The Rock Blog

Luca Manfredi is a CF member currently studying at McGill University in Canada.

Perhaps the greatest testimony to the intellectual power and invincibility of conservatism is our inability to confine it within a rigid ideological and policy framework. The natural political expression of individual freedom is like a multi-faceted gem: different every time you look at it yet blindingly beautiful, solid and reliable. The British Conservative Party closing in on the centre and the Conservative Party of Canada dragging the centre to the right are two good examples of these different approaches.

Coming to Canada with my UK Conservative baggage was to prove more challenging than I thought. Firstly, I settled possibly in the most tory-hostile province: Quebec. Being a right-winger here is nothing short of a mark of infamy. At the same time the provincial sort-of-conservative party - Action Democratique du Quebec - dons a populist costume and wobbles on policy, and Conservative McGill out of 30000 enrolled students recruits barely 30 members. However my biggest surprise was the federal Party and its leader, Stephen Harper.

The Conservative Party of Canada is a much harder bone to chew on than one might perceive. They have managed two years as a minority government enacting strongly Tory policies, of which the cut in federal VAT, security certificates and paying off Canada’s debt are prime examples. Helped by an opposition in disarray the CPC can afford to be very steadfast in its torification of the Great White North and Mr Harper can portray himself as a strict leader, hard-fisted when necessary. If the British Tories may sound like a warm-hearted cousin the CPC is the caring but strict father.

Another distinctive characteristic of canuck Tories is their lack of love for David Cameron. They see him as a “Red Tory”, quite an unflattering way to be described on this side of the Atlantic. Most of this can be ascribed to unawareness of life in Britain first and foremost, as the end of Thatcherism seems to be taking its time sinking into the mind of my local blue brethren. I have to credit them, however, with an excellent ability to listen and understand other mindsets once they are explained to them.

Cameron’s incrementalism might not sound appealing, but when manifested to the best of my oratory abilities it is not contested as hotly and vehemently as it was only a few minutes earlier.

At the end of the day a Party is not just its leader or its structure but its members and activists. Few have welcomed me in Canada with the same enthusiasm of some of my newly found Conservative colleagues, eager to get me involved. Mostly this comprises volunteering and think-tank events as well as Party business not requiring official membership as I can’t join until I get my permanent residency.

Toryism in Montreal is a home away from home. Despite the own rules and mindset, despite the local stigma and the exiguous numbers this is a welcoming community ready to take on new blood in the quest for a Tory Quebec and a Tory majority in Ottawa.

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