The Long Road Back: The Conservative Journey, 1993–2006

Ashley Thomson is a full librarian at Laurentian University and co-editor or co-author of nine books, most recently Margaret Atwood: A Reference Guide, 1988-2005.

Hugh Segal has enjoyed a long association with the party, starting when
he was 12. Throughout his life, Segal has been a Red Tory, but he also
recognizes that within the country, there are at least two other streams
flowing into the conservative river—a populist one from the west and a
nationalist one from Quebec. When all currents flowed together, the
party became an unstoppable electoral force; but all too often in its
history, barriers were erected and the river ran dry. When that
happened, according to Segal, the power-motivated, “conviction-free”
Liberal Party governed by default, to the detriment of many policy areas
(such as Canada–U.S. relations), but more important to competitive
democracy itself.

The defeat of the Campbell government in 1993 represented the nadir of
the Conservative movement in Canada, the west having become enamoured by
the Reform Party and Quebec nationalists by the Bloc. Segal’s book is
an insider’s look at how the barriers came down over the next 12
years. While his focus is almost exclusively on developments in the
Progressive Conservative Party (giving the book an uneven feel since
Reform and Canadian Alliance Parties also had a role in the story), he
is still very insightful on the varying contributions of Campbell,
Charest, and Clark. He is also no doubt correct in his view that Peter
MacKay, the leader who succeeded Clark, and Stephen Harper, a jaded
Reformer called back to politics to head the Canadian Alliance, deserve
most of the credit for “uniting the right.”

Segal’s book is, however, more than a journalistic account of
developments over 12 years. As befits a former academic, now a Senator,
Segal believes that conservatism is rooted in a philosophical tradition
and this is a theme that informs much of the book. However, he cautions
that when the party places too much emphasis on ideology, ignoring
practical solutions to the problems Canadians face in their lives, it
forfeits—and deserves to forfeit—any chance to govern. The Long Road
Back is a case study of that truth.