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Melanie Phillips writes a commentary on British Conservatives, which I think is fully applicable to Canadian Conservatives:
The British Conservatives think that, to regain power, they have to show they have broken with cultural conservatism and go instead with the way society has changed — gay rights, green politics, anti-racism. What they have failed to grasp is that such change has turned values such as right and wrong, good and bad on their heads and has produced a sentimentalised, cruel, oppressive and perverse society — one where burglars go scot-free but householders are prosecuted for putting the wrong kind of garbage in the trash can, and where people are too frightened to protest at the erosion of British, Christian, or Western values because of the opprobrium that will follow.
The Conservatives don’t realize that by embracing such "change" they are endorsing a kind of enslavement. They don’t realize that the first duty of a conservative is to conserve that which is precious and protect it against attack. The result is that millions feel betrayed and abandoned by the absence of conservatism, and yet more still think the Conservative party is just a bunch of opportunists who don’t have any principles. Why vote for the progressive wannabes, after all, when you can have the real thing?
This is a rather long quote, but I think it is insightful and appropriate. Ever since Harper's government took the helm, this is precisely the erosion of conservatism that we have seen here. And just like Phillips says, "why vote for the progressive wannabes when you can have the real thing?" Record numbers of Canadians who stayed at home rather than vote for these wannabes should have been a wake up call for Harper.
I wonder how a man who used to work with Preston Manning and the Reform Party of Canada becomes the progressive wannabe that he is now? Partly I think it is to do with opportunism, like Phillips says. But also it is that I think Harper has embraced these policies so thoroughly, and in fact believes in them so fully, that he is no longer any type of conservative.
One anecdote I remember well. When Harper was explaining why he is was supporting the government's apology (and redress) for the Chinese Head Tax, he talked about a Chinese acquaintance his wife had. How this Chinese man became a friend of her family's, which now included him. How this man was a hard-working, loyal and good friend of the family. And how this man's family suffered because of this head tax.
Such emotionalism and personal reasons do not make for good policy and political decisions. The head tax was a governmental decision to protect the Canada of the past. Harper made the whole thing into a guilt trip which the nation had to overcome. How liberal is that?