Red Tory
Encyclopedia
A red Tory is an adherent of a particular political philosophy, tradition, and disposition in Canada somewhat similar to the High Tory
tradition in the United Kingdom; it is contrasted with "blue Tory
". In Canada, the phenomenon of "red toryism" has fundamentally, if not exclusively, been found in provincial and federal Conservative political parties. It is a definable historical legacy that marks differences in the creation, development, and evolution of the political cultures of Canada
and the United States. Canadian conservatism
and American conservatism
are different from each other in important ways.
The term "Red Tory" has been revived in recent years by individuals such as the British philosopher and Director of the ResPublica
think tank, Phillip Blond
, to promote a radical communitarian Traditionalist Conservatism
which inveighs against welfare state monopoly as well as market monopolies. Instead, it respects traditional values and institutions, localism
, devolution
of powers from the central governments to local communities, small business
es, volunteerism and favours empowering social enterprise
s, charities and other elements of civil society
to solve problems such as poverty
.
tradition, with a distinctive concern for a balance between individual rights and collectivism, as mediated through a traditional pre-industrial standard of morality – which has never been as evident in American conservatism .
Red Toryism derives largely from a High Tory and imperialist tradition that maintained the unequal division of wealth and political privilege among social classes can be justified, if members of the privileged class practiced noblesse oblige
and contributed to the common good. Red Tories supported traditional institutions like religion and the monarchy, and maintenance of the social order. Later, this would manifest itself as support for some aspects of the welfare state
. This belief in a common good, as expanded on in Colin Campbell and William Christian
's Political Parties and Ideologies in Canada, is at the root of Red Toryism.
This type of Canadian conservatism is derived largely from the Tory tradition evoked by English conservative thinkers and statesmen such as Richard Hooker, the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury
, and Benjamin Disraeli
, later the First Earl of Beaconsfield. The primary influences on Canadian Toryism in the Victorian age were Disraeli's One Nation Conservatism
and the radical Toryism advocated by Lord Randolph Churchill
. Inherent in these Tory traditions was the ideal of noblesse oblige
and a conservative communitarianism
.
In Victorian times, these points were the pre-eminent strains of conservative thought in the British Empire, and were advanced by many in the Tory faction of Sir John A. Macdonald's conservative coalition in the Canadas. None of this lineage denies that Tory traditions of communitarianism
and collectivism
had existed in the British North American colonies since the Loyalist exodus from the American colonies between 1776 and 1796. It is this aspect that is one of the primary points of difference between the conservative political cultures of Canada and the United States.
The explicit notion of a "Red" Toryism was developed by Gad Horowitz
in the 1960s, who argued that there was a significant Tory ideology in Canada. This vision contrasted Canada with the United States, which was seen as lacking this collectivist tradition, as it was expunged from the American political culture after the American Revolution
and the exodus of the United Empire Loyalists
. Horowitz argued that Canada's stronger socialist
movement grew from Toryism, and that this explains why socialism has never had much electoral success in the United States. This also meant that Canadian conceptions of liberty were more collective and communitarian, and could be seen as more directly derivative of the English tradition
, than that of American practices and theories.
Horowitz identified George Grant
and Eugene Forsey
as exemplars of this strain of thought, which saw a central role for Christianity in public affairs and was profoundly critical of capitalism and the dominant business élites. Forsey became a Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
(CCF) member, while Grant remained a Conservative – although he became disdainful of an overall shift in policy toward liberal economics and continentalism
, something Forsey saw happening decades earlier. When the Conservative government of John Diefenbaker
fell in 1963, largely due to the BOMARC controversy, Grant wrote Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism, a book about the nature of traditional Canadian nationhood and independence that would become a lodestar
of Red Toryism. Grant defined an essential difference between the founding of the Canadian and American nations as "Canada was predicated on the rights of nations as well as on the rights of individuals." This definition recognized Canada's dual founding nature as an English-speaking, aboriginal and Francophone
nation.
The adjective "red" refers to the left-leaning nature of Red Toryism, since socialist parties have traditionally used the colour red. In Canada today, however, red is commonly associated with the centrist Liberal Party
. The term reflects the broad ideological range traditionally found within conservatism in Canada.
's leaders have been labelled Red Tories, including Sir John A. Macdonald
, Sir Robert Borden, John Diefenbaker
, Robert Stanfield
, and in some ways Joe Clark
. Many others have been influential as cabinet ministers and thinkers, such as E. Davie Fulton, Dalton Camp
, and John Farthing
.
The main bastions of Red Toryism were Ontario, the Atlantic provinces, and urban Manitoba, areas where the Red Tories dominated provincial politics. The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, which has held power in that province for most of the time since Confederation, was often labelled as Red Tory, especially under the leadership of Bill Davis
from 1971 to 1985.
