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CONTEMPORARY CONSERVATIVE LEADERS: A Character Sketch by Bill lee

There is a picture recently circulating on the internet which provides an accurate, though rather depressing, rendering of a pair of contemporary right wing Canadian politicians. One, Danielle Smith, is presently infesting the Office of Premier in Alberta. She looks dower and displeased, as if she has just missed out on being allowed to pull wings off some flies. The other one, is the leader of the Loyal (using the term loosely) Opposition in the House of Commons, Pierre Poilievre. How he has somehow managed to finagle, or barge (probably both), his way into the leadership of the (highly) Conservative Party is puzzling, but not germane to this article. He also looks unhappy. He also appears dower but seems more like a man who has just finished sucking a very unpalatable lemon.


Both of these specimens of present-day conservative leadership look as if they are miserable. In action they are miserable. They are me-first toxic individualists (think Ayn Rand); neither is possessed of, or even shows, the slightest understanding, or even the smallest sliver, of interest in a sense of such a thing as the public good. Both quite gleefully supported the vile and obnoxious so-called “Truckers Convoy” that rendered life in parts of the nation’s capital a horror for many of its citizens, and blocked traffic on bridges important to the economy of the nation. They each have been heard to spew colonial, racist insults to Indigenous people. They are for private health care and education. The idea of attempting to build a just and humane society which would be inclusive of all citizens, is as foreign to these two as it is to the deplorable DJ Trump. Like the vile and multi-indicted former US president, they are self-absorbed and arrogant, lacking the least scintilla of a discernible moral code. Both are committed slaves to the slimy, avaricious oligarchs that are doing their best to destroy our (and everyone else’s) environment. They are publicly four square in support of greedy corporations, particularly fossil fuel, and thus carbon producers, and four square against those who are working to develop ways and means to avoid climate catastrophe. They are not only unpleasant individuals and politicians, they are absolute dangers to the country

But these two examples do not represent the only examples of the lack of talent and character among Conservative party leaders. Clearly the whiney Scott Moe (a grubby, penny pinching, climate denier) who has managed to fool sufficient of the electorate in Saskatchewan to become the Premier of that province, is another heavy stone weighing down the development of a more progressive Canada.

But I would really like to spend a moment sketching the character of the premier of my own province, Doug Ford. He has managed to buy off sufficient suckers (“Buck a Beer and the cancelation of automobile licence fees are just two examples) here to weasel a second term for the phenomenally inappropriately named “Progressive Conservative Party”. At one point in his first term he had his members stand up and clap like a herd of
trained seals every time he made a statement or “answered” a query at question period time at the ledge. Since that time he has become known for the way he has ripped into two of the provinces most important institutions that are supposed to serve the public good, education and health care. Whether it’s freezing nurses’ salaries (after covid, in which that group was among the most heroic in their sacrifice) or legislating private health clinics, he has made a hash of an already tender situation. Education likewise has fallen under his baleful gaze. He has set one of his sleaziest attack dogs, a guy named Leche, to undermine the public system by increasing class sizes, favouring private schools and denigrating teachers. The City of Toronto’s citizens (of which I am one) have also felt his wrath, because they refused to elect him as mayor to succeed his late alcohol and drug addled brother. He cut in half the number of City Counsel representatives, in almost the middle of a municipal election and has made sure to underfund the already under funded TTC which harms working class and marginalized people.

There is one group of people however which is dear to Doug's heart, land developers. A bunch of them were even invited to his daughter’s pre-nuptial bash. Mind you it was indicated in the invitation that their presence had to be accompanied by a fat check. At the same time, he chose to open up part of the heretofore off limits wetlands around the GTA for housing development. Coincidentally, just prior to the public announcement, some of his developer pals bought large packets of land in the environs. Some, Doug and his friends, call this coincidence while others, with no connections to the premier, call it corruption, plain and simple. Very recently the Auditor General of the province released a report in which she blasts the government for providing these developers, known Conservative Party supporters, with inside information and clear preferential treatment in getting their grubby hands on sensitive green zone properties. They will make literally billions of dollars. She has not used terms like, “graft” or “corruption” but the implications are plainly there.

In drawing this little picture of some of the leaders of conservative parties that infest our body politic, there are two points I’d like to affirm. First, they all share economic/political ideologies which serve the needs and wants of the most absolutely privileged class in Canada. They, and their ilk, fit perfectly the old Al Cap jibe, “What’s good for General Bullmoose is good for the country”. Second however, one does not need to be a “raging socialist” (as some might think, not totally unjustly perhaps, of me) to understand that they and their associates are among the worst examples of conservative politicos. Not one of these members of the rogue’s gallery which dominate conservative politics at this time, demonstrates any particular affection for our country. Nor do they show the ability to humanely and effectively lead any part of it, province or nation.

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