state of canadas conservative movement

8/7/2019 State of Canadas Conservative Movement

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State of CanadaS

ConSevatve MoveMentapril 2010

www.manningcentre.ca

This document is intended as an annual report for Canadas conservative

movement. It includes three parts:1 Understanding Canadian attitudes towards conservative values;

2 Canadas Electoral Map; and,

3 State of Canadas conservative infrastructure.


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Cover image: William Kurelek, Manitoba Party, 1964, photo National Gallery of Canada

Table of Contents

Letter From Preston Manning, President and CEO 2

Introduction 3

Understanding Canadian Attitudes Towards Conservative Values 4

Canadas Electoral Map 7

State Of Canadas Conservative Infrastructure 8

Manning Centre for Building Democracy: Background 12


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2 STATE OF CANADAS CONSEVATIVE MOVEMENT

PO BOX 1988, Station M

Calgary, Alberta T2P 2M2

CP 1988, Succ M

Calgary, Alberta T2P 2M2

t 403.255.8100 t

f 403.265.8855 f


April, 2010

Canadian politics has changed. As a result, we conservatives nd ourselves witha unique opportunity to shape the future our country for the better.

The assumptions that have guided conventional thinking about Canadian politics since the timeof Trudeau are no longer valid. The constitutional debates that gripped generations of Canadianthinkers and activists are no longer the dening issue of our political discourse.

The rise of the West along with evolving attitudes towards separatism in Quebec has alsofundamentally altered the political balance.

Canada seems to have reached the limits of the welfare state, and most Canadians understand thatthe future is about restraint rather than activist government programs and expanding entitlements.

Canadians may be taxed more heavily than ever, but we are also wealthier and have more

disposable income than ever before. As a result our primary concern is quality of life, not standardof living.

Despite the best efforts of generations of liberal pundits and politicians, you will see in this reportthat Canadians are in many ways inherently conservative.

All of this leads me to the conclusion that Canadian conservatives have the opportunity to lead,and to dene Canadian political discourse for generations to come. Indeed, Canadians arebest served by timeless conservative principles rooted rst in liberty, dignity, responsibility, andtradition.

First, we conservatives have work to do.

Canadas conservative movement needs to generate a constant supply of new ideas, well-trainedpeople, and communications tools, which all require signicant nancial investments to produceand sustain them. This then, is the subject of this report and the mission of the Manning Centre.

For the cover of this report, we have chosen a painting by Canadian artist William Kurelek entitledManitoba Party. The big gathering under a big tent is representative of our common project.Those of us who share a vision of Canada strong and free are gathering. Guided by our commonprinciples and with some hard work, we will serve Canada well and we will have lots to celebrate.

Yours sincerely,

Preston Manning,President and CEO


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INTODUCTION 3

Understanding Canadian attitudestowards conservative values: ex-amining the attitudes held by Canadianstowards conservative values as reportedin a national public opinion survey com-missioned by the Manning Centre earlierthis year.

Canadas Electoral Map: summariz-ing the current electoral standings of con-servative-oriented political parties at thefederal, provincial, and territorial levels.

State of Canadas conservativeinfrastructure: examining the currentstate of Canadas conservative-orientedthink tanks, advocacy groups, trainingprograms, communications vehicles, andfundraising capabilities.

The State of Canadas Conservative Movement isbased, in part, on the Manning Centre Barome-ter and other presentations made to the ManningNetworking Conference, March 1113, 2010,in Ottawa.

More information on the Manning CentreBarometer can be found on the website:www.manningcentre.ca

More information on the Manning Network-ing Conference 2010, including video from

the session State of Canadas ConservativeMovement can be found on the website:www.manningcentre.ca

An Invitation for Feedback

This document is the rst assessment ofthe current state of Canadas conserva-tive movement. In future editions of this report,the Manning Centre would like to continue to

develop descriptions of the various componentsof the movement, useful performance measures,and specic recommendations for strengtheningperformance.

ecipients of the State of Canadas ConservativeMovement are invited to provide feedback onhow to make it more informative and useful, inparticular ideas on how best to report:

The extent to which Canadian values areconsistent with conservative principles andpolicies.

The electoral successes and failures ofconservative-oriented political parties.