Throughout the Atlantic provinces, traditional Red Tories are the dominant force in the provincial Progressive Conservative parties because of their support of the welfare state.
that saw the welfare state
embraced by the major parties of most of the western world. In the late 1970s and 1980s, the federal Progressive Conservative Party suffered a string of electoral defeats under Red Tory leaders Robert Stanfield
and Joe Clark
. Pressure began to grow within the party for a new approach. Joe Clark's leadership was successfully challenged, and in the 1983 PC leadership convention
, members endorsed Brian Mulroney
who rejected free trade with the United States as proposed by another right-wing candidate, John Crosbie
. Despite this early perception, the eagerness in which Mulroney's ministry embraced the MacDonald Commission
's advocacy of bilateral free trade would come to indicate a sharp drift toward neo-liberal economic policies, comparable to such contemporaries as Ronald Reagan
and Margaret Thatcher
.
Following Mulroney, the Canadian conservative movement suffered a profound schism in the 1993 election
, splitting into the distinct Progressive Conservative and Reform parties. The Red Tory tradition remained loyal to the Progressive Conservatives, while many "blue" Tories aligned with social conservatives
in the Reform Party. Various Unite the Right
efforts achieved only modest success in the 1990s and early 2000s – most notably, while the creation of the Canadian Alliance
in 2000 attracted a small number of Progressive Conservatives, it failed to attract those in the Red Tory tradition or to replace the Progressive Conservatives.
at the 2003 PC convention
, and in violation of an informal contract signed with the Red Tory David Orchard
, MacKay merged the Tories with Stephen Harper
's Alliance to create the modern federal Conservative Party
in 2003.
When first created, one of the most important issues facing the Conservative Party was what Red Tories would do. The union resulted in a number of Red Tories leaving the new party, either to retire or to defect to the Liberal Party
. Members of Parliament
(MPs) André Bachand
, John Herron
, Joe Clark
and Scott Brison
declined to join the new party – Brison immediately crossed the floor to the Liberals, Bachand and Clark sat out the remainder of the 37th Canadian Parliament
as Progressive Conservatives and then retired from office in the 2004 election
, and Herron sat as a Progressive Conservative for the remainder of the term but then ran for re-election in 2004 as a Liberal.
Clark, a former Prime Minister, gave a tepid endorsement to the Liberals in the 2004 election, calling Paul Martin
"the devil we know". Rick Borotsik
joined the new party, but openly criticized it from within, did not run for re-election in 2004, and also publicly endorsed the Liberals over the Conservatives during the campaign.
Additionally, three of the twenty-six Progressive Conservative Senators
, Lowell Murray
, Norman Atkins and William Doody, decided to continue serving as Progressive Conservatives, rejecting membership in the new party. Atkins is closely allied with the still existent Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
, and Murray, from Atlantic Canada, opposed the merger of the federal PC party. Most, like prominent Senator Marjory LeBreton
, came to endorse the new party and have been vocal and visible supporters of the party both between and during elections.
Elaine McCoy
and Nancy Ruth
were later appointed to the Senate by Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin, and chose to designate themselves as Progressive Conservatives. Doody has since died, and Ruth joined the Conservative Party caucus in 2006.
A 'grassroots' movement gathered signatures on the Elections Canada forms from over 200 registered Members of the PCPC and applied to re-register as the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. This name was refused by Elections Canada
. Having anticipated such a rejection the coordinators had had the 'SignaTories' also sign a second application to at least continue with the ballot name "PC Party". On March 26, 2004, the Progressive Canadian Party
was registered with Elections Canada
. It aimed to be perceived as a continuation of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, but has only achieved very minor results.
, Dalton Camp
or Robert Stanfield
, but simply to moderates in the conservative movement, particularly those who reject or do not sufficiently embrace social conservatism
.
For example, in the 2004 Conservative Party leadership election
, Tony Clement
was sometimes referred to as a Red Tory even though he advocated privatization, tax cuts, curtailment of social and economic development spending and free trade
with the United States. Traditional Red Tories would reject most, if not all, of these stances.
More recently, Phillip Blond
, director of British think tank ResPublica, has gained traction with his so-called Red Tory thesis which criticizes what he refers to as the welfare state and the market state. He has been mentioned as a major influence on the thinking of David Cameron
and other Tories in the wake of the 2008 credit crisis. He advocates a civic state as the ideal, where the common good of society is valued and solutions emerge from local communities. Blond's Red Toryism has been embraced by traditionalist conservatives
in the United States, such as journalists Rod Dreher
and David Brooks
, economist John Medaille, and the editors of the web log Front Porch Republic. Blond's ideas also parallel the socioeconomic tradition of distributism
, as is evidenced by Blond's appearance at a distributist
conference at Oxford University in 2009 sponsored by the G. K. Chesterton Institute for Faith and Culture.
High Tories
High Toryism is a term used in Britain, Canada and elsewhere to refer to a traditionalist conservatism which is in line with the Toryism originating in the 17th century. It tends to be at odds with the modern emphasis of the Conservative Party in these countries. High Toryism has been described as...
tradition in the United Kingdom; it is contrasted with "blue Tory
Blue Tory
Blue Tories, also known as small 'c' conservatives, are, in Canadian politics, members of the former federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, current Conservative Party of Canada and provincial Progressive Conservative parties who are more economically right wing...
