this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2024
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Modern Canadian conservatives aren’t the tame fiscal conservatives we used to have indeed. This violent steering of the right wing towards social conservatism is worrying as fuck, and should be for anyone but hard traditionalists. It’s insane to see anybody who cares about Canada support Trump in any way with how he fucked us over and over.
Fiscal conservatism, in the strictest sense, has always been a means of conserving the favored hierarchies. We don't fund social programs, and as a result we maintain the rich/poor dynamic for example. This definition has nothing to do with prudent effective spending, I think.
What we think of as traditional Canadian fiscal conservatism is more correctly prudent fiscal liberalism. A willingness to engage in the use of fiscally measures for social gain so long as the funding is effective.
It's a shame that fiscal conservatism has somehow become synonymous with wanting to spend money wisely.
Oh 100%: Justin Trudeau's policies are either taken directly from the Con party (Carbon Tax credits, etc), or are directly in line with their values. The Con party has voted in favour/alongside the Liberal party in something like 95% of all votes taken since Trudeau came to power.
They just don't like him. That's fine, I don't either. The issue is that, also as you've stated, they keep inventing this idea that 'fiscal conservatism' A) has worked in the past, and B) will work now. They shuffle past the fact that when they were at their best they were Neoliberals.
Oh, you don’t have to convince me of their objectives. They just used to be less… upfront about it, not so long ago.
What will be interesting to see is how Gen Z/young Millenial voters respond to a federal Con government that targets 2SLGBTQ+ rights, abortion rights, and starts rolling back social programmes, and looks at how to privatize more healthcare.
I have a suspicion that new block of Con voters, who've only ever really had the Federal Liberals in power, will understand why Canadians vote Liberal two times for every one time they vote Conservative.
Hard to say how younger generations, especially men being influenced by the Jordan Petersons and Andew Tates, will react to Conservative governance. Unfortunately, with how gender-based polling is showing they might be perfectly happy with it.
Even accounting for the (bizarre, and embarrassing) shift of Gen Z men towards the Cons, they are still more into the NDP than any generation above them. In fact in a lot of young Gen Z (male) voters, while the Cons are first, the NDP are second, and it's ~5% between them. (Sorry I don't have the stats on me, but it was posted here on Lemmy not too long ago)
My kids are Gen Z, and (very anecdotally here, I admit) they have said everyone their age they know who would vote Con (and there are a few) are pausing on it, and are extremely concerned about the amount of Identity Politics (their words) the Cons are using. They are not ok with anti-SOGI, anti-Trans, anti-2SLGBTQ+, or anti-abortion laws/actions.
Even more interestingly, to me, of six of their friends who have said they would vote Con, 2 have already left - but not to the Liberals, to the NDP. I think a LOT of the Gen Z male Con voters just don't like the status quo, and don't understand that the Cons will not only keep said status quo, but make it worse. Once a Con government starts making all the mistakes they usually do, plus new ones straight out of MAGA USA, I think they'll split quickly. I honestly would be shocked to see a two-term Con government when they refused to even admit climate change exists.That is a TOUGH sell to Gen Z.