The state of conservative democraticinfrastructure.

Please direct your feedback and suggestionsto [email protected].

IntroductionThis document is intended as an annual report for Canadas conservative movement.It includes three parts:


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Prominent Canadian public opinion experts AllanGregg and Andre Turcotte designed the survey.

Between February 110, 2010 a total of 1,000telephone interviews were conducted with adultCanadians. The margin of error for a sample of thissize is +/-3.3 percentage points within a 95%condence interval.

For more on the Manning Centre Barometer 2010visit: www.manningcentre.ca

People sometimes talk about left and right inpolitics. Based on what you know, using a 1to 7 scale where 1 is extreme left, 4 is centreand 7 is extreme right, where do you positionyourself on this political ideology scale?

The Canadian centre is predominantlyconservative

espondents were presented with a series of valuestatements and asked to use a scale of 1 to 7 where 1is totally disagree and 7 is totally agree. A major-ity of Canadians expressed strong support (answer-ing either 6 or 7) for a variety of values generallyrecognized as conservative: Nothing is more important than family (89%) Marriage, by denition, is between a man

and a woman (67%) Abortion is morally wrong (60%) Learn from what worked in the past to solve

problems (54%) Better to implement small changes than all at

once (54%)In addition, the following value statements alsoreceived high, though not majority, levels of support: Patriotism, strong military, necessary to

advance national interests (44%) There is a right and wrong, not all about

individual perception (42%) Private sector before government to solve

economic problems (36%)

What is signicant is that all of the above valuepropositions are more strongly associated with con-servative values than with those of liberals or socialdemocrats. This is not to say that values generallyassociated with liberals and social democrats are notsupported, but the levels of support are for the mostpart signicantly lower, including: Tolerance and moderation are what it is all

about to be Canadian (50%) People holding different values/beliefs make

society richer (47%)

We have a responsibility to look after those lessfortunate (43%) Government action is the best way to solve

economic problems (31%)

Understanding Canadian Attitudes

Towards Conservative ValuesThe Manning Centre Barometer is a snapshot of Canadian attitudes towards values andpolicies generally recognized as conservative. The Manning Centre intends to replicatethis Barometer on an annual basis in order to track Canadian attitudes over time.

70%

60%

50%40%

30%

20%

10%

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extre

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xtremeleft

The majority of Canadians identify withthe centre

When asked to position themselves on thepolitical spectrum, Canadians overwhelminglyself-identify as centrist:

Q


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UNDESTANDING CANADIAN ATTITUDES TOWADS CONSEVATIVE VALUES 5

Dealing with moral issues

Social conservatives should take heart that a majorityof Canadians say they believe abortion to be morallywrong and that marriage constitutes the union of aman and a woman. While a majority of Canadianshold these more traditional views, it should be noted,however, that a majority believe that governmentsshould play only a minor role or no role at all in theregulation of individual behaviour or morality.

This would suggest that if social conservatives wishto retain and expand public support on moral issues,they should rely less on urging government interven-tions and more on advancing non-governmental ini-tiatives to achieve their goals.

84% feel that governmentshould have an importantrole in managing theeconomy.

But most do not want government to domore to reduce income inequality, stimulateeconomic growth or deal with economic recession.

Only 39% think government can be very helpful.

Only 34% feel government policies havea big impact on our daily lives.

60% feel that abortion ismorally wrong and 67%support the traditionaldenition of marriage.

But just 31% feel government should play amajor role regulating individual behaviourand morality.

Split (46:50) on the role of government inpreserving the moral fabric of society.

There seems to be a deepening ambivalence towardthe relevance and capacity of government, which mayin part explain declining public interest in politics andelections. While 84% of respondents say that the gov-ernment should play a major role in managing theeconomy, most do not want governments to do moreto reduce income inequalities or to stimulate economic

recovery and growth. Only 39% think that govern-ment can be very helpful, and only 34% believe thatthe federal government has a big impact on theirlives. When asked who or what they rely on rst intime of need, 8 out of 10 respondents say they turn rstto family rather than look to government for assistance.