". In Canada, the phenomenon of "red toryism" has fundamentally, if not exclusively, been found in provincial and federal Conservative political parties. It is a definable historical legacy that marks differences in the creation, development, and evolution of the political cultures of Canada
Political culture of Canada
Canadian political culture is in some ways part of a greater North American and European political culture, which emphasizes constitutional law, freedom of religion, personal liberty, and regional autonomy; these ideas stemming in various degrees from the British common law and French civil law...
and the United States. Canadian conservatism
Canadian conservatism
Conservatism in Canada is generally considered to be primarily represented by the Conservative Party of Canada at the federal level, and by various right-wing parties at the provincial level...
and American conservatism
American conservatism
Conservatism in the United States has played an important role in American politics since the 1950s. Historian Gregory Schneider identifies several constants in American conservatism: respect for tradition, support of republicanism, preservation of "the rule of law and the Christian religion", and...
are different from each other in important ways.
The term "Red Tory" has been revived in recent years by individuals such as the British philosopher and Director of the ResPublica
ResPublica
ResPublica is a British centre-right public policy think tank, founded in 2009. It describes itself as a multi-disciplinary, non party-political research organisation, whose aim is to create bold solutions to enduring social and economic problems.ResPublica has 7 advisory board members, 4 of whom...
think tank, Phillip Blond
Phillip Blond
Phillip Blond is an English political thinker, Anglican and theologian, and director of the think tank ResPublica.He gained prominence from a cover story in Prospect magazine in the February 2009 edition with his essay on Red Toryism, which proposed a radical communitarian traditionalist...
, to promote a radical communitarian Traditionalist Conservatism
Traditionalist Conservatism
Traditionalist conservatism, also known as "traditional conservatism," "traditionalism," "Burkean conservatism", "classical conservatism" and , "Toryism", describes a political philosophy emphasizing the need for the principles of natural law and transcendent moral order, tradition, hierarchy and...
which inveighs against welfare state monopoly as well as market monopolies. Instead, it respects traditional values and institutions, localism
Localism (politics)
Localism describes a range of political philosophies which prioritize the local. Generally, localism supports local production and consumption of goods, local control of government, and promotion of local history, local culture and local identity...
, devolution
Devolution
Devolution is the statutory granting of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to government at a subnational level, such as a regional, local, or state level. Devolution can be mainly financial, e.g. giving areas a budget which was formerly administered by central government...
of powers from the central governments to local communities, small business
Small business
A small business is a business that is privately owned and operated, with a small number of employees and relatively low volume of sales. Small businesses are normally privately owned corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships...
es, volunteerism and favours empowering social enterprise
Social enterprise
A social enterprise is an organization that applies business strategies to achieving philanthropic goals. Social enterprises can be structured as a for-profit or non-profit....
s, charities and other elements of civil society
Civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...
to solve problems such as poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
.
Philosophy
Historically, Canadian conservatism has been derived from the ToryTory
Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...
tradition, with a distinctive concern for a balance between individual rights and collectivism, as mediated through a traditional pre-industrial standard of morality – which has never been as evident in American conservatism .
Red Toryism derives largely from a High Tory and imperialist tradition that maintained the unequal division of wealth and political privilege among social classes can be justified, if members of the privileged class practiced noblesse oblige
Noblesse oblige
Noblesse oblige is a French phrase literally meaning "nobility obliges".The Dictionnaire de l’Académie française defines it thus:# Whoever claims to be noble must conduct himself nobly....
and contributed to the common good. Red Tories supported traditional institutions like religion and the monarchy, and maintenance of the social order. Later, this would manifest itself as support for some aspects of the welfare state
Welfare state
A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those...
. This belief in a common good, as expanded on in Colin Campbell and William Christian
William Christian (Canadian political scientist)
Professor William Christian was a Political Scientist at the University of Guelph. He retired in 2008...
's Political Parties and Ideologies in Canada, is at the root of Red Toryism.
Origins
In distinction to the American experience where class divisions were seen as undemocratic (although still existing), Canadian Tories adopted a more patriarchal view of government. Monarchy, public order and good government – understood as dedication to the common good – preceded, moderated and balanced an unequivocal belief in individual rights and liberty.This type of Canadian conservatism is derived largely from the Tory tradition evoked by English conservative thinkers and statesmen such as Richard Hooker, the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury KG , styled Lord Ashley from 1811 to 1851, was an English politician and philanthropist, one of the best-known of the Victorian era and one of the main proponents of Christian Zionism.-Youth:He was born in London and known informally as Lord Ashley...
, and Benjamin Disraeli
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, KG, PC, FRS, was a British Prime Minister, parliamentarian, Conservative statesman and literary figure. Starting from comparatively humble origins, he served in government for three decades, twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom...
