I always thought of myself as a moderate conservative. I remain instinctively suspicious of liberal activism, and I do support some traditionally conservative ideas such as smaller governments, lower taxes, or individual responsibility.
So why am I not a happy camper nowadays with a moderate conservative government in Ottawa?
Simple: because they are not moderate. To me, moderate conservatism means evidence-based governance. A government that, once its strategic goals are formulated, puts aside ideology and governs on the basis of available facts and the best scientific advice they can obtain.
But this is not what Mr. Harper’s conservative government is doing. Quite the contrary, they engage in one of the worst of sins: they try to distort facts to suit their ideology. Most recently, it is Fisheries and Oceans that is imposing confidentiality rules on participating researchers that “would be more appropriate for classified military research”.
I am appalled.