Ambivalence towards what government can do


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Divergences between centrists and conservatives

Centrists Values/Policies Conservatives

42% Government should play a major role in preserving the moral fabricof Canadian society

53%

21%Government should play a major role in regulating individualbehaviour and morality 54%

29%The policies implemented by government have a big impact on myday-to-day life 51%

When comparing the values and policies embracedby self-identied centrists and self-identied conser-vatives, there is a surprising degree of convergence.There are, however, several signicant divergences.

Most signicantly, centrists place a higher priorityon environmental protection than conservatives.Other signicant divergences include:

That said, given the degree of convergence betweencentrists and conservatives it should come as no sur-

prise that 47% of centrists voted Conservative in the2008 federal election. Furthermore, quite a number ofpositions and policies of the Harper government arecommanding relatively high levels of support including:

6 of 10 Canadians support reducing taxes oncorporations to stimulate economic growth

7 of 10 support the governments spendingpractices despite projecting a $56 billiondecit this year

6 of 10 support abolition of the long gunregistry

6 of 10 believe the government is doing justenough to deal with the recession

5 of 10 believe the government is doing justenough to deal with climate change

8 of 10 think the military should leaveAfghanistan in 2011 as planned


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CANADAS ELECTOAL MAP 7

For the purposes of this document, conservative-ori-ented party only refers to the primary conservative-oriented party in each province with the exception ofthe Wildrose Alliance Party in Alberta, which adds6% to the popular vote (but no seats) in the 2008provincial election. The BC Liberals and ADQ are in-cluded as conservative-oriented but federal indepen-

dents are counted as other. The Northwest Territoriesand Nunavut have no parties at the territorial level,so only federal results are included for those juris-

dictions. Furthermore, these results reect the mostrecent general elections in each jurisdiction, not anyrecent by-elections.

It is also important to note that there are varyingdegrees of commitment to conservative principlesamong those elected under the banners of conser-vative-oriented parties. In future editions of this docu-ment, we intend to further rene the denition of con-servative-oriented political parties, and the analysisof election results.

Canadas Electoral MapThe relative success of conservative-oriented political parties in winning elections is

an important measure of their effectiveness in communicating their messages to thepublic and winning support. It is also a reasonable proxy to track public support forconservative values and policies.

At the federal, provincial, and territorial levels,conservative-oriented political parties have beenmoderately successful in recent years. A supercialanalysis of the results in the most recent general

elections shows that conservative-oriented parties,loosely dened, hold 36% of the popular vote and42% of the seats.

Popular vote Seats

36% conservativeoriented

42% conservativeoriented

64% other 58% other

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

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40%30%

20%

10%

0%

TOTAL

NU N

T YT BC AB SK MB

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Vote conservative-oriented

Seats conservative-oriented


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Historically, political parties participated in seriouspolicy development and communication campaigns.The realities of modern party politics, however, haveforced most political parties to become primarilymachines for running and winning the next electioncampaign.

Increasingly, necessary intellectual capital, humancapital, social capital, and communications capac-

ity must be developed by programs and institutionsoutside the political parties. In the case of Canadianconservatives, this means that while the primary taskof conservative parties is to win elections. The pri-mary task of the conservative movement, however,is to build conservative democratic infrastructure,including:

Investment: Foundations, companies, and indi-viduals who are willing to invest necessary nancial

resources in political endeavors other than parties.Ideas: Academic institutions, research organiza-tions, and think tanks that generate and analyzeideas, policies, and proposals. This includes:

i. Establishing the ideological and philosophicalbasis for ideas.

ii. Advancing timely and relevant public policies.

iii. Specialized knowledge about specic policyareas.

Training: Programs and institutions that equip politi-cal practitioners with the skills, experience and knowl-edge to be effective.

Networks: Opportunities to form the coalitions,linkages, networks, and relationships among like-minded conservatives that are the backbone ofpolitics.

Activism: Interest groups and campaigns that mobi-lize or litigate in order to protect or advance conser-vative principles.

Communications: Communications vehicles of alltypes including publishing houses, periodicals, ra-dio shows, television programs, and websites whichserve as the primary means through which Canadi-ans receive information.

