From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since March 2007.

Neoconservatism in Canada is the new strand of conservatism found within Canada. The movement closely resembles the American neoconservative movement to the south. Blue Tories found within the Conservative Party of Canada are often linked to the movement however no actual members have ever considered themselves neoconservatives. The West is often seen as the base root for neoconservative thought within Canada. This is especially shown in the province of Alberta, which elected Conservative Party of Canada candidates seats in every single riding in the 2006 federal election.

The new Conservative Party of Canada under Stephen Harper's leadership is more conservative than the previous Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (PC). The old PC Party was a complex alliance of Western conservatives, Quebec nationalists and Red Tories, the latter considering themselves to be fiscal conservatives and social progressives. While the new breed of conservatism in Canada is markedly different than the old Red Toryism that occupied the centre-right, it remains markedly different from American neo-conservatism.

Many consider the Calgary School to be the intellectual hub of the new conservatism in Canada including scholars such as Ted Morton (failed candidate for the leadership of the Alberta PC Party), Tom Flanagan, Rainer Knopff and Barry Cooper. Others accuse the "new" Conservatives of pandering to the wishes of social conservatives in the West. Stephen Harper has always been more of an economic conservative than a populist social conservative. This difference was the cause of his split with Preston Manning, founder and former leader of the western-based Reform Party.

The tag of "neoconservative" has been stuck to the Conservative government mostly by its critics, aiming to take advantage of popular anti-George W. Bush sentiment in Canada. The ideological accuracy of such an accusation is highly debatable (see differences below).

Close relations with the United States can hardly be the basis of accusations of neoconservative ideology as the U.S. is Canada's strategic ally and primary trading partner. Brian Mulroney, considered to hail from the old guard of the Canadian "tory" establishment, established very close links with both Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

If there is some credibility to the neoconservative tag attached to the new Conservative government of Canada, it is in the domain of foreign policy where a moralistic stance is evident, regarding the Taliban, relations with China and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

• Support for Two-tier healthcare
• More tolerance towards social programs
• More fiscally conservative
• More support towards immigration
• Neutral stance on Iraq War, though wide-spread support at first
• More secular, less Christian influence
• Neutral position on abortion, though many members are personally anti-abortion

• Prime Minister of Canada - Premier ministre du Canada, official website
• Conservative Party of Canada, official website