Editorial Exchange: Conservatives reset with a rush to the centre

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This article was published 01/06/2016 (3801 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canada’s Conservatives decided on the weekend that gay marriage might not be such a bad thing after all.

The party faithful, gathered in Vancouver for their annual convention, voted to remove the “traditional” definition of marriage — as “the union of one man and one woman” — from Conservative policy.

To many Canadians, it seems as if the Tories are joining the marriage equity party a tad late.

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Liberals at their own annual convention in Winnipeg, same-sex marriage has been legal in Canada for more than a decade.

“Who knows?” Trudeau added, “Ten years from now, they (Conservatives) might finally be willing to admit that climate change is real. Or that tax cuts for rich people don’t help the middle class. Or that government shouldn’t legislate what women can wear on their heads.”

Mr. Trudeau shouldn’t be too sure his main rivals will take a decade to reposition the so-called Party of Confederation, though. Moving toward the centre, on issues ranging from same-sex marriage to climate change, has been a Tory theme since Mr. Trudeau roundly defeated Stephen Harper in the 2015 federal election.

Calgary MP Jason Kenney put it this way over the weekend, “Welcome to a broad, national political party.”

Will this strategy work?

Liberals have traditionally been the “big tent” party in Canada. Mr. Trudeau’s victory reinforced that notion.

The question for the Conservatives is whether they can compete by imitating the Grits, by trying to steal their brand. By crowding the centre, in short.

History suggests this is a risky bet.

Liberals governed Canada for most of the 20th century, after all. While some centrist Conservatives won power (Brian Mulroney and Joe Clark among them) they were exceptions that proved the rule.

Mr. Harper seemed to recognize it would be hard to beat the “natural governing party” on its own turf, so he claimed his own. He stayed in power for 10 years by talking tough on crime, focusing public attention on fighting terrorism, trumpeting that his party was a good economic manager, using grants to favour curling and snowmobile clubs instead of arts groups and the CBC and, yes, stealing some immigrant votes from the Liberals by championing family values rather than gay rights.

Mr. Harper understood his base. And while the common perception seems to be his Conservatives were routed in 2015, they still took close to one-third of the popular vote.

Mr. Trudeau is now seen as a coronation candidate, but his Liberals took just under 40 per cent of the popular vote, hardly a landslide.

A centre-right Conservative party, under a leader who simply feels friendlier than Mr. Harper, might be the best bet the Tories have, then.

History certainly suggests this would be smarter than trying to beat the Liberals at their own game.

» Halifax Chronicle-Herald, via The Canadian Press editorial exchange