Christian Conservative Christian "Independent"

I'm an evangelical Christian, member of the CPC, but presently & unjustly exiled to wander the political wilderness.
All opinions expressed here are solely my own.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Why I think Harper's on the right track

Why is it that when things get rough, some Conservatives decide so quickly to fly the coop? You hear things like "That's it, I'm not sending my money to the Party anymore until they change their mind on this issue", or "They can forget about my vote because they're not doing things my way". Just makes me roll my eyes, and want to beat some people over the head to knock some sense into them! (figuratively speaking, of course)

Today I started reading David Frum's "Comeback: Conservatism that Can Win Again". I'm only on the third chapter, but I'll already wholeheartedly recommend that all real Conservatives should give it a read. David is bang on in his analysis of the present political climate in North America. What he has to say hits to the very heart of what I've been saying for years... in order to win, in order to govern effectively, we need to clue in to what it is Canadians really want... a new and pragmatic conservatism. Or, put another way... Harper Conservatism.

Now people will say things like, "Harper has sold out" due to things like deficit spending, not dealing with Section 13, or not dealing quickly enough with hard core "conservative" issues that are near and dear to all our hearts. But here's a principle that a lot of Conservatives tend to forget... people will NOT be lead where they don't want to go.

What do I mean by that? It's quite simple, really... Canadians want a centrist, middle of the road approach to government. After so many years of Liberal rule, they're simply not ready for what we know as real conservatism... which of course we all know is the best possible form of government this country could possibly have. But in order for Canadians to give us their full confidence and trust, we need to show them that conservatism is the best political philosophy out there.

I submit to you all that we haven't been doing a very good job of that. Take our idiocy over Section 13, for example. Most Canadians, quite frankly, don't even know what Section 13 is all about. And they don't care. There are issues that are WAY more important to them and their families, and we put our priorities over theirs at our own peril. But every time I see another blog post complaining about how we're not repealing Section 13 quickly enough, I just shake my head, reminded once again that a lot of my fellow conservatives aren't being mindful of the long game... replacing the Liberal Party and becoming the new "Natural Governing Party" of this country.

It's only then, once we've established that we're not just the best of the bad options available, but in fact a desirable option, it's only then that we can take the time to show Canadians WHY our ideas are in their best interest... once they fully trust us.

So all these folks who are saying "That's it, I'm outta here", they obviously haven't clued in yet. Our present situation is not suitable to deal with many of our so called "core issues"... we're still on probation, as it were. Think of these last three years as an extended job interview... Canadians giving us the opportunity to show them what we can do. Personally, I don't think we've done a bad job, but these next few weeks will be our real test.

Canadians have said, quite clearly, that they expect the government to intervene in this current economic situation. Period. Regardless of how we feel about deficit spending, the people have spoken. They want the government to at least make the effort, and will not accept anything less. As I said before, you can't lead the people where they don't want to go. Likewise, once the people indicate what direction they want to go, it's our job to do so in a manner that best aligns our principles.

It's not "selling out"... it's called "governing". So if your key issues really mean anything to you, you'll recognize that in order to actually deal with them, it means that we have to form the government. And in order to form the government, we have to maintain the confidence of the people. And we only do that by leading the people in a direction and manner they're willing to be lead, using our principles to guide us.

Pragmatic Conservatism. It's the only kind of conservatism that can win. It might be familiar... because it's Harper's kind of Conservatism.

He's still got my vote, BECAUSE he's being pragmatic. And if any of my fellow "conservatives" try to show him the door prematurely, they'll only succed in making Michael Ignatieff the next Prime Minister. And we could be following the Republicans out into the wilderness, for what could be a very long time.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to go there. I'm glad Mr. Harper is at the helm, seeking to steer this country in a better direction... we're tacking against the wind, but we're making progress. Let's throw any mutineers that rear their ugly heads overboard, and let's stick together and continue sailing through the storm... tacking against the wind.

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16 Comments:

  • At Sat Jan 24, 10:32:00 p.m. EST, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Hi CC,

    A couple of minor points:

    1. Governing is style over substance these days. If Harper wants to keep his job he has to look like he is setting the national agenda. Right now it looks as though Iggy is calling the shots.

    2. In the beginning of his tenure Harper was leading the country in a direction the people were unfamiliar with, and they loved it. Now it appears he is kowtowing to the agenda of the opposition parties and his popularity is slipping. I believe that these two things are related.

     
  • At Sat Jan 24, 10:44:00 p.m. EST, Blogger Christian Conservative said…

    Fair comment, and both good points to consider jgriffin.

     
  • At Sat Jan 24, 11:03:00 p.m. EST, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Hey CC,

    Excellent post, and I think clearly all of us have plenty to criticize our current government, and local governements too. As long as we are pro-active, and give constructive feedback to our representatives that is the best course of action.

    For the long term, we will have to be patient because we simply do NOT have a majority of votes in the House or Senate. But we are getting there, so until then lets work at this, and get some good governance out of them. And frankly you know if the budget has a middle class income tax cut, well I don't see much in complaining.

     
  • At Sat Jan 24, 11:14:00 p.m. EST, Blogger wilson said…

    'Now it appears he is kowtowing to the agenda of the opposition parties and his popularity is slipping.'