State of Canadas

Conservative InfrastructurePoliticians, political parties, and policy makers are the agents of ideas; they are theones who will ultimately manage governments and implement public policy. But theyare also generally consumers not producers of human, social, and intellectual capi-tal. The battle of ideas demands a constant supply of new ideas, well-trained people,and communications tools, all requiring signicant nancial investments to produceand sustain them.

Investment

Ideas

Training

Networks

Activism

Communications

Political Practitioners


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STATE OF CANADAS CONSEVATIVE INFASTUCTUE 9

The following is a preliminary assessment of the stateof conservative democratic infrastructure in Canada,based largely on presentations made to the recentManning Networking Conference. It suggests that

a great deal of work will be required from all par-ticipants in the movement to strengthen it. To provideleadership, encouragement, and resources to thosepeople who will be a part of this building processis the mission of the Manning Centre for BuildingDemocracy.

Investment

Government departments, agencies, and organiza-

tions have virtually unlimited budgets; unions haveaccess to monopolistic fundraising, in particular thepublic sector unions. Canadas conservative move-ment, however, must rely on the generosity of privatedonors.

In 2008, conservative movement organizationsraised about $25 million. By means of comparison,conservative-oriented federal and provincial partiesraised about $50 million.

It is important to improve the fundraising capacity ofCanadas conservative movement, in particular:

To grow the number and size of donationsto political organizations other than politicalparties, and to encourage a culture ofphilanthropy that recognizes the importance ofinvesting in democratic infrastructure.

To build funding models that have the potentialto self-nance, for instance the conservativebook club.

To further develop internet and direct mail

fundraising in order to raise money from largenumbers of small donations.

To construct a political venture-capital fundmarket to help direct necessary funding tonew conservative-oriented ideas, projects, andorganizations.

Ideas

Those who wish to deliver good and principled gov-ernment require an inventory of ideas grounded inconservative principles on everything from aborigi-nal affairs to urban development.

Ideas, analysis, and policy proposals from a conser-vative perspective are predictably strong in areas likescal policy, economic issues, trade, and justice. Butthere are signicant gaps, including a lack of well-dened conservative positions on:

Science, technology and innovation. Free-market approaches to environmental

conservation.

Social justice and positive alternatives to thewelfare state.

Activity Areas of Government Think Tanks Academics Other

Aboriginal

Culture

Economy

Environment

Fiscal

Immigration

...

Justice

Science

Tax

Trade

Urban

Sources of esearch and Expertise


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Activism

There are a respectable number of conservative-oriented organizations that produce ideas, research,and policy proposals

including: Fraser Insti-tute, Frontier Centrefor Public Policy, C.D.Howe Institute, Mon-treal Economic Insti-tute, Atlantic Institutefor Market Studies,Institute for Marriageand Family, Centre

for Cultural enewal,Cardus, and others.

The conservative movement, however, needs morecapacity on the do side of the equation. Thoughwell served by organizations like the Canadian Tax-payers Federation, the National Citizens Coalition,and the Canadian Constitutional Foundation, there isa need for more activists. There are particular weak-nesses that should be addressed, including:

A paucity of political activists in businessgroups.

The tendency of government to provide publicfunding to centre-left groups.

The failure of conservatives to translate private-sector marketing skills into political marketingand advocacy.

CommunicationsCommunications refers to vehicles of all types includ-ing publishing houses, periodicals, radio shows,television programs, websites, and social media thatserve as the primary means through which Canadi-ans receive political information and analysis. Con-servative perspectives are relatively well-representedin print media, radio, and new media. On television,however, conservative voices and perspectives are

not well represented.

In order to address this deciency, particular effortis needed to strengthen the presence of conservativeperspectives and representatives on television. Fur-thermore, social media will be most powerful as a

communications tool when integrated with other me-dia, in particular television.

Training

Training refers to programs and institutions that equippolitical entrepreneurs (those who run for ofce, runcampaigns, issue campaigns, interest groups, thinktanks, public policy researchers, staffers) with theskills, experience, and knowledge they require to be

effective.PACTICAL POLITICS:

Conservative-oriented parties at the Federal and Pro-vincial levels provide some training for grassrootsactivists and volunteers in key campaign and orga-nizational skills. In particular, political parties offertraining programs for candidate development, cam-paign management, and constituency organization.