, later the First Earl of Beaconsfield. The primary influences on Canadian Toryism in the Victorian age were Disraeli's One Nation Conservatism
One Nation Conservatism
One nation, one nation conservatism, and Tory democracy are terms used in political debate in the United Kingdom to refer to a certain wing of the Conservative Party...
and the radical Toryism advocated by Lord Randolph Churchill
Lord Randolph Churchill
Lord Randolph Henry Spencer-Churchill MP was a British statesman. He was the third son of the 7th Duke of Marlborough and his wife Lady Frances Anne Emily Vane , daughter of the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry...
. Inherent in these Tory traditions was the ideal of noblesse oblige
Noblesse oblige
Noblesse oblige is a French phrase literally meaning "nobility obliges".The Dictionnaire de l’Académie française defines it thus:# Whoever claims to be noble must conduct himself nobly....
and a conservative communitarianism
Communitarianism
Communitarianism is an ideology that emphasizes the connection between the individual and the community. That community may be the family unit, but it can also be understood in a far wider sense of personal interaction, of geographical location, or of shared history.-Terminology:Though the term...
.
In Victorian times, these points were the pre-eminent strains of conservative thought in the British Empire, and were advanced by many in the Tory faction of Sir John A. Macdonald's conservative coalition in the Canadas. None of this lineage denies that Tory traditions of communitarianism
Communitarianism
Communitarianism is an ideology that emphasizes the connection between the individual and the community. That community may be the family unit, but it can also be understood in a far wider sense of personal interaction, of geographical location, or of shared history.-Terminology:Though the term...
and collectivism
Collectivism
Collectivism is any philosophic, political, economic, mystical or social outlook that emphasizes the interdependence of every human in some collective group and the priority of group goals over individual goals. Collectivists usually focus on community, society, or nation...
had existed in the British North American colonies since the Loyalist exodus from the American colonies between 1776 and 1796. It is this aspect that is one of the primary points of difference between the conservative political cultures of Canada and the United States.
The explicit notion of a "Red" Toryism was developed by Gad Horowitz
Gad Horowitz
Gad Horowitz is a noted Canadian political scientist and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto.-Biography:Horowitz was born in Jerusalem and immigrated to Canada with his parents at the age of 2. He grew up in Calgary, Winnipeg, and Montreal.Horowitz earned his BA from the University of...
in the 1960s, who argued that there was a significant Tory ideology in Canada. This vision contrasted Canada with the United States, which was seen as lacking this collectivist tradition, as it was expunged from the American political culture after the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
and the exodus of the United Empire Loyalists
United Empire Loyalists
The name United Empire Loyalists is an honorific given after the fact to those American Loyalists who resettled in British North America and other British Colonies as an act of fealty to King George III after the British defeat in the American Revolutionary War and prior to the Treaty of Paris...
. Horowitz argued that Canada's stronger socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
movement grew from Toryism, and that this explains why socialism has never had much electoral success in the United States. This also meant that Canadian conceptions of liberty were more collective and communitarian, and could be seen as more directly derivative of the English tradition
Fundamental Laws of England
In the 1760s William Blackstone described the Fundamental Laws of England in Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book the First – Chapter the First : Of the Absolute Rights of Individuals as "the absolute rights of every Englishman" and traced their basis and evolution as follows:*Magna Carta...
, than that of American practices and theories.
Horowitz identified George Grant
George Grant (philosopher)
George Parkin Grant, OC, FRSC was a Canadian philosopher, teacher and political commentator, whose popular appeal peaked in the late 1960s and 1970s. He is best known for his nationalism, political conservatism, and his views on technology, pacifism, Christian faith, and abortion...
and Eugene Forsey
Eugene Forsey
Eugene Alfred Forsey, served in the Canadian Senate from 1970 to 1979. He was considered to be one of Canada's foremost constitutional experts.- Biography :...
as exemplars of this strain of thought, which saw a central role for Christianity in public affairs and was profoundly critical of capitalism and the dominant business élites. Forsey became a Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation was a Canadian political party founded in 1932 in Calgary, Alberta, by a number of socialist, farm, co-operative and labour groups, and the League for Social Reconstruction...
(CCF) member, while Grant remained a Conservative – although he became disdainful of an overall shift in policy toward liberal economics and continentalism
Continentalism
Continentalism refers to the agreements or policies that favor the regionalization and/or cooperation between nations within a continent. The term is used more often in the European and North American contexts, but the concept has been applied to other continents including Australia, Africa and...
, something Forsey saw happening decades earlier. When the Conservative government of John Diefenbaker
John Diefenbaker
John George Diefenbaker, PC, CH, QC was the 13th Prime Minister of Canada, serving from June 21, 1957, to April 22, 1963...
fell in 1963, largely due to the BOMARC controversy, Grant wrote Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism, a book about the nature of traditional Canadian nationhood and independence that would become a lodestar
Lodestar
A lodestar or guiding star may be:*Polaris*any star used in celestial navigation*metaphorically, any guiding principle*Guiding Star...
of Red Toryism. Grant defined an essential difference between the founding of the Canadian and American nations as "Canada was predicated on the rights of nations as well as on the rights of individuals." This definition recognized Canada's dual founding nature as an English-speaking, aboriginal and Francophone
Francophone
The adjective francophone means French-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person....
nation.
