Plenary

The Conservative Remake of Canada: Americanization or Home-grown?

Sat, November 20, 2010 | 9:30 am - 10:45 am
ETLC Building

Speakers: Marci McDonald, Gordon Laird

Can Canada maintain a separate existence in North America if it shares the American ethos? If not, what is Canada’s unique ethos in the 21st century? Is Canada being remade in the image of US Christian conservatism or the macho, free-enterprise image of conservative Alberta? Or both?

In her controversial new book, The Armageddon Factor: the Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada, Marci McDonald tracks the emergence of a new religious right in this country—one with close ties to the Conservative government of Stephen Harper. Here, she will expand on that theme, showing how a handful of conservative Christian think tanks and lobby groups have put down organizational roots in Ottawa and are already exerting an influence over public policy, steering the country toward a socially conservative agenda both at home and on the international stage. Cultivating those forces as his party’s new base, Harper has already begun to stack the federal courts and civil service with social and religious conservatives who are also exerting their influence on a raft of policies from education and social welfare programs to the philosophy of crime and punishment. In response to those critics who say a religious right could never take root in this country, McDonald points out that she heard exactly the same disclaimers from American liberals and pundits in Washington years ago. Now, as the U.S. religious right has fed the vitriolic Tea Party movement, she argues that it’s time for Canadians to open a debate about the level of religiosity they want in their own politics and government.