Red Tory

Image:Red Tory.jpeg Red Tory is a term given to a political philosophy, tradition, and disposition in Canada. It has fundamentally, if not exclusively, been found in Conservative provincial and federal political parties. It is a historical legacy that marks differences in the creation, development, and evolution of the political cultures of Canada and the United States. Canadian conservatism and American conservatism - and the philosophical use of the term "conservative" - are fundamentally different, in that the Canadian variant retains a distinct moral, English, and pre-industrial character not evident in the American version.

Contents 1 Origins 2 Political expression 3 Conscious Red Toryism 4 Peak of predominance 5 Factors for decline 6 Red Tories post-merger of federal parties 7 Definition drift 8 References 9 External links

Origins

Red Toryism derives largely from a British tory tradition that maintained the unequal division of wealth and political privilege among social classes can be justified, if members of the privileged class contribute to the common good - for the benefit of all. This belief in a common good, as expanded on in Colin Campbell and William Christian's Political Parties and Ideologies in Canada, is at the root of Red Toryism.

In contrast to the American experience where class divisions were seen as undemocratic (yet, in fact still existing), Canadian tories adopted a more patriarchal view of government. Monarchy, public order and good government - understood as dedication to the common good - preceded, moderated, and balanced an unequivocal belief in individual rights and liberty.

This type of Canadian conservatism is derived largely from the tory tradition evoked by English conservative thinkers and statesman such as Richard Hooker, the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, and Benjamin Disraeli, later the First Earl of Beaconsfield. The primary influences on Canadian toryism in the Victorian age, were Disraeli's One Nation Conservatism, and the radical toryism advocated by Lord Randolph Churchill. Inherent in these tory traditions was the ideal of noblesse oblige and a conservative communitarianism.

In late Victorian times, these were the pre-eminent strains of conservative thought in the British Empire, and were advanced by many in the tory faction of Sir John A. Macdonald's conservative coalition in the Canadas. Nothing in this lineage denies that tory traditions of communitarianism and collectivism had existed in the British North American colonies since the Loyalist exodus from the American colonies between 1776 and 1796 however; and it is this aspect that is one of the primary differentiators between the respective political cultures of Canada and the United States. It meant that Canadian conceptions of liberty were more derivative of the English tradition, than of any American practices and theories.

Political expression

Tories were increasingly, (as classical liberalism began to germinate in the party in the 1920's) seen as the traditional left-wing of the party, and were not bound by, or to, a set ideology - and were thus cast as moderates within the conventional Canadian political spectrum. The term originally refered to the branch of the original Conservative Party, and the later Progressive Conservative Party that was committed to Canadian Nationalism, and the welfare state. As will be seen further, the appellation "red" would be added, and come into the modern Canadian political lexicon in the 1960's.

Because of the shift in positions of the major political parties in Canada, however, some modern Red Tories and the media have redefined "Red Tory" as someone "fiscally conservative and socially progressive." Other Red Tories reject this as a liberal over-simplification, and dismissive of the tory tradition. The term Blue Tory has been coined to describe more ideologically-bound right-wing Canadian conservatives. Red and Blue Tories tend to diverge over the issues of the market - and its order in the hierarchy of primary variables within public policy debate, and the nature of Canadian sovereignty within the context of Canadian-American relations.

Conscious Red Toryism

The explicit notion of a "Red" Toryism was developed by Gad Horowitz in the 1960s, and argued that there was a significant Tory - or pre-liberal -"remnant" ideology in Canada, and that this is part of the reason that English Canada developed a vibrant and legitimate non-liberal conservative and socialist tradition, in great contrast to the American experience. He posited that Canadian conservatism was strongly influenced by feudal ideals such as collectivism and community responsibility. These Tories rejected liberal values such as individualism - and capitalism, as a social system.

Red Tories were thus socially conservative supporting traditional institutions like religion and the monarchy but fiscally consensual and moderate, with a strong belief in the welfare state. In terms of political economy, they could also be described as statist, rather than collectivist. In that sense, Horowitz traced Red Toryism to the beginning of Canadian history; where the statist nation-building policies of Sir John A. Macdonald and specifically, his National Policy, are seen as an economic foundation of this particular tory tradition.

