Doug Ford, Jason Kenney and the need for an NDP of the Right

If you thought getting rid of Patrick Brown meant a new party on the right was no longer needed in Ontario, two events in the past month have illustrated that the need is as pressing as ever. One involves Doug Ford and the dismissal of a PC candidate, the other comes to us from Alberta and Jason Kenney’s performance after the inaugural United Conservative Party convention.

But before looking at these in more detail, let’s remind ourselves of this key insight from Milton Friedman:

“I do not believe that the solution to our problem is simply to elect the right people. The important thing is to establish a political climate of opinion which will make it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing. Unless it is politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing, the right people will not do the right thing either, or if they try, they will shortly be out of office.” ― Milton Friedman

Jason Kenney and Doug Ford are about as far from Patrick Brown as you can get in the narrow window that is Canadian conservatism. In his final iteration, Patrick Brown was the urban, mild-mannered, socially liberal, fiscally moderate, conventional globalist who did his best to reflect the anachronistic Laurentian Consensus consensus. Jason Kenney is the poster boy of establishment social conservatism from the (reputedly) rock-ribbed reactionary bastion of Alberta. Doug Ford is the loud, proud, suburban Trumpite trying to ride the bucking populist bronco straight down Avenue Rd. into the heart of darkness. However both Kenney and Ford have demonstrated in the past two weeks that simply electing the ‘right’ person as leader will not bring about a conservative renaissance.

For thirty years, 20 of which were as an elected politician, Jason Kenney has been a stalwart defender of the pre-born and those traditional values that have been fundamental to Western civilization for centuries. But earlier this month when his own party overwhelming adopted two policies — both mandating parental notification of behaviour concerning their own children - Kenney took the opportunity to tell us he would be re-interpreting the intentions of UCP members to fit his own, new, more sophisticated agenda.

Meanwhile in Ontario, Doug Ford is steering his newly commandeered PC ship through the rocky waters of a liberal-media dominated provincial election. During the Leadership race which he won in March Ford showed unusual fortitude (and political savviness) by enticing over 80% of Tanya Granic Allen supporters to make him their second choice on their preferential ballots. Not only did Ford adopt Granic Allen’s signature issue (scraping Kathleen Wynne’s scandalous sex-ed curriculum) he unnecessarily grabbed a third-rail issue and walked away unscathed. By early May though, Doug had lost his mojo. When the Liberals spit up an old video showing Granic Allen talking frankly about the most pressing issue on their agenda — the imposition of Trinity-Spadina values in the Republic of Croatia- Doug bowed to the pressure of his advisors and pitched her overboard. This act may have dramatically affected the chances of ever reforming the Ontario education system, since Ford had frequently stated publicly that Granic Allen would be his Minister of Education.

So why did they do it? Why did Kenney and Ford both act not out of their ideological convictions or personal values? Because “(u)nless it is politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing, the right people will not do the right thing either”. The first goal of a politician is to get elected. The second goal is to get re-elected. Everything else is subsumed to these goals. Even for conservatives. Even for ‘good’ people. And unless the politician has a very good read on the mood of the public and the guts to blaze his own path, he is going to take his cues from his advisors, the Toronto Star, the CBC, and a host of other conventional thinkers. And the conventional thinking is that social and fiscal conservatives have no where else to go. They simply must vote PC or stay home.

And as long as they have no other political home, the conventional thinking will be right.