Continental Conservatives
Over the years, a lot of people ask me why I'm fairly bullish on Prime Minister Stephen Harper's goal to turn the Tories into the 21st century version of "Canada's Natural Governing Party". Lots of reasons I would say. The success of globalization economics....The power and economic shift from eastern towards western Canada...Old world values of many new Canadians...The natural conservatism of Canadian youth.....*record scratch*
"The natural...?"
The natural conservatism of Canadian youth. At least when it comes to economics.
"You're kidding right?"
Not at all. Most twenty-somethings like myself grew up and formed their basic political values at a time when balanced budget operations and streamlining government spending were not only necessary, but demanded by the voters. When you have governments ranging from Mike Harris Tories to the Roy Romanow NDP focusing on conservative economic principles, that is going to leech into those new voters coming up.
We're also talking about a group to tends to be more individualistic and less traditional.
"The natural...?"
The natural conservatism of Canadian youth. At least when it comes to economics.
"You're kidding right?"
Not at all. Most twenty-somethings like myself grew up and formed their basic political values at a time when balanced budget operations and streamlining government spending were not only necessary, but demanded by the voters. When you have governments ranging from Mike Harris Tories to the Roy Romanow NDP focusing on conservative economic principles, that is going to leech into those new voters coming up.
We're also talking about a group to tends to be more individualistic and less traditional.
These are people who drift towards conservative parties so long as the parties give them a reason to do so.
Now this argument is not always received by my listener, who sometimes counter-argue that I'm projecting my own values on Canadian youth in general.
Nice to read that Paul Wells (and really pollster Frank Graves) basically support me. There's a counterpart group who still go left, but the core Tory voter pool potential is there.
Now this argument is not always received by my listener, who sometimes counter-argue that I'm projecting my own values on Canadian youth in general.
Nice to read that Paul Wells (and really pollster Frank Graves) basically support me. There's a counterpart group who still go left, but the core Tory voter pool potential is there.
Graves identified two big trends emerging. One is a steady, marked shift in Canadians' political identification from liberal to conservative. That's obviously bad news for the federal Liberals. The other trend looks less menacing: the emergence of two broad cohorts of under-40 voters, one broadly left-leaning, the other more conservative. Since they're about the same size they should more or less balance out. Except both of these groups of younger voters have their own generational quirks, and so far Stephen Harper's Conservatives have had better luck reaching out to "their" young voters than the post-Paul Martin Liberals have to "theirs."
Wells' article is an excellent read and if you want to get a sense of where political debate will head over the course of the next twenty years, you might want to give it a read. I'm going to come back to it from time to time.
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