Rock and Roll Conservative

The past, present and future of conservatism in Canada

I must hand it to Immanuel Giulea. If you don't first succeed, try again. Immanuel recently tried to launch a conference in Montreal on the status of Canadian conservatism but unfortunately only a few dozen people showed interest. He's decided to host another conference, but this time in Ottawa.

The conference is entitled "The conservative movement at a crossroads: Lessons from the past, directions for the future" and will look back on the last six years and look ahead for next six.

He's got four high profile Canadian conservatives lined up as panel speakers: Gerry Nicholls, John Robson, Joseph C. Ben-Ami and Don Lenihan. Moderating will be Dr. Walter Newell.

It will take place on December 7 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm at the Parliament Pub at 101 Sparks Street (also an entrance on Wellington Street). Tickets are $10 (with appetizers) or $8.50 for students (with appetizers).

For more information and RSVP please contact Immanuel Giulea, Executive Director of Société Macdonald-Cartier Society at macdonaldcartier@gmail.com or 514-577-2669

Poster available here.

People, we may have a Conservative government in power but that doesn't mean that we as a movement can just sit back and enjoy the ride. Participating in the intellectual process to define our movement is something we all have to do. I have a magazine...do you have three hours?

One year later

W. James Antle III has an essay up at The Guardian arguing that Republican fortunes are beginning to turn one year after Barack Obama's victory.

Pity that conservative fortunes weren't improving as well...

The man behind the speechifying

John Hawkins has an eye-opening interview with former George W. Bush speech writer Matt Latimer that you really must read.

Quel dommage...

A few weeks back I told you about a conference in Montreal on the future of Canadian conservatism to take place on October 29. Well, Canadian conservatism has spoken and only 40 or so people had signed up for the event.

The organizer states that he may attempt to organize a similar conference in Ottawa. Hope that one works out better.

I'm sure some debate will be provoked

No, no, not about the joke from Oslo earlier today. Arkady Kamenetsky over at Right Condition has made a new political spectrum which you can check out here.

I'm not sure I quite agree with it. Libertarianism, after all, is composed of elements from the fiscally conservative right and the socially liberal left -- though for their own reasons. I'm not sure Arkady's spectrum reflects that. Still, better than what I come up with.

I'm almost tempted to go

Forget hockey, debate should be the national sport of Canada. For decades we've seen debates on what is it to be Canadian, social democracy, the monarchy and God knows what else. So why shouldn't conservatives do it too?

In that vein, there will be a panel discussion on the "Future of conservatism in Canada" in the most beautiful city in the country, Montreal, on October 29. They have some heavy hitters on the panel -- though I think they missed some obvious names -- and it should be a good time. Find out more here.

Passage

I feel like I should be writing this in a very erudite way: William Safire has passed away at the age of 79.

Passage

The term "neocon" is used to describe any brand of conservatism these days but Irving Kristol was the real deal. In classic neocon fashion, Kristol was a former Trotskyite who turned to the right and helped craft the basis for neoconservatism. He died today at the age of 89.

This, among several reasons, is why I don't consider Brian Mulroney a conservative

Bob Plamondon argued in his recent book Blue Thunder: The Truth about Conservatives from MacDonald to Harper that Brian Mulroney, who celebrated the 25th anniversary of his first election win today, was Canada's most conservative prime minister. An amazing assertion given that Lyin' Brian -- as many Canadians know him -- presided over the biggest tax grab in history, is a solid environmentalist, ran up monster deficits and passed exactly zero socially conservative policies.

Oh, and he supports Barack Obama's drive for an American universal health care system.

Want to know how unpopular Mulroney was during the end of his tenure as prime minister? George W. Bush had higher approval ratings at his nadir then Mulroney did at his. Now that's saying something.

If you pressed me I doubt I could name a single conservative cause that Brian Mulroney championed his entire political career -- with the possible exception of the free trade accord with the U.S, though free trade was traditionally a Liberal policy position throughout Canada's history. It's good to know that retirement hasn't changed the man.

In tribute

Did you W. James Antle III wrote for The Guardian? Neither did I. At any rate, he's got an essay up there in tribute to Robert Novak.

Passage

Sad day today with the loss of Robert Novak. Whether you agreed or disagreed with the man, you have to admit he was always entertaining and illuminating. Sleep well.

