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PLUS THREE PAGES OF ELECTION OPINIONS.

CONSERVATIVES HAD GOLDEN CHANCE TO CRAFT OWN IDEAS, COMPETITIVE IDEALS

Carson Jerema National Post carjerema@postmedia.com Twitter.com/carsonjerema

The Conservatives’ third defeat at the hands of Justin Trudeau and the Liberals should be considered a rebuke of the party’s strategy to tack hard towards the so-called centre. It definitely shouldn’t mean that the party should try even harder to moderate itself, as leader Erin O’toole suggested in his concession speech. Instead, the lesson the Conservatives should learn from this loss is that they’d be better off selling their own ideas to voters, rather than watered-down Liberal, or even NDP, policies.

Take O’toole’s pitch to unions. He promised to require companies to include worker representation on boards of directors, amend the Canada Labour Code to make it easier for unions to organize and to bring in “buy Canada” legislation for infrastructure projects.

What’s obvious is that these are not policies designed to attract workers, but to attract union bosses. And in that regard, they failed to generate a single endorsement from labour groups, which instead backed either the NDP or the Liberals. Union groups even called O’toole “dangerous.” The Conservatives were correct to put “work” front-and-centre in their platform, but pro-union policies like these drive up costs and drive down trade and investment.

It was a compromise that clearly didn’t pay off.

A Conservative platform that was genuinely concerned with workers would be one that offered to make it more attractive to invest in Canada by cutting corporate taxes and removing barriers to competition, such as limits on foreign ownership in any number of industries, from telecommunications to banking to airlines.

The party’s promises to streamline environmental assessments for energy projects so that the rules would be clear and predictable, while maintaining environmental standards, is one area that would attract investment, but this was in a platform that also promised to “stand up to corporate Canada.”

Similarly, a Conservative party that truly wanted to lower the cost of living would dismantle the supply management system that inflates the cost of staples like dairy and poultry, instead of promising to “respect and defend” it.

Centre-right parties are often branded as misers for wanting to shrink the size of government, but rather than ditch their principles, they should reframe them as being better for average people. Yes, deregulation and tax cuts benefit corporate owners and managers, but they also benefit people who those owners and managers might employ. The more businesses that are freed from government shackles, the more options there are for workers.

A plan to limit the reach of government is a jobs plan. When asked what the party would do for regular Canadians, the Conservatives shouldn’t answer with new promises to regulate and tax industry, but with plans to make it easier to find meaningful work.

Given the apparent popularity of the People’s Party of Canada this election, there are those who think that now is not the time for a principled Conservative party, thus framing the choice as one between being a carbon copy of the Liberals and one overrun by tinfoil-hat extremists.

Writing in the Line newsletter ahead of the vote, Matt Gurney argued that unless the “moderate” Erin O’toole was able to present some sort of victory to his party, “he’s gone, and the hardliners in the CPC and much of the party’s grassroots will be unlikely to try a moderate leader again for ... a long time, if ever.”

The Conservatives, Gurney argues, would be destined for electoral oblivion and would be at risk of either being a western-only party, or of being co-opted by “dudebro MAGA idiocy.” O’toole “is the best chance the moderates have of holding onto the CPC, positioning it as a viable alternative to the Liberals.”

The problem with this analysis is that it conflates being moderate in tone with being moderate in policy. The Conservatives should absolutely be respectful of Canada’s institutions and avoid throwing both metaphorical and literal rocks at the prime minister. They should also resist the temptation to debase themselves with anti-vaxxer conspiracism, and guard against white nationalist, or “alt-right,” elements looking to take advantage of a weakened party.

However, it is possible to present a principled conservative platform and still be successful outside the West. Those who think these ideas would fail in seat-rich Ontario forget that the province has as much of a history of backing more forthrightly conservative parties as anywhere in the country, and at all levels of government.

The Mike Harris Progressive Conservatives were elected to government twice; Stephen Harper’s 2011 federal majority came through the province; Doug Ford is the current premier; and the late Rob Ford was elected mayor of Toronto on a platform to end the “gravy train.”

A party that speaks of responsible budgeting but also wants to run deficits for a decade is one struggling with identity. And it is clear now that when faced with two similar options, voters will choose the more authentic one. Better to embrace your beliefs than to run from them.

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2021-09-22T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-22T07:00:00.0000000Z

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