This is one of the many reasons you can’t elect Conservatives and pretend you care about LGBTQ+ or any other marginalized group.
Conservatives want to restore or otherwise conserve traditional hierarchies. That’s it, that’s what it comes down to. So it doesn’t matter what they campaign on, or whether they’ve gone after a group “lately”, if you aren’t a member of one of the traditional hierarchies you will eventually find yourself a target. Just look at the US, how long did it take for Conservatives there to finally win on abortion, on money being speech, on rolling back voting rights? Don’t think for a second that isn’t the plan here, that it won’t happen here, it’s already happening in some provinces and mark my word Pierre is keen to take this stuff national.
So if you want to know who’s next, just reflect on the traditional hierarchies. Rich over poor, white over PoC, God over man, man over women and children, self over society, straight over LGB, and cis over trans. I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few, but Conservatives won’t forget.
The Con party of today is not like older ones. I’m in my 40’s, and I’m used to a Nationalistic, yea-Canada Conservative party. What I am not used to is this:
And that’s from two years ago. The man who insulted our country, who is against all the things we favourably compare ourselves against Americans with (our socialized Healthcare, our lack of need to arm ourselves to go for a walk, etc), and they’re giving him the nod (Also the rape, the misogyny, insulting someone for their disability, the general incompetence, etc). Look at those numbers, 44% of Cons want Trump in power again.
Conservative voters should really be looking in the mirror to see what they want to be: Right-of-Centre economists, or Right-Wing boot-lickers. It seems for now they’ve chosen the later.
Modern Canadian conservatives aren’t the tame fiscal conservatives we used to have indeed. This violent steering of the right wing towards social conservatism is worrying as fuck, and should be for anyone but hard traditionalists. It’s insane to see anybody who cares about Canada support Trump in any way with how he fucked us over and over.
Fiscal conservatism, in the strictest sense, has always been a means of conserving the favored hierarchies. We don’t fund social programs, and as a result we maintain the rich/poor dynamic for example. This definition has nothing to do with prudent effective spending, I think.
What we think of as traditional Canadian fiscal conservatism is more correctly prudent fiscal liberalism. A willingness to engage in the use of fiscally measures for social gain so long as the funding is effective.
It’s a shame that fiscal conservatism has somehow become synonymous with wanting to spend money wisely.
What we think of as traditional Canadian fiscal conservatism is more correctly prudent fiscal liberalism.
Oh 100%: Justin Trudeau’s policies are either taken directly from the Con party (Carbon Tax credits, etc), or are directly in line with their values. The Con party has voted in favour/alongside the Liberal party in something like 95% of all votes taken since Trudeau came to power.
They just don’t like him. That’s fine, I don’t either. The issue is that, also as you’ve stated, they keep inventing this idea that ‘fiscal conservatism’ A) has worked in the past, and B) will work now. They shuffle past the fact that when they were at their best they were Neoliberals.
What will be interesting to see is how Gen Z/young Millenial voters respond to a federal Con government that targets 2SLGBTQ+ rights, abortion rights, and starts rolling back social programmes, and looks at how to privatize more healthcare.
I have a suspicion that new block of Con voters, who’ve only ever really had the Federal Liberals in power, will understand why Canadians vote Liberal two times for every one time they vote Conservative.
Hard to say how younger generations, especially men being influenced by the Jordan Petersons and Andew Tates, will react to Conservative governance. Unfortunately, with how gender-based polling is showing they might be perfectly happy with it.
Even accounting for the (bizarre, and embarrassing) shift of Gen Z men towards the Cons, they are still more into the NDP than any generation above them. In fact in a lot of young Gen Z (male) voters, while the Cons are first, the NDP are second, and it’s ~5% between them. (Sorry I don’t have the stats on me, but it was posted here on Lemmy not too long ago)
My kids are Gen Z, and (very anecdotally here, I admit) they have said everyone their age they know who would vote Con (and there are a few) are pausing on it, and are extremely concerned about the amount of Identity Politics (their words) the Cons are using. They are not ok with anti-SOGI, anti-Trans, anti-2SLGBTQ+, or anti-abortion laws/actions.
Even more interestingly, to me, of six of their friends who have said they would vote Con, 2 have already left - but not to the Liberals, to the NDP. I think a LOT of the Gen Z male Con voters just don’t like the status quo, and don’t understand that the Cons will not only keep said status quo, but make it worse. Once a Con government starts making all the mistakes they usually do, plus new ones straight out of MAGA USA, I think they’ll split quickly. I honestly would be shocked to see a two-term Con government when they refused to even admit climate change exists.That is a TOUGH sell to Gen Z.
Next-easiest target after LGBTQ+ people would be non-white immigrants, or has she gone after them already? I find it difficult to remember which individual right-wingers have publicly admitted to embracing all the bigoted drivel their political siblings push, and which are trying to stay in the closet.
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