There used to be a federal party in Canada called the ‘Progressive Conservative Party’. In addition, between 1987 to 2000 the Reform Party of Canada emerged federally as a right-wing populist political party. This party then merged with the Progressive Conservatives to form the current ‘Conservative Party of Canada’. Note that they lost the ‘progressive’ portion of the party’s nomenclature. However, today there are growing concerns about how Canadian conservatives view ‘human rights’ issues, both federally and provincially.
After all, it was John Diefenbaker, as a Conservative prime minister, who in 1960 successfully introduced the Canadian Bill of Rights, the precursor of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Diefenbaker thought that individuals’ freedoms of religion, press, speech and association were threatened by the state. He believed that a Bill of Rights was needed to take a “forthright stand against discrimination based on colour, creed or racial origin.”
However, lately there has been a conspicuous trend in the stated views of several conservatives in Canada, as exemplified by the following:
- Federal conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch was seen shaking the hands of a ‘Rise Canada’ senior advisor, who represents an organization that has called for a permanent ban on all Muslim immigrants plus the mass deportation of existing Muslims. Leitch has also pushed for the stricter vetting of potential immigrants/refugees based on so-called ‘Canadian values’.
- Federal Conservative Party leadership candidate Brad Trost’s campaign is not backing down after controversial comments about his stated discomfort with the idea of people being gay.
- Federal conservative leadership candidate Kevin O’Leary enjoys severely criticizing the policies and qualities of female provincial premiers such as Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Alberta Premier Rachel Notley. He appears to imply that male premiers are more capable leaders, especially when it comes to economic matters.
- Ontario provincial Conservative MPP Jack MacLaren was forced to apologize after speaking against the provincial government’s proclaimed “zero tolerance” policy for the sexual abuse of patients by medical professionals.
- Jason Kenney, leader of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta, stated that Alberta schools should notify parents when their children join a gay-straight alliance club at school. This without fully understanding the nature of such school clubs and the resulting danger of putting some students at real physical and emotional risk.
- Conservative Senator Lynn Beyak was roundly criticized in Parliament after she shocked other senators by defending those who had worked in the church-run schools, and saying that the residential-school experience had positive aspects for the Indigenous children. This despite the findings of the 7-year national Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluding that the residential school system was a program of assimilation and “cultural genocide.”
Canada is generally recognized for its enviable record for respecting individual human rights, societal tolerance and inclusion of groups and their beliefs, cultural diversity and progressive social policies. The above several incidences are but a few representing an alarming trend regarding conservative thinking and attitudes. Hopefully, they won’t have to change their federal and provincial parties’ names to ‘Regressive Conservatives’.
FROLITICKS 
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