The adjective "red" refers to the left-leaning nature of Red Toryism, since socialist parties have traditionally used the colour red. In Canada today, however, red is commonly associated with the centrist Liberal Party
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
. The term reflects the broad ideological range traditionally found within conservatism in Canada.
Predominance
Many of the Progressive Conservative Party of CanadaProgressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
's leaders have been labelled Red Tories, including Sir John A. Macdonald
John A. Macdonald
Sir John Alexander Macdonald, GCB, KCMG, PC, PC , QC was the first Prime Minister of Canada. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, his political career spanned almost half a century...
, Sir Robert Borden, John Diefenbaker
John Diefenbaker
John George Diefenbaker, PC, CH, QC was the 13th Prime Minister of Canada, serving from June 21, 1957, to April 22, 1963...
, Robert Stanfield
Robert Stanfield
Robert Lorne Stanfield, PC, QC was the 17th Premier of Nova Scotia and leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. He is sometimes referred to as "the greatest prime minister Canada never had", and earned the nickname "Honest Bob"...
, and in some ways Joe Clark
Joe Clark
Charles Joseph "Joe" Clark, is a Canadian statesman, businessman, and university professor, and former journalist and politician...
. Many others have been influential as cabinet ministers and thinkers, such as E. Davie Fulton, Dalton Camp
Dalton Camp
Dalton Kingsley Camp, PC, OC was a Canadian journalist, politician, political strategist and commentator and supporter of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. Despite having never been elected to a seat in the House of Commons, he was a prominent and influential politician and a popular...
, and John Farthing
John Farthing
John Colborne Farthing was a student, soldier, thinker, philosopher, economist, teacher, and author of the seminal tract Freedom Wears a Crown which became rather quickly an epistle of Red Toryism.-Early years:...
.
The main bastions of Red Toryism were Ontario, the Atlantic provinces, and urban Manitoba, areas where the Red Tories dominated provincial politics. The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, which has held power in that province for most of the time since Confederation, was often labelled as Red Tory, especially under the leadership of Bill Davis
Bill Davis
William Grenville "Bill" Davis, was the 18th Premier of Ontario, Canada, from 1971 to 1985. Davis was first elected as the MPP for Peel in the 1959 provincial election where he was a backbencher in Leslie Frost's government. Under John Robarts, he was a cabinet minister overseeing the education...
from 1971 to 1985.
Throughout the Atlantic provinces, traditional Red Tories are the dominant force in the provincial Progressive Conservative parties because of their support of the welfare state.
Decline
The dominance of Red Toryism can be seen as a part of the international post-war consensusPost-war consensus
The post-war consensus is a name given by historians to an era in British political history which lasted from the end of World War II in 1945 to the election of Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1979....
that saw the welfare state
Welfare state
A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those...
embraced by the major parties of most of the western world. In the late 1970s and 1980s, the federal Progressive Conservative Party suffered a string of electoral defeats under Red Tory leaders Robert Stanfield
Robert Stanfield
Robert Lorne Stanfield, PC, QC was the 17th Premier of Nova Scotia and leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. He is sometimes referred to as "the greatest prime minister Canada never had", and earned the nickname "Honest Bob"...
and Joe Clark
Joe Clark
Charles Joseph "Joe" Clark, is a Canadian statesman, businessman, and university professor, and former journalist and politician...
. Pressure began to grow within the party for a new approach. Joe Clark's leadership was successfully challenged, and in the 1983 PC leadership convention
Progressive Conservative leadership convention, 1983
The 1983 Progressive Conservative leadership election was held on June 11, 1983 in Ottawa, Ontario to elect a leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada...
, members endorsed Brian Mulroney
Brian Mulroney
Martin Brian Mulroney, was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S...
who rejected free trade with the United States as proposed by another right-wing candidate, John Crosbie
John Crosbie
John Carnell Crosbie, PC, OC, ONL, QC is a retired provincial and federal politician and the 12th Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada...
. Despite this early perception, the eagerness in which Mulroney's ministry embraced the MacDonald Commission
MacDonald Commission
The Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Development Prospects for Canada, known as the Macdonald Commission, was a historic landmark in Canadian economy policy. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau appointed the commission in 1982 and it presented its recommendations to Prime Minister Brian...
's advocacy of bilateral free trade would come to indicate a sharp drift toward neo-liberal economic policies, comparable to such contemporaries as Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
and Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
.
Following Mulroney, the Canadian conservative movement suffered a profound schism in the 1993 election
Canadian federal election, 1993
The Canadian federal election of 1993 was held on October 25 of that year to elect members to the Canadian House of Commons of the 35th Parliament of Canada. Fourteen parties competed for the 295 seats in the House at that time...
