Alberta Must Go Conservative ????

Yet more conservatives are in denial, I had to say it to the National Post this morning.

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The opinion piece "Alberta Must Go Conservative" implies a core value of conservatives is 'small government', and so Conservatives in Alberta are not conservative. Observation though shows conservatives have voted overwhelmingly for the bigger government in Alberta for decades, this did not start with Stelmach. Conservatives like Mr. Harper and Mr. Mulroney did the same on the national stage and internationally many, but not all, conservatives have been leading the charge to larger governments. It seems clear there is no conservative core value of small government even if some conservatives do hold that core value.

Historically the conservative movement was begun to support the existing governments in Europe in their fight against the liberal trends that was waging revolution against 'big governments' in the United States and then France. The liberal core value of "the government that governs least governs best" was abhorrent to the conservatives. In the middle of the previous century, when many liberals switched to became the champions of big government, conservatives changed their public position to talk about a return to small government. Their actions when in power show it was not a change to core value, it was a tactical move. Conservatives hold restraint of change as a core value, and in leading the charge to big government today they are simply returning to their traditional roots.

In this context, of returning to core values, a quote from 2003 and Mr. Harper is telling:

"The truth of the matter is that the real agenda and defining issues have shifted from economic issues to social values, so conservatives must do the same".

With this understanding, that small government is a nice to have as opposed to a core value, there is no need to assume some mass conspiracy duping of the conservative vote as the partisans claim. Indeed as a conservative core value is to resist change and as the existing structure is now massive government thier expansion of government can be seen as conservatives staying true to their core value of preserving existing institutions.

In Alberta the Conservatives are being challenged by a party lead by a libertarian, check her facebook page if in doubt what word she uses to describe herself politically. Libertarians hold only one core value and that is limiting the role government to a small set of specific tasks. That makes them a huge threat to conservatism as Mr. Harper noted in his speech at the Manning Forum last year. As there are many people who now think they are conservatives but who hold a core value of 'limited government' yes this is a huge threat to Conservative Parties. I wish her good luck, because it is only the libertarian idea that will bring change, conservatism has been tried and it failed.