The irony is masterful. The so-called Freedom Convoy invaded Ottawa thinking it would be able to politically roll the head of Justin Trudeau. However, it is that of Erin O’Toole who, suddenly, has just fallen.
Putsch by a majority of its deputies, many of whom support the convoy, does its departure announce a new radicalization of the Conservative Party of Canada (PCC), still and always more to the right? If the past is a guarantor of the future, most likely.
Because the bankruptcy of Erin O’Toole is not only explained by his side “weather vane” pleasing sometimes to his ultra-conservative wing inherited from the Harper era, sometimes to that of the progressive-conservatives of the Mulroney school.
His debacle is explained above all by his attempt to “refocus” the CCP. If it failed, it is because the harperian wing is still dominant there. Galvanized by the so-called freedom convoy, she simply took the opportunity to get rid of Erin O’Toole.
In fact, what remains of progressive-conservatives in this party is a political species on the verge of extinction. The further the CCP moves away from the ideological center, with which a majority of Canadians identify, the more the Liberals are likely to stay in power for long.
It is true that Stephen Harper had managed to cover his party with a centrist veneer, with more moderate appearances. However, as the varnish was artificial, since his departure, he cracks everywhere.
What you need to know for the rest is this. First, since the creation of the CPC in 2003 by the merger of a moribund Progressive Conservative Party and the Canadian Alliance (CA) of Harper, the Harper wing has strongly dominated.
However, the Canadian Alliance was the spiritual heir of the Reform Party, created to defend the interests of Western Canada at the federal level. Both nesting to the right of the traditional right in the country.
Second, from the genesis of the Reform Party, its main pillars, including Harper, were right-wing thinkers in Western Canada and the United States. All connected to the Republican Party through various political and academic channels.
Especially through the University of Calgary. Where Harper had studied and where there were several professors close to the American Republican network.
Republican sector
Except for so-called social issues, this ideological proximity between the right in Western Canada and the Republicans in our southern neighbors has never been denied.
Like them, over the years, the harperian right, although less extreme, always slips more to the right. The arrival of Trumpism naturally feeds this same heavy trend.
As with the Republicans, we also see in this Canadian right, a similar convergence of ultra-right activists and religious fundamentalists, especially Christians.
This convergence can also be seen among the more radical groups in the convoy in Ottawa, including antivax, Trumpian conspirators and those who believe that Jesus will save them from COVID.
An enlightening study on conspiratorial discourse in Quebec during the pandemic, presented by the CEFIR (Centre of expertise and training on religious fundamentalisms, political ideologies and radicalization), explains very well how this same convergence works in the extreme law.
For the remaining true Progressive Conservatives, this steady slide of the CCP ever further to the right is worrisome. It is also important for Canadian democracy.
Maybe someone should explain it to Jean Charest. In case he is tempted again to run for the CCP leadership. However, this party no longer has anything of what it was when, in Ottawa, Mr. Charest dreamed of one day being Prime Minister of Canada.