Canadian and US conservatives are far more different than you might think

Canada and the United States share a lot of things. However, despite sharing a border, the societies, and governments of both North American nations can be vastly different.

Nonetheless, it’s no secret that in the past years, there has been an approach between the Right located north and south of the 49th parallel. Some even argue that the Conservative Party of Canada should imitate the Republican Party of the United States.

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In early 2022, many people saw how truckers joined in the Freedom Convoy (or Convoi de la liberté, in Quebec), crossing the US-Canada border in protest of COVID-19 vaccine mandates by the government in Ottawa.

Some important right-wing voices in the US hail from the Great White North as well, such as psychologist Jordan Peterson and Gavin McInnes, founder of the Young Boys.

However, despite sharing one of the longest and freer borders in the world, what it means to be a conservative is quite different between north and south of the 49th parallel.

According to a 2022 survey by the Enviromics Institute and shared by the Institute for Research on Public Policy, Canadian conservatives and US Republicans have widely different opinions on key issues.

Right off the bat, there’s gun control. Only 13% of US Republicans believe that civilians shouldn’t be allowed to own handguns.

This is quite a gap from 40% of Canadian conservatives that believe that it should be illegal for civilians to own handguns. In fact, it’s closer to the 48% of US Democrats that agree with them.

On the topic of abortion, the results published by the Enviromics Institute were quite similar: 66% of Canadian Conservatives believe a woman should have the option available to her, while only 34% of their US counterparts believe the same.

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The piece by the Institute for Research on Public Policy also noted that the level of satisfaction has changed over time.

Back in the 1980s, more US people who identified with the right felt satisfaction with their government than their northern neighbors on the same side of the political spectrum.

40 years later, Canadian conservatives still feel the same about government, but the number has fallen abysmally for US Republicans.

Political news website The Hill outlines how the Conservative Party of Canada and the Republican Party of the United States evolved in parallel but vastly different.

The key factor might be a man by the name of Ronald Reagan. The rise of the Religious Right in the 1980s in America gave a lot of power to religious leaders and a sense to protect Christian values at all costs.

For better or for worse, Canada is arguably a country that has been defined by the Liberal Party and leaders such as William Lyon McKenzie King, Pierre Trudeau, and Jean Chrétien.

This forced the Conservative Party of Canada (and its predecessor, the Progressive Conservatives) to have a more moderate, middle-of-the-road approach and strategize towards the center.

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“There is an imbalance in Canadian politics. It takes most obvious form in the presence, federally and in some provinces, of two parties on the left to only one on the right”, wrote Right-leaning columnist Andrew Coyne in a 2018 opinion piece for The National Post.

Coyne accuses the Conservative Party, particularly during the Stephen Harper era, of a “crisis of confidence” in contrast to a “robust self-assurance” coming from the Canadian Left.

In 1980s America, Reagan’s promotion of small government, trickle-down economics, and other neoliberal policies defined the US economy and society in a way that still can be felt today.

Government institutions such as the Canadian health care system, while it may have its flaws, are considered important pillars of Canadian society.

Image: corymogk / Unsplash

Indeed, Saskatchewan Premier Tommy Douglas, regarded as the father of free health care in Canada, was voted as The Greatest Canadian in a 2004 CBC poll.

The Hill argues that the National Rifle Association, which had close ties to Ronald Reagan, also steered the debate on the ownership of firearms as a matter of personal freedom.

Meanwhile, in Canada, the horrors of the 1989 École Polytechnique Massacre in Montreal, where a lone shooter ended the life of 14 people and injured 14 others, led to stricter gun control laws.

Some conservative voices in Canada argue that right-wing politicians in the country are afraid to stand for their beliefs. They maybe should follow the example of their neighbors in the south in order to gain the country from Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party.

“Conservatism in Canada now amounts to, at best, opportunism. They are in favour of whatever is unassailably popular, opposed to whatever is indefensibly unpopular”, wrote columnist Andrew Coyne in an opinion piece for The National Post.

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However, looking at how the Republican Party in the United States is bending backwards to fit the whims of Donald Trump and his followers, that might not be the best path to follow.