narrow.

A conservative is someone who said so in 2023 (or earlier), while a doctrinaire Liberal is.

Canadian conservatives spend their bandwidth on transient scandals and quasi-scandals involving open-mic gaffes, backbench bozo eruptions, old social media posts, press-conference malapropisms, internal party bickering, and the polls.

A challenge facing anyone hoping to promote a conservative agenda in Canada is the weak nature of our national identity.

Canadians are so obsessed with American political culture war that they take their cues on what words such as “progressive” and “conservative” mean from the United States .

Donald Trump isn’t a principled conservative, but he’s still managed to pollute the conservative brand internationally.

Quillette will always have both feet planted in the latter camp, and I hope the people in this room will too.

Until then, no matter what happens in Canada 's upcoming election, I’d urge everyone who calls themselves a conservative to stick to their principles.