It varies, of course, what is offered across the coun-try. For instance, parties in some provinces simplyhave larger numbers of people involved and moreresources and are therefore able to offer more train-ing. Furthermore, to receive this training, people aregenerally expected to be already involved with theparty in question.

There are real opportunities for training upstreamand targeting those who are not already active inpolitics or political parties. In particular:

MUNICIPAL POLITICS: there is substantial needto train conservatives for municipal politics;conservatives are generally under-representedat the municipal or local levels.

Think

Do

RightLeft


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STATE OF CANADAS CONSEVATIVE INFASTUCTUE 11

STUDENTS AND YOUNG PEOPLE: thereis a need to train young people for studentgovernment and activism, and also to provideopportunities for young people to gain

experience in politics through internships. GASSOOTS ACTIVISM: there is a need

to train people in the basic campaign andorganizational skills necessary for anycampaign, with a particular emphasis on thosewho are already civically engaged but notnecessary political active.

POLITICAL MANAGEMENT:

Political management does not mean political sci-ence, business administration, nor public administra-tion. Political managers are professionals capable ofmanaging advocacy groups, political parties, cam-paigns, and the political side of government adminis-trations in an effective and principled manner.

As an example, when a political staffer arrives inOttawa he or she is seated across from a public ser-vant (a Deputy Minister, Assistant Deputy Minister,Director General) with 25 years experience, ad-vanced degrees, and ongoing professional develop-ment. Political staffers need to be adequately pre-pared to work with these public servants.

In the United States there are at least nine universityprograms dedicated to political management. Nonecurrently exist in Canada.

The Manning Centre has been working with Carleton

University to establish a cross partisan Graduate Pro-gram in Political Management program. Hopefullythis program will be in operation by the fall of 2011.In the meantime the Manning Centre has offeredcourses in this discipline.

NAVIGATING THE FAITH-POLITICAL INTEFACE:

When people of faith get involved in politics, theyoften do so on difcult moral and ethical issues. If

they make mistakes, they have the potential not onlyto discredit their policy positions and political alliesbut also their faith communities. There is a need fortraining programs, targeted to all faith communities,to encourage those with a faith commitment to beas wise as serpents and harmless as doves whenparticipating in politics.


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Vision

We embrace a vision of Canada strong and free;a people united in common purpose to serve our

inalienable and inherent right to life, liberty, andproperty.

We believe that Canadians and Canadas purposeare best served by timeless conservative principlesrooted rst in liberty, dignity, responsibility, andtradition.

We, therefore, envision a free and democraticCanada where political entrepreneurs have thecourage, skills, knowledge, ideas, and public sup-

port to win campaigns and implement conservativesolutions to the challenges of our times.

Mission

To identify, develop, and support political entrepre-neurs who can advance our common vision of a freeand democratic Canada.

Values

The Manning Centres mission is informed by the fol-lowing values:

Individual liberty, dignity, and responsibility

Free markets, freedom of choice, and limitedgovernment

Canadas cultural, religious, and democratictraditions

Strong families and communities Principled and prepared leadership

An informed, deliberative citizenry

Grassroots, democratic participation anddecision-making

The Manning Centre recognizes and accepts variousregional and philosophical dimensions to Canadianconservatism. ather than championing just one ofthese dimensions to the exclusion of the others, the

Manning Centre is committed to seeking commonground, resolving contradictions, and nding waysfor conservatives of all ideological and regionalbackgrounds to work together toward commonobjectives.

Preston Manning, President and CEONicholas Gafuik, Managing Director

Board of Directors

Preston Manning, President and CEO

Cliff Fryers, Chairman

Blair Nixon, Secretary and Treasurer

ick Anderson

Thompson MacDonald

Gwyn Morgan

Tasha Kheiriddin

Tom Long

Nigel Wright

Manning Centre for Building

Democracy: BackgroundThe Manning Centre for Building Democracy is a federally registered non-protorganization founded in 2005 by Preston and Sandra Manning.


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MANNING CENTE FO BUILDING DEMOCACY

Mailing Address: PO Box 1988, Station M, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2P 2M2Tel: 403.255.8100 Fax: 403.265.8855 Email: [email protected]

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