What Is A Red Tory?

 My politics have shifted over the past few years as I have gone from being a libertarian to social conservative to being middle of the road. The position I have embraced is Red Toryism as I was a supported of the Progressive Conservative Party Of Canada and later the Conservative Party Of Canada but I have not supported the later in years. My political heroes have included former Prime Ministers Sir.John A MacDonald, Sir Robert Borden and John Diefenbaker. But the problem I am having is what does it mean to be a Red Tory and what Red Toryism is.

It is often described by the media as “fiscally conservative and socially liberal” but many Neo-conservative governments such as Mike Harris in Ontario and Ralph Klein in Alberta espoused these views are definitely not Red Tories. What is a Red Tory then?  In Oxford”s Dictionary it is defined in Canada “a member of a political group who,while maintaining some conservative principles,supports many liberal and socialist policies “. Wikipedia has it as “an adherent of a center-right or paternalistic-conservative political philosophy derived from Tory tradition. It sees the government of playing a part in the economy as opposed to American small-c conservatism which sees the market place as king.

The best I could describe it is either a conservative with some socialist tendencies or a social democrat with some conservative tendencies. Either way they generally a monarchist, support Canada traditional ties with the UK, is a high church Anglican or Protestant and sees government as an ally rather than a nuisance. I fit a lot of the description except for me being a Baptist . They also institutions like the CBC and the Canadian Wheat Board. 

This is unfortunately is becoming an endangered species as Conservative Parties across have embraced American conservatism or classic liberalism and the only Red Tory government in recent times that I can think is the Danny Williams led PC’s in Newfoundland and Labrador in the 2000’s. There are people in each of the major political parties who hold this view but they are few and far between as there is no natural political home for Red Tories. There was a  minor party the Progressive Canadian party but it became defunct last year.

All hope is not lost and the definition still is the best I can describe and there are books by Ron Dart and George Grant among others that keep this tradition alive. I will describe more about it in another blog.