, splitting into the distinct Progressive Conservative and Reform parties. The Red Tory tradition remained loyal to the Progressive Conservatives, while many "blue" Tories aligned with social conservatives
Social conservatism
Social Conservatism is primarily a political, and usually morally influenced, ideology that focuses on the preservation of what are seen as traditional values. Social conservatism is a form of authoritarianism often associated with the position that the federal government should have a greater role...
in the Reform Party. Various Unite the Right
Unite the Right
The Unite the Right movement was a Canadian political movement which existed from around 1996 to 2003. The movement came into being when it became clear that neither of Canada's two main right-of-center political parties: the Reform Party of Canada or the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada...
efforts achieved only modest success in the 1990s and early 2000s – most notably, while the creation of the Canadian Alliance
Canadian Alliance
The Canadian Alliance , formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance , was a Canadian conservative political party that existed from 2000 to 2003. The party was the successor to the Reform Party of Canada and inherited its position as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons and held...
in 2000 attracted a small number of Progressive Conservatives, it failed to attract those in the Red Tory tradition or to replace the Progressive Conservatives.
Merger of federal parties
After the victory of Peter MacKayPeter MacKay
Peter Gordon MacKay, PC, QC, MP is a lawyer and politician from Nova Scotia, Canada. He is the Member of Parliament for Central Nova and currently serves as Minister of National Defence in the Cabinet of Canada....
at the 2003 PC convention
Progressive Conservative leadership convention, 2003
The 2003 Progressive Conservative leadership election was held on May 31, 2003 to elect a leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. Peter MacKay was elected as leader to replace former Prime Minister Joe Clark who had retired as party leader. In the end, five candidates emerged as...
, and in violation of an informal contract signed with the Red Tory David Orchard
David Orchard
David Orchard is a Canadian political figure, member of the Liberal Party of Canada, who was the Liberal Party candidate for the Saskatchewan riding of Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River in the 2008 federal election.Previously, Orchard was a member of the now defunct Progressive Conservative...
, MacKay merged the Tories with Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
's Alliance to create the modern federal Conservative Party
Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
in 2003.
When first created, one of the most important issues facing the Conservative Party was what Red Tories would do. The union resulted in a number of Red Tories leaving the new party, either to retire or to defect to the Liberal Party
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
. Members of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MPs) André Bachand
André Bachand (Progressive Conservative MP)
André Bachand is a Canadian politician, who represented the riding of Richmond—Arthabaska as member of the Progressive Conservatives from 1997 to 2003....
, John Herron
John Herron (New Brunswick politician)
John Herron is a former Canadian politician and Red Tory.Herron was first elected to the House of Commons in the 1997 federal election as a candidate of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada . He was reelected in the 2000 election...
, Joe Clark
Joe Clark
Charles Joseph "Joe" Clark, is a Canadian statesman, businessman, and university professor, and former journalist and politician...
and Scott Brison
Scott Brison
Scott A. Brison, PC, MP is a Canadian politician from Nova Scotia, Canada. Brison has been the Member of Parliament for the riding of Kings-Hants since the 1997 federal election. Brison was originally elected as a Progressive Conservative but crossed the floor to join the Liberal Party in 2003...
declined to join the new party – Brison immediately crossed the floor to the Liberals, Bachand and Clark sat out the remainder of the 37th Canadian Parliament
37th Canadian Parliament
The 37th Canadian Parliament was in session from January 29, 2001, until May 23, 2004. The membership was set by the 2000 federal election on November 27, 2000, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections until it was dissolved prior to the 2004 election.It was controlled by...
as Progressive Conservatives and then retired from office in the 2004 election
Canadian federal election, 2004
The Canadian federal election, 2004 , was held on June 28, 2004 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 38th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin lost its majority, but was able to form a minority government after the elections...
, and Herron sat as a Progressive Conservative for the remainder of the term but then ran for re-election in 2004 as a Liberal.
Clark, a former Prime Minister, gave a tepid endorsement to the Liberals in the 2004 election, calling Paul Martin
Paul Martin
Paul Edgar Philippe Martin, PC , also known as Paul Martin, Jr. is a Canadian politician who was the 21st Prime Minister of Canada, as well as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....
"the devil we know". Rick Borotsik
Rick Borotsik
Rick Borotsik is a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served as Mayor of Brandon from 1989 to 1997, was a member of the Canadian House of Commons from 1997 to 2004, and was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba in 2007...
joined the new party, but openly criticized it from within, did not run for re-election in 2004, and also publicly endorsed the Liberals over the Conservatives during the campaign.
Additionally, three of the twenty-six Progressive Conservative Senators
Canadian Senate
The Senate of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the House of Commons, and the monarch . The Senate consists of 105 members appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister...
, Lowell Murray
Lowell Murray
Lowell Murray, PC is a former Canadian senator and long-time activist with the federal Progressive Conservative Party.-Education:...
