Conservatives the new, improved Liberals Wimps?

The current government certainly is an improvement. But at what point does putting power before principle start overly corrupting?

The fact is we don’t really have a conservative party in this country. Of course, we have a party which calls itself “Conservative.” But it doesn’t actually believe in conservatism.

Rather, it believes in a new philosophy or ideology, which former Conservative Party campaign manager Tom Flanagan outlines in his recent book, Harper’s Team. This new ideology is seemingly based on four points: Winability, Incrementalism, Moderation and Persistence. I prefer to summarize it by the acronym W.I.M.P.

What do WIMP Conservatives believe in?

Well they actually don’t believe in anything. They don’t believe in conservative principles or values or ideals. And they certainly don’t believe in any kind of conservative vision for Canada. WIMP Conservatives, in fact, regard ideals and principles as nothing but obstacles to winning elections. And that’s all that really matters to them — winning elections. If they have to act like Liberals or Greens or New Democrats to win elections, well that’s what they will do.

Or to put it another way, the Conservative Party wants to hang onto power simply for the sake of hanging onto power. Without a vision or an ideological compass, WIMP Conservatives are like a rudderless ship, floating along with the current of public opinion...

I admit to considerable frustration too. But there is a real, political, Canadian world. Let's just see what they do if they win a majority government--though even writing that is probably "scary".

Mark C.

Posted by markc at October 24, 2007 09:27 PM