King Arthur Movie Tristan

Nice article today in the National Post by former vice-president of the NAC Gerry Nicholls:

If Prime Minister Stephen Harper deserves credit for uniting the Conservative Party of Canada, he must also take the blame for dividing the conservative movement.

And make no mistake, Harper's deliberate strategy of diluting conservative principles and moving the party to the left has split the movement into two factions.

The members of one faction, who might be dubbed the "Tory Partisans," support the Prime Minister as they would support their favourite sports team. Ideology doesn't necessarily matter to them. What matters above all to Tory Partisans is winning.

The other faction, which might be called the "Principled Conservatives," are horrified with what Harper is doing; they believe the Conservative party must actually stand for certain values and ideas.

In other words, the Principled Conservatives want the Conservative party to be truly conservative-- that is, a party which stands for free enterprise and less government.

I have long struggled with the political question of what I am, trying to define myself within our limited system. For a while I felt I was a libertarian, but those guys are somewhat anarchistic for my taste. Small 'c' conservative seemed a good fit, but was terribly unimaginative. Lately, I have settled on 'classical liberal.' Individual freedom within our political and economic system, government that should show an explicit reason for ever involving itself in peoples lives, and evidence that such involvement will solve, or at least improve, the problem.

While defining what I am has been recent, I have always known where I stand. No party has ever truly spoken for me and that is as true today as it was in 1977 or 1997. I actually thought Stephen Harper could be the guy, would be conservative fiscally, liberal in everything else (liberal, not Liberal. Two very different things). So far, the evidence is not good.

My lot lies with the Conservative Party, I don't see how that can change, not in the near future. But boy they are making it hard. So yes, Principled Conservative fits, but it does imply association. So if you don't mind Gerry, you can use my name to bolster your argument, but I think I'll stick with classical liberal.