Historically, conservatism was all about the preservation of institutions and individual rights, support for the rule of law, and limits on the ability of the state to interfere in your life.

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#cdnpoli #onpoli
Today’s “conservatives” in Canada have little or nothing to do with these ideas
In Alberta, they are seeking to control those who are charged with protecting the integrity of elections. It’s hard to think of an institution and tradition more important 2/ #cdnpoli #onpoli
... to a democracy than elections.
In Ontario, the government has sought to make itself able to break laws with impunity, by making suing the government extremely difficult (if not impossible) and limiting their liability.
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All of today’s “conservatives” want more control over the judiciary; a separate branch of our democratic system, not an arm of the government. And one of the main protections against tyranny.
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Let’s think about the police for a minute. Today’s conservatives want more control over them as well. Putting friends in charge is a good start.

So these conservatives are not about law and order, really, are they?
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Today’s conservatives would like to unwind individual freedoms in social policy, such as same sex marriage and abortion.
They find themselves torn by Quebec’s ban on religious symbols. Because they supposedly believe in religious freedom ... but ... 6/
#cdnpoli #onpoli
... they’re kind of anti-immigrant, kind of anti-diversity, and not really in favour of other religions being visible in society.

But that’s okay, because they’re all about prosperity, right?
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Well, they do like to interfere in the market. They don’t want a universally applied carbon tax, they want to pick industries to subsidize and reward, and others to punish, with themselves as the stock-pickers.

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They’d also like control of pensions of public sector unions, so they have a pot of money to fool around with.

At the same time, they’d like to gut public education, and ensconce the right to learn fake science as legitimate.
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So any observer paying attention has to acknowledge that conservatism in Canada is dead. We have something else taking its place that looks a lot like populist authoritarianism.
Authoritarianism that, like a magician, says one thing, and does another. 9/
#cdnpoli #onpoli
Authoritarians like to stoke fear. Because afraid people are MUCH more likely to support authoritarian leaders. They like to position themselves as the only so,union, as if collective action by a self-determining people can achieve nothing.
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#cdnpoli #onpoli
I’m reaching for a rousing conclusion here, but not finding one. Because it’s not just us entering the dark ages. Look at the UK, a disaster that has forced people into poverty and seems to be trying to restore feudalism.
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Closer to home, we can all see the damage done to the USA, wreckage that is unlikely to be repaired in a generation.

Meanwhile, the world kowtows to China, afraid to offend them, an idea they must have learned from Nazis.
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#cdnpoli #onpoli
So we let human atrocities go on, because it would be inconvenient not to, it might affect trade.

Democracy and free people everywhere are on life support.
Don’t let them call themselves “conservatives” — they’re not.
/end
#cdnpoli #onpoli
“Solution” #cdnpoli #onpoli
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