Radical Tories: The Conservative Tradition in Canada

Peter J. McCormick was Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta.

At first glance, Radical Tories suggests a weighty and learned discussion of conservative thought in Canada, but such an expectation is quickly dashed. What one finds instead is the chronicle of a personal intellectual journey from liberalism/Liberalism to that broad and open-textured complex of ideas that the author sometimes calls “conservatism,” sometimes “toryism” (red or otherwise), and sometimes “populism.” Even on this level, the book is not completely satisfying. The ideas are not developed but rather piled on top of each other, and the breaks between chapters seem to fall almost randomly, breaking thoughts rather than organizing them. The table of contents does not so much illuminate as irritate, and the discovery of a chapter labelled “Clear Grit: Smith, Underhill, Galbraith and Trudeau” suggests that the author is either confused or arbitrary.

The author attempts to pull together the elements of the Canadian conservative tradition by illuminating each with special reference to a particular thinker. The opening chapter flounders, but the chapter on Creighton is a vehicle to Sir John A. Macdonald’s vision of Canada; the chapter on W.L. Morton develops the theme of regionalism, local feeling, and cultural diversity with a strong commitment to individual rights; the chapter on Purdy (which still seems oddly out of place) develops the notion of attachment to place and to land; the chapter on Forsey rings in a concern for tradition and order that yet finds room for a social conscience; the chapter on George Grant raises the spectre of a homogenizing technological modernity that is not quite inevitable. The “clear Grit” chapter is a “know your enemy” homily, identifying them with continentalizing bureaucratic technocratic slickness; and the final chapter tries, unsuccessfully, to link the tory tradition with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, using the unlikely vehicle of David Crombie. Woven through the general themes are tantalizing but undeveloped images — the tory as curmudgeon, the tory as racist, the tory as genealogist.

As a contribution to an intellectual or an academic understanding of Canadian conservatism, red or otherwise, the book is rather disappointing. It is better thought of as a personal odyssey through contemporary conservative thought insofar as that tradition builds around a handful of contemporary Canadian thinkers and writers, and insofar as that odyssey takes the form of a series of personal encounters. The vividly personal character sketches of the familiar names comprise the strongest feature of the book.

This is not as good a book as it could have been, given the richness of the material available. On the other hand, it is not as bad a book as it might have been, given the table of contents. Viewed within these parameters, it is interesting, at times amusing, and occasionally provocative.