Bringing together my love of conservatism and women

John Hawkins brought together an expert panel of bloggers and has compiled a list of the 15 hottest conservative women in new media. In fairness, John should do something like this for the ladies...

Interview with Mike Adams

John Hawkins has a very thought provoking interview with professor and conservative columnist Mike Adams. Seriously, go and read it.

I know he's not a conservative, but is he even still a Republican?

Colin Powell isn't a fan of Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter and he believes Americans want to pay taxes and want more government in their lives. No, seriously, he said that.

Read on.

Sweet

Any time a new Canadian political web site launches is a good day -- particularly when its conservative in tone. The Daily Split recently went online and it already has a mountain of stuff for you to explore, plus it looks like they'll be friendly to the public providing content as well. It's already prompted me to reconsider a redesign of ESR...

Speaking of everything old being new again

Another fine moment in Clinton history saw Janet Reno declare war on the conservative movement as a terrorist movement, this despite the fact that the only "rightest" attack on American soil came courtesy of Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City. Though she apparently wasn't aware of it, virtually every terrorist attack on American soil going back a century came from the political left.

So with that in mind it shouldn't surprise you that the Department of Homeland Security -- decried as some great evil by the political left since its creation -- at the behest of Janet Napolitano has now decided that conservatives that fit a ridiculous profile are terrorists in waiting.

I guess that makes Rush Limbaugh our Osama bin Laden and Ronald Reagan our Sayyid Qutb.

Laugh

A couple of years back there was a bit of a debate as to who was funnier: conservatives or liberals. We likely won't ever answer that question -- though I hope we can all agree that Bill Mahr was never funny -- but there was an interesting article by Jim Slotek on the rarity of prominent conservative comics.

On a related/unrelated note, watch Jim Gaffigan's Comedy Central special tonight at 9:00pm. Seriously, I still laugh every time I see a box of Hot Pockets.

Bad news for privacy

If you're a member of Free Dominion -- Canada's version of Free Republic -- as I am, you'll undoubtedly be pleased to learn that a judge has ordered the web site's operators to give up identity data on its users to some "anti-hate speech" lawyer.

Read on.

Barack's boys

Probably the worst thing about Barack Obama's asdency to political top dog is how many Republican pundits -- and they are Republicans, not conservatives -- are carrying his water. John Hawkins has a round-up of the worst of the worst.

Passage

Ron Silver, actor and 9/11 Republican, has passed away of cancer at the age of 62. I always enjoyed watching his manic performances and will miss him.

Defending Steele

Michael Steele has sure had a rough go of it lately. First he gets into a fracas with Rush Limbaugh and now he's in trouble with anti-abortionists over some comments he made about the issue. John Hawkins says he's getting a raw deal.

The rightosphere speaks

John Hawkins has polled right-of-center bloggers in one his periodic polls concerning Rush Limbaugh, Michael Steele, the GOP and other issues and you can find the results here.

One of our favourite guys

John Hawkins has an interview up with one of our favourite conservatives, Walter Williams.

Read on.

They're here!

The biggest awards of the year have finally been announced. No, not the Golden Globes but the Annual Right Wing News Conservative Blog Awards. Anywho, find out who won here.

Conservatism embraces the web...again

If you aren't old enough to remember Ye Olden Days of the World Wide Web, it used to largely be the preserve of libertarian types. Back then we were concerned about everything that threatened the open freedom of the online world, whether it was taxing use, censorship, overreaching government control and a thousand other issues that we urgently signed petitions against.

Conservatives, for a period, were in the lead in utilizing the web for political activities -- such as they were -- with web sites like Free Republic and The Drudge Report playing an instrumental role in things like the Lewinsky affair and defending the Contract with America. Ah, those were the days.

Well, like many things, conservatives took their eyes off the ball and in two succeeding elections it was liberals -- cats like Howard Dean and Barack Obama -- who really became known for leveraging the power of the electronic town hall. Sure, we on the right-libertarian wing had our Ron Pauls but given that he never had a chance to capture the top prize, it was always kind of a failed effort for us.

Well, an interesting essay is up at Ars Technica right now about how the right (once again) is looking at the web to rebuild itself after an election loss. Worth reading even if you don't agree with everything that Julian Sanchez says.

Read on.