I think anyone who glances at the Canadian political scene every once in awhile realizes The Conservative Party is not what most Canadians understood and knew The Progressive Conservative Party to be. 

One contextual fact might help explain the whole matter: the increasing integration between Canadian and American conservatives, who tend to be as thick as thieves. Brodie’s own career is part of this story of the Canadian right becoming increasingly tied to its American counterpart. Brodie did his PhD in political science at the University of Calgary under Ted Morton, an American-born former academic and activist and known as the dean of the “Calgary school”, an intellectual movement that has remade Canadian conservatism along American-lines. Traditionally, Canadian conservatives have followed the model of old-fashioned British Tories, emphasising social cohesion and accommodation to the welfare state. Morton, who has served as an advisor to many conservative politicians, has consistently worked to make the Canadian right imitate their successful brothers to the south in marrying populism on social issues (including opposition to gay rights and abortion) with free-market economic policies.

The Galloping Beaver looks at this on how Canadian Conservatism sold out in article by Jeet Heer in The Guardian: Obamas Canadian enemies.  Do you wonder where conservatism went? Start with Heer and head over to The Galloping Beaver.   You may even have a few aha moments.

Heer poses an interesting idea in his conclusion. The most important aspect though is that Harper’s integration with the US movement conservatives is virtually complete and it would be a mistake to suggest they are related to past Canadian conservative parties by anything but a slender thread. In fact, they are, as Heer suggests, a part of a much larger international conservative movement headquartered in this US toilet.

We didn’t like the Comintern and the Cominform. Why would we accept a conservative form of it?