, Norman Atkins and William Doody, decided to continue serving as Progressive Conservatives, rejecting membership in the new party. Atkins is closely allied with the still existent Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario , is a right-of-centre political party in Ontario, Canada. The party was known for many years as "Ontario's natural governing party." It has ruled the province for 80 of the years since Confederation, including an uninterrupted run from 1943 to 1985...
, and Murray, from Atlantic Canada, opposed the merger of the federal PC party. Most, like prominent Senator Marjory LeBreton
Marjory LeBreton
Marjory LeBreton, PC is Leader of the Government in the Canadian Senate, a position of cabinet-rank; and vice-chair of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Canada...
, came to endorse the new party and have been vocal and visible supporters of the party both between and during elections.
Elaine McCoy
Elaine McCoy
Elaine McCoy, QC, BA, LL.B is a Canadian senator from Alberta. She has been the last remaining member of the Canadian Senate to sit as a Progressive Conservative since the retirement of Senator Lowell Murray on September 26, 2011.-Senate of Canada:Senator McCoy was appointed to the Senate by...
and Nancy Ruth
Nancy Ruth
Nancy Ruth, CM is a Canadian Senator from Ontario. She was appointed to the Senate by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, on the advice of Prime Minister Paul Martin, on March 24, 2005. While initially appointed as a Progressive Conservative, on March 28, 2006 she joined the Conservative caucus...
were later appointed to the Senate by Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin, and chose to designate themselves as Progressive Conservatives. Doody has since died, and Ruth joined the Conservative Party caucus in 2006.
A 'grassroots' movement gathered signatures on the Elections Canada forms from over 200 registered Members of the PCPC and applied to re-register as the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. This name was refused by Elections Canada
Elections Canada
Elections Canada is an independent, non-partisan agency reporting directly to the Parliament of Canada. Its ongoing responsibility is to ensure that Canadians can exercise their choices in federal elections and referenda through an open and impartial process...
. Having anticipated such a rejection the coordinators had had the 'SignaTories' also sign a second application to at least continue with the ballot name "PC Party". On March 26, 2004, the Progressive Canadian Party
Progressive Canadian Party
The Progressive Canadian Party is a minor federal political party in Canada. It is a centre/centre-right party that was officially registered with Elections Canada, the government's election agency, on March 29, 2004....
was registered with Elections Canada
Elections Canada
Elections Canada is an independent, non-partisan agency reporting directly to the Parliament of Canada. Its ongoing responsibility is to ensure that Canadians can exercise their choices in federal elections and referenda through an open and impartial process...
. It aimed to be perceived as a continuation of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, but has only achieved very minor results.
Definition drift and Misnomerization
With the conservative movement's drift to the economic and political right, the term Red Tory is often used today in the media not to refer to those in the tradition of George GrantGeorge Grant (philosopher)
George Parkin Grant, OC, FRSC was a Canadian philosopher, teacher and political commentator, whose popular appeal peaked in the late 1960s and 1970s. He is best known for his nationalism, political conservatism, and his views on technology, pacifism, Christian faith, and abortion...
, Dalton Camp
Dalton Camp
Dalton Kingsley Camp, PC, OC was a Canadian journalist, politician, political strategist and commentator and supporter of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. Despite having never been elected to a seat in the House of Commons, he was a prominent and influential politician and a popular...
or Robert Stanfield
Robert Stanfield
Robert Lorne Stanfield, PC, QC was the 17th Premier of Nova Scotia and leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. He is sometimes referred to as "the greatest prime minister Canada never had", and earned the nickname "Honest Bob"...
, but simply to moderates in the conservative movement, particularly those who reject or do not sufficiently embrace social conservatism
Social conservatism
Social Conservatism is primarily a political, and usually morally influenced, ideology that focuses on the preservation of what are seen as traditional values. Social conservatism is a form of authoritarianism often associated with the position that the federal government should have a greater role...
.
For example, in the 2004 Conservative Party leadership election
Conservative Party of Canada leadership election, 2004
The 2004 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election took place on March 20, 2004 in Toronto, Ontario, and resulted in the election of Stephen Harper as the first leader of the new Canadian Conservative Party...
, Tony Clement
Tony Clement
Tony Peter Clement, PC, MP is a Canadian federal politician, President of the Treasury Board, Minister for the Federal Economic Initiative for Northern Ontario and member of the Conservative Party of Canada....
was sometimes referred to as a Red Tory even though he advocated privatization, tax cuts, curtailment of social and economic development spending and free trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
with the United States. Traditional Red Tories would reject most, if not all, of these stances.
More recently, Phillip Blond
Phillip Blond
Phillip Blond is an English political thinker, Anglican and theologian, and director of the think tank ResPublica.He gained prominence from a cover story in Prospect magazine in the February 2009 edition with his essay on Red Toryism, which proposed a radical communitarian traditionalist...