The origin of the adjective "red" is not known. The reference may be to progressive aspects of Red Tory principles, since parties of the left have traditionally used the colour red. Others contend that the appellation is a reference to the English roots (Red Cross of St. George in the Flag of England, and/or the Red Coats of the British Army) of the Tory old guard.

This vision contrasted Canada with the United States, which was seen as lacking this collectivist tradition, as it was expunged from the American political culture after the American Revolution - and with the exodus of the United Empire Loyalists to British Canada. Horowitz argued that Canada's stronger socialist movement grew from Toryism, and that this explains why socialism has never had much success in the United States. In some ways, Red Tories were closer to the NDP than to the Liberal Party of Canada, which favoured individualism, continentalism, and free-trade economics. Image:LamentforaNation.jpg Horowitz identified George Grant and Eugene Forsey as exemplars of this strain of thought, which saw a central role for Christianity in public affairs - as both were profoundly critical of capitalism and the dominant business élites, but differed on man's innate nature. Forsey was optimistic about people's rational capacities; Grant was fearful of man's irrationality. Thus Forsey became a CCF member and a socialist, while Grant remained a conservative - and a Conservative, until small-l liberals hijacked his party, something Forsey saw happening decades earlier.

When the Conservative Diefenbaker government fell in 1963, largely due to the nuclear weapons crisis (see Canada-US Tensions in Canada and the Cold War), Grant went into deep thinking about the nature of traditional Canadian nationhood and independence, which had been seemingly compromised by American intervention in the domestic political environment. By 1965, these ruminations had been tightly woven into a book called Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism, a book that has since became the lodestar of Red Toryism.

Peak of predominance

The Red Tories historically served as the most powerful faction within the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, though its electoral success has been mixed. Many of the party's leaders have been labeled Red Tories, including Sir John A. Macdonald, Sir Robert Borden, John Diefenbaker, Robert Stanfield, and Joe Clark. Many others have been influential as cabinet ministers and thinkers, such as E. Davie Fulton, Dalton Camp, and John Farthing.

The heartland of Red Toryism was Ontario, the Maritime provinces, and urban Manitoba, areas where the Red Tories dominated provincial politics. The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party has held power in that province for most of the time since Confederation. The Ontario PCs were often labelled Red Tory, for example under the leadership of William Davis from 1971 to 1985. Under Davis, the Tories often ran to the left of the Ontario Liberal Party. Some political commentators have suggested that the new leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives, John Tory, is in the mould of the Bill Davis Red Tory tradition.

Throughout the Maritimes, traditional Red Tories are the dominant force in the provincial Progressive Conservative parties because of their support of the welfare state. This tends to explain why Canadian provinces are often ruled at the provincial level by a party that may be Conservative yet at the same time elect Liberal Members of Parliament to the Canadian House of Commons.

In Western Canada, the Red Tory strain was, and is, significant only in Manitoba, and is particularly stronger in Winnipeg than in the disparate rural enclaves outside of the provincial capital. The life, lineage, and career of Dufferin Roblin (aka "Duff"), Premier of Manitoba from 1958 to 1967, is another example of this influential strain in Canadian Conservatism. The Ministries of Premier Peter Lougheed in Alberta between 1971 and 1985 can be seen as somewhat of an anomaly - in a modern Alberta context - as his career has been viewed as another example of Red Toryism in practice.

Factors for decline

The dominance of Red Toryism can be seen as a part of the international Post-War Consensus that saw the welfare state embraced by the major parties of most of the western world. In the late 70s and 80s the Progressive Conservative Party suffered a string of electoral defeats, under Red Tory leaders Robert Stanfield and Joe Clark. Pressure began to grow within the party for a new approach. Joe Clark's leadership was successfully challenged by more ideologically neo-liberal members who endorsed Brian Mulroney. Mulroney represented the so-called neoconservative right, committed to neo-liberal policies in the manner of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Toryism in general, and Red Toryism in particular, began to decline in relevance as a political force in Canada, as its traditionalism, centralism, and moderation fell out-of-synch with the current political climate.

