In 2017, Jane Coaston of the New York Times wrote:

For centuries, conservative politics has considered itself a means of preserving something — a culture, a way of being, an imagined notion of what once was and should be again… Conservatism has told us again and again that what came before us was most likely better than what will follow, and that old ideals are the basis of who we are as a people…

Conservatism has long had two faces — one for its ideological elites and another for its voters. Its intellectual class debates free markets and constitutional law, but the message for voters is consistently different, full of sinister socialist plots and black welfare recipients soaking up tax money...

[Conservative radicals] didn’t fear change; they desired it. Their imaginings ran not toward the stopping of history but toward constitutional conventions and civil wars. The emergence among them of the “alt-right” wasn’t a reaction to progressive threats but to a perceived lack of radical action from conservative leaders. Such voters no longer wanted to preserve an America that was going astray; they wanted to raze and remodel it…

When ‘Conservatives’ Turned Into Radicals

Jeff Flake, then a Republican Senator for Arizona, published Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle. According to Flake, the Republican party had become “compromised by other powerful forces – nationalism, populism, xenophobia, extreme partisanship, even celebrity.”

Flake wrote that conservatives ought to hold that “government should be limited and prudent in its exercise of the power granted it by the people.”

He complained that Donald Trump and his supporters were promoting a wave of anger and fear and were acting contrary to conservative principles by praising oppressive regimes, slandering ethnic and religious minorities, and by promoting fallacious conspiracy theories. Flake thought Republican leaders were engaging in petty partisanship and crony capitalism.

At New York Magazine’s Intelligencer, Jonathan Chait wrote:

Obviously Trump himself has never had any use for free-market dogma, having spent his career as a developer seeking government favors for his business, and then seamlessly transitioning into using his public powers for self-enrichment. But Trump’s casual disregard for a once-cherished conservative principle has been widely shared within his party.

Republicans Fall Back in Love With Crony Capitalism

While Canada’s Trump-inspired conservatives can be accused of a broad range of faults, right-wing politicians in this country seem particularly smitten by crony capitalism. Premiers Danielle Smith and Doug Ford, along with avaricious associates, seem to be prime examples. Before them, we had Christy Clark and Gordon Campbell in British Columbia.

This week, Ontario Auditor General found that a small group of well-connected developers with direct access to Ford government officials could see an $8 billion increase in the value of protected greenbelt land that Ford’s government opened for development.

Ontario AG Bonnie Lysyk said decisions did not follow normal land-use planning practices and did not consider agricultural and environmental impacts. Political scientist David Moscrop wrote:

If there was ever a doubt that corruption is a constitutive element of Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government, Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk’s report into its dodgy Greenbelt dealings ought to put that uncertainty to rest. Indeed, the government is something more than corrupt. There’s corruption. There’s utter corruption. And then there’s funnelling more than $8 billion to your developer buddies and party donors through land swaps in the bright light of day and expecting to get away with it.

The Greenbelt report proves it: The Ford government is corrupt

The Ontario scandal may be larger, but it reminds of when Christy Clark’s BC Liberals sold 14 publicly owned parcels of land on Coquitlam’s Burke Mountain for $43 million less than appraised value. Hassan Khosrowshabi of Wesbild Holdings was involved in purchase of all 14 land parcels. His companies had been 7-figure contributors to BC Liberal accounts.

Doug Ford’s deals also remind of the outrageous arrangement for Little Mountain lands made by Gordon Campbell’s regime:

In 2008, the BC Liberal government sold the social housing site to Holborn Group of Companies for $334 million. The existing 224 units of social housing were torn down in 2009, and residents were forced to move out of their community.

Holborn was then supposed to replace the social housing with new buildings, and fully develop the site with 1,400 units of market housing...

For five years, David Chudnovsky, a former NDP MLA, fought to make the sale agreement between the B.C. government and Holborn public through a freedom of information request. When that sales agreement finally came to light in 2021, the province confirmed that Holborn had paid just $35 million of the $334-million sales price.

In 2013, the then-BC Liberal government approved a five-year extension on a $211-million loan given to Holborn, extending the interest-free loan to 2026 — a benefit worth about $9.5 million to the developer…

After 15 Years, Little Mountain’s Housing Promise Still Looks Empty

In 2023, not a single unit of the 1,400 promised at Little Mountain is available for public housing.

Of course, adults in British Columbian should also remember when Gordon Campbell rewarded a major financial backer by privatizing the profitable BC Rail and distributing the public company’s vast and valuable land holdings to favoured parties. The transfers received very little public scrutiny from legacy media.

Premier Danielle Smith’s UCP government is determined to protect and support fossil fuel industries. In 2023, Alberta gave a green light to an Australian company’s coal mine in a pristine part of the Rocky Mountains. In addition, Smith’s UCP implemented a block on solar and wind energy projects, while wrongly accusing the federal government of banning fossil gas power plants to meet peak demands.

In fact, Rob Anderson, a Conservative/Wild Rose/UCP supporter, fossil fuel advocate, and executive director of Premier Smith’s office, revealed what Alberta’s ruling authorities think about clean renewables: “All this is, is a scam,” Anderson said in a video session that included Smith. He warned that renewable energy projects might injure Alberta lands. Apparently coal mines are acceptable to Anderson.

UCP energy policies are the real scam. Those favour and support a largely foreign owned industry that is contributing to global climate change and widespread environmental destruction.

Federal taxpayers will spend $1.7 billion to help clean up orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells in Alberta, Saskatchewan and BC. Most of the pending costs relate to Alberta, a province that under Smith’s UCP offered to pay oil and gas companies for doing what they are legally obligated to do. Internal regulatory documents revealed a staggering $260 billion estimate of Alberta oil and gas clean up costs.

Ethics and morality have little to do with self-serving radicals who falsely label themselves conservative. In too many cases, politicians who promised responsible management of taxpayers’ assets have shunned prudent exercise of power. They tolerate extensive damage to the planet so that financial benefits can flow to corporate cronies and financial supporters. Rewards, not public service, seem to be the raisons d’être for political activity.

For centuries, conservative politics has considered itself a means of preserving something — a culture, a way of being, an imagined notion of what once was and should be again… Conservatism has told us again and again that what came before us was most likely better than what will follow, and that old ideals are the basis of who we are as a people… The modern licentiousness that conservative figures used to condemn, the promises to use government power in ways that would normally unsettle conservative ideologues — voters could embrace these, so long as it appeared to benefit them. 1Conservatism has long had two faces — one for its ideological elites and another for its voters. Its intellectual class debates free markets and constitutional law, but the message for voters is consistently different, full of sinister socialist plots and black welfare recipients soaking up tax money…