, director of British think tank ResPublica, has gained traction with his so-called Red Tory thesis which criticizes what he refers to as the welfare state and the market state. He has been mentioned as a major influence on the thinking of David Cameron
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
and other Tories in the wake of the 2008 credit crisis. He advocates a civic state as the ideal, where the common good of society is valued and solutions emerge from local communities. Blond's Red Toryism has been embraced by traditionalist conservatives
Traditionalist Conservatism
Traditionalist conservatism, also known as "traditional conservatism," "traditionalism," "Burkean conservatism", "classical conservatism" and , "Toryism", describes a political philosophy emphasizing the need for the principles of natural law and transcendent moral order, tradition, hierarchy and...
in the United States, such as journalists Rod Dreher
Rod Dreher
Rod Dreher is an American writer and editor. He was a conservative editorial writer and a columnist for The Dallas Morning News, but departed that newspaper in late 2009 to affiliate with the John Templeton Foundation. He has also contributed in the past to The American Conservative and National...
and David Brooks
David Brooks (journalist)
David Brooks is a Canadian-born political and cultural commentator who considers himself a moderate and writes for the New York Times...
, economist John Medaille, and the editors of the web log Front Porch Republic. Blond's ideas also parallel the socioeconomic tradition of distributism
Distributism
Distributism is a third-way economic philosophy formulated by such Catholic thinkers as G. K...
, as is evidenced by Blond's appearance at a distributist
Distributism
Distributism is a third-way economic philosophy formulated by such Catholic thinkers as G. K...
conference at Oxford University in 2009 sponsored by the G. K. Chesterton Institute for Faith and Culture.
Further reading
- Farthing, J. Freedom Wears a Crown
- Grant, George Parkin. Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism (1965)
- Horowitz, Gad. "Conservatism, Liberalism and Socialism in Canada: An Interpretation." Canadian Journal of Political Science (1966).
- Taylor, Charles. Radical Tories.
- Dart, Ron. The Canadian High Tory Tradition: Raids on the Unspeakable (2004)
- Campbell, Colin [John]. CTtheory.net. Horowitz Interviewed by Colin Campbell. [audio file], available online at http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=397.
- Blond, Phillip. Red Tory: How Left and Right Have Broken Britain and How We Can Fix It. FaberFaber and FaberFaber and Faber Limited, often abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing a great deal of poetry and for its former editor T. S. Eliot. Faber has a rich tradition of publishing a wide range of fiction, non fiction, drama, film and music...
(2010). Review in The Daily TelegraphThe Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
27 Mar 2010; Review in London Review of BooksLondon Review of BooksThe London Review of Books is a fortnightly British magazine of literary and intellectual essays.-History:The LRB was founded in 1979, during the year-long lock-out at The Times, by publisher A...
22 April 2010
See also
- List of Red Tories
- Christian DemocracyChristian DemocracyChristian democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Christian principles to public policy. It emerged in nineteenth-century Europe under the influence of conservatism and Catholic social teaching...
- Blue ToryBlue ToryBlue Tories, also known as small 'c' conservatives, are, in Canadian politics, members of the former federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, current Conservative Party of Canada and provincial Progressive Conservative parties who are more economically right wing...
- One Nation ConservatismOne Nation ConservatismOne nation, one nation conservatism, and Tory democracy are terms used in political debate in the United Kingdom to refer to a certain wing of the Conservative Party...
- Democratic CapitalismDemocratic capitalismDemocratic capitalism, also known as capitalist democracy, is a political, economic, and social system and ideology based on a tripartite arrangement of a market-based economy based predominantly on a democratic polity, economic incentives through free markets, fiscal responsibility and a liberal...
- State CapitalismState capitalismThe term State capitalism has various meanings, but is usually described as commercial economic activity undertaken by the state with management of the productive forces in a capitalist manner, even if the state is nominally socialist. State capitalism is usually characterized by the dominance or...
- DistributismDistributismDistributism is a third-way economic philosophy formulated by such Catholic thinkers as G. K...
- NeoliberalismNeoliberalismNeoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the...
- Canadian ConservatismCanadian conservatismConservatism in Canada is generally considered to be primarily represented by the Conservative Party of Canada at the federal level, and by various right-wing parties at the provincial level...
- Pink ToryPink ToryPink Tory is a term used in Canadian and British politics to describe an extremely liberal member of one of the Conservative or Progressive Conservative parties, even more liberal than a Red Tory. The term was often derisively applied to the 1971 to 1985 Ontario Progressive Conservative government...
- Rockefeller RepublicanRockefeller RepublicanRockefeller Republican refers to a faction of the United States Republican Party who held moderate to liberal views similar to those of Nelson Rockefeller...
- ToryToryToryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...
- Tory socialismTory SocialismTory socialism was a term devised by historians, particularly of the early Fabian Society, to describe the governing philosophy of the British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli...
- Traditionalist conservatismTraditionalist ConservatismTraditionalist conservatism, also known as "traditional conservatism," "traditionalism," "Burkean conservatism", "classical conservatism" and , "Toryism", describes a political philosophy emphasizing the need for the principles of natural law and transcendent moral order, tradition, hierarchy and...
- WetsWetsDuring the 1980s, members of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom who opposed some of the more hard-line policies of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher were often referred to as "wets"...