Red Toryism never held much sway in Western Canada where smaller-government (due to smaller resources and less industrialization) and classical liberalism/neo-liberalism has been more prevalent. Additionally, Westerners tended to support continentalist, rather than pan-Canadian policies. The growing population and power of Alberta and British Columbia has also played an important role in this transformation. Eventually the explicitly anti-Red Tory Reform Party arose in the west and won many more seats than the Progressive Conservatives because its support was concentrated whereas Progressive Conservatives votes were more thinly spread across the country. For example, in the 1997 General Election there was only a 0.5% difference in the popular vote but the Reform Party won 60 seats to the PC Party's 20 seats.

At the provincial level, Albertan Red Tory supporters of Peter Lougheed were marginalized following Ralph Klein's assumption of power. As right-wing support for the Progressive Conservatives bled away to the Reform Party and then the Canadian Alliance, Red Tories increasingly gained control of the federal party.

Red Tories post-merger of federal parties

One of the most important issues facing the newly created Conservative Party is what Red Tories would do. The union has resulted in a number of Red Tories leaving the new party, either to retire or to defect to the Liberals. The latter group includes current and former Members of Parliament (MPs) Scott Brison, André Bachand, Keith Martin, John Herron, and Rick Borotsik. Joe Clark served the balance of his parliamentary term as a Progressive Conservative, outside of the new Conservative party caucus, before retiring from politics.

Other high-profile Red Tories such as Sinclair Stevens and Flora MacDonald applied to re-register the old Progressive Conservative Party name; however, this was refused by Elections Canada. On March 26, 2004, the Progressive Canadian Party was registered with Elections Canada. It aims to be perceived as a revival of the "PC Party". It is not clear how successful it will be in this regard, as no prominent former PC Tories such as Clark, Stevens or MacDonald, or any sitting MP or senator, is associated with the new party.

In the end, some Red Tories have decided to join the new Conservative Party. A group of them formed the Red Tory Council - a group constructed to give voice to the Red Tories, monitor the party and its positions, and to prevent too great a swing to the right. This group, however, was usurped in 2005 and replaced with a group called the Conservative Council, and it has been widely speculated by some Red Tories that such a move was undertaken to quell such dissent and inquiry in the new party's ranks.

Definition drift

With the conservative movement's drift to the economic and political right, the term Red Tory is often used today in the media not to refer to those in the traditional Red Tory tradition of George Grant, Dalton Camp or Robert Stanfield (David Orchard claims this lineage when he refers to himself as a Red Tory), but simply to moderates in the conservative movement, particularly those who reject or do not sufficiently embrace social conservatism, such as James Moore, Gerald Keddy and Jim Prentice. This is not wholly accurate, however, as many Red Tories have either removed themselves from the Conservative Party, or have thrown their individual support to other parties. Lately, a "tory-inspired" party has emerged under the banner of Progressive Canadian Party of Canada.

Thus, in the 2004 Conservative Party leadership election, Tony Clement was sometimes referred to as a Red Tory even though Clement was on the right wing of the Mike Harris cabinet. Clement is a neoconservative, who advocates privatization, tax cuts, the curtailment of social and economic development spending and free trade with the United States. He opposes government intervention in the economy. Clement's stances are policies that most traditional Red Tories would reject.

References

• Christian, William Edward and C. Campbell (editors), Political Parties and Ideologies in Canada (Note: several editions of this textbook have appeared since 1974, reflecting the changes in Canada's politics.
• Christian, William Edward and C. Campbell (editors) Parties, Leaders and Ideologies in Canada
• Farthing, J. Freedom Wears a Crown
• Grant, George Parkin. Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism (1965)
• Horowitz, Gad. "Conservatism, Liberalism and Socialism in Canada: An Interpretation." Canadian Journal of Political Science. (1966).
• Campbell, Colin. CTtheory.net. [Gad Horowitz Interviewed by Colin Campbell.] [audio file], available online at http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=397.

External links

• George Parkin Grant: Complex Canadian Critic of Technology and America
• Social Philosophies and Toryism in Canada
• The Red Tory's Creed (opinion)
• Anatomy of a Red Tory, a critical opinion by Andrew Coyne, May 15, 2000