    Polls show Conservatives in about the same territory as on election night.

    Liberals numbers improved when they put a Conservative in the leadership chair.
    Iggy is copying PMSH.
    Iggy is more to the right than PMSH on many things.

     
  • At Sat Jan 24, 11:52:00 p.m. EST, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    It does look like Michael Ignatieff is calling the shots. I think that will change after Tuesday. By the then, the Coalition will have been exposed as Mr. Ignatieff's negotiating leverage and nothing more, or he will align the Liberal party with separatists in an attempt to form government. Neither outcome will look good on him. So his time in the driver's seat will be short.

    And to CC's post, you're bang on my friend. I wish all the conservative Harper bashers would take a cold shower and cool their rhetoric.

     
  • At Sun Jan 25, 01:29:00 a.m. EST, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Excellent commentary!

    It's disappointing how many authors of the Blogging Tories disagree with the forthcoming budget without knowing the details, or cherry-pick quotes from Stephen Harper's recent press interviews without apparently reading (or perhaps) understanding the full context of his statements and analysis.

    I would, however, like to point out my diversion of opinion with your statement:

    "I just shake my head, reminded once again that a lot of my fellow conservatives aren't being mindful of the long game... replacing the Liberal Party and becoming the new "Natural Governing Party" of this country."

    In my opinion, evolving the nation towards a conservative mentality is much more important than who governs, as long as they govern as conservatives.

    Of course, at this stage in history, the Conservative Party is best option for running a conservative government.

     
  • At Sun Jan 25, 02:50:00 a.m. EST, Blogger Bec said…

    PMSH, needs to trust Canadians enough to let them get to know him better.
    When he does finally step out after this lull, it will be spun negatively. He needs to do it regularly.
    I do know him and Canadians need to see that guy. I hope he does...

     
  • At Sun Jan 25, 08:56:00 a.m. EST, Blogger Alberta Girl said…

    Excellent post CC - and jgriffin - I agree with you as well.

     
  • At Sun Jan 25, 09:40:00 a.m. EST, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Awesome post.

    This just made my day.

     
  • At Sun Jan 25, 10:58:00 a.m. EST, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    What I would like conservatives do, is rather than expect Harper to single handedly impliment what conservatives want, is to do some of that heavy lifting as well.
    Harper cannot do it alone, he needs our help.

     
  • At Sun Jan 25, 01:55:00 p.m. EST, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    So what you are saying is that conservatives need to pretend we are liberals until we get into power and then we can reveal our hidden agenda. Conservatives are critical of the current policies because we have principals that do not include selling out our beliefs for power.

     
  • At Sun Jan 25, 01:58:00 p.m. EST, Blogger canadiantory91 said…

    but why $64 billion? that's way too much, and beyond that we campaigned on the fact that we weren't going to have to deficit spends. I agree that you need to be pragmatic, but when you betray the three wings of your party (fis-con, so-con and defence-con), then it's no longer pragmatism. It's power lust. What is the real difference between the grits in the nineties and the tories now? not a whole lot. last time this happened, a new party rose out of the old one's ashes. While i'm not saying i'd support that, there's no reason to donate money to a party that doesn't represent what I believe it. I will vote for them, but that's it.

     
  • At Sun Jan 25, 02:38:00 p.m. EST, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Well, Harper needs to clearly indicate the way out these deficits. If this is his last budget, it will be too easy to compare this to Mulroney's deficits and indicate that conservatives are conservatives in name only. I like pragmatic but this smells like the Mulroney govt. My question would be whether the party is properly grooming the next leadership hopefuls.

     
  • At Sun Jan 25, 04:38:00 p.m. EST, Blogger treb said…

    What i am waiting for is a majority.Then the digging up of the Adscam dirt can begin.Only when the extent of this corruption is brought to the front pages for all Canadians to see will the love affair with the Liberals end.It came out and was buried by the MSM before any harm was done to the libs.Maybe some of these MSM reporters should be investigated also.But that is for another day.For now PM Harper is the only leader who has any knowledge about the economy and i would put his knowledge ahead of most economists that are BSing their way into the headlines these days.Most of them have no clue what is happening.Governor of the Bank of Canada says we will be heading out of recession by end of 2009..Some jerk civil servant comes out and says we will be in recession for 5 years.Guess who gets the headlines.?So we know that the MSM run the country for the Liberals,now find out who runs the MSM and jail the bastards and the problem is solved.

     
  • At Sun Jan 25, 06:30:00 p.m. EST, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    What does Harper stand for? As a Christian, when will Harper make abortion illegal? Why all this taxation? Deficits? Income trust destruction?

     
  • At Mon Jan 26, 10:27:00 a.m. EST, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    If I could just add one thing to your comments CC, you have a very valid point when you say the government is giving the people what they want.

    I'd say the trick then becomes changing the people's mind as to what they want. Grassroots style.

    That's why I've generally given up on being taken seriously by elected officials. Because I'm the minority. I admit that.

    What I have to do if I want change is change people's minds about what they want and how they want it.

    Once I can get people on board, the elected officials will have to follow.

    Unfortunately, this is easier said than done.

    Welcome to my world

    Mike Wisniewski

     

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