Conservatism

In the new issue of Comment, Mark Cameron writes perceptively on "The Meaning of Conservatism" in Canada. Noting that conservatives are a diverse and quarrelsome lot, encompassing "democratic populists from Preston Manning's Reform, economic nationalists led by David Orchard, social conservatives allied with Stockwell Day, Red Tories in the mould of Joe Clark, and tax and budget cutters associated with the Harris and Klein governments," he observes that all of these are now having to get along under the organizational umbrella of the new Conservative Party of Canada. It is by no means a foregone conclusion that they will succeed in this.

Could it be that conservatism is fractious and fatally weak because it has so little substantive content and no real vision of its own to bring to the political process? A mere defence of existing institutions and a general scepticism towards proposed reform efforts is all well and good, insofar as it offers a cautionary note to those whose dreams would have them overturning a reasonably good social order because it is not perfect. Yet lacking a solid understanding of the world as God's world, it inevitably tends towards pragmatic rather than principled action, it applies the brakes more easily than it steers the vehicle, and it too easily acquiesces in injustices hallowed by longstanding tradition. Perhaps it's time to abandon the conservative label and move towards a principled affirmation of pluriformity in God's world, including the jural mandate he has given the political authorites to protect this pluriformity.