Are there any real “conservatives” in Newfoundland and Labrador?

October 21, 2008 · Posted in Conservatism.ca 

All this Danny-bashing, while tremendously appropriate and overdue, strikes me as a wee bit fatalistic.

Anyhoo, I suspect ordinary Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have seen (or are about to see) the fruitlessness of following their Dear Leader, Kim Jong-Will.

So, what’s next?

Danny leads a party called The Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador. There is that “Conservative” word in there, but I wonder if there are any “conservatives” in this party? If so, why did they elect a liberal (or, it seems, a “Liberal”) as their leader?

If there are any conservatives, perhaps they should take steps to remove the liability. If there are not, then perhaps it is high time that somebody start a conservative party in Newfoundland and Labrador.

In British Columbia, we have a fringe “Conservative Party of British Columbia” and a center-right “Liberal Party of British Columbia”, the defacto “coalition of the non-NDPers”.

For Albertans that find the “Progressive Conservative Party” just a wee bit too “Progressive”, there is the “Wildrose Alliance”, seemingly an affordable luxury in true-blue Alberta.

And the provincial “conservative” brand in Saskatchewan remains scathed because of a long-ago – but all too fresh – scandal, so the center-right started the successful “Saskatchewan Party”.

Perhaps conservative Newfoundlanders and Labradorians should consider their options. Take (back?) the PC party? Start a new conservative party? The “Newfoundland and Labrador Party” – is NLP too close to NDP, or the old Natural Law Party?

In any case, seriously, something should be done.

The current leader is to “conservative” what “Hugo Chavez” is to “Bush-Loving GOP Republican”.

Tags: no tags

Comments

  • JC Kelan

    There was a conservative in Labrador but I left. Sorry. Oh, and the correct spelling is “Labradorian”.

    But, to your commentary, I would largely agree that there isn’t a huge conservative demographic in the province. It is largely a battle of the ins vs the outs, with either the Liberals and PCs wandering left and right as the political winds demand. For example, Clyde Wells, Liberal, was more conservative than the PCs of the day.

    It remains a province where there is one dominant political party, often dominated by one personality, while the other party sits in the wilderness until scandal or weariness drives voters strongly in the other direction. Rarely is there a viable opposition party.

    There is probably too much of a view that government is there to dispense goodies if you vote the right way for a truly conservative government to take hold. This goes back to the Smallwood days (actually, a lot further if you look to colonial times).

    JC Kelan

  • Billy Jack

    Actually in Alberta, it’s not the Alberta Alliance, it’s now the “Wildrose Alliance.” There was a merger just prior to the last provincial election.

  • Paul Holmes

    Corrected (stupid spell-checker), and corrected (stupid me).

    I guess I had a pie-in-the-sky moment thinking how nice it would be to see somebody/some group come forward with a principled approach to politics that isn’t based on knocking heads with the feds and frittering away every last nickel of finite resource revenue.

    It seems that there is (was) a golden opportunity to turn a corner in NL. It just strikes me that “more of the same” is not the best solution.

    But what do I know, I live on an island in the Pacific, not the Atlantic.