I am back to this post because my mind finally understood something fairly obvious related to Canada. Although the facts have been known to me for years, I connected them only recently. As far as I know, the main loyalist and anti-modernist organisation in Toronto and Ontario was the Orange Order and the main anti-modernist and conservative organisation in Montreal and Quebec was the Catholic Church. Both of them have collapsed and barely subsist.
Since their political and social force has vanished and since Ontario and Quebec are the central and driving provinces, Canada is now ruled by unfettered liberalism and shall remain so for the foreseeable future. I do not see the conservatives of the prairies as strong enough to mount a successful intellectual and cultural counterattack hence they are a mere redoubt to be swept sooner or later by the forces of liberalism/spatialism.
Have I understood the situation correctly ? Does this explain the premiership of Harper as a simple sword hit in the sand ?
There's certainly a credible story to be told along those lines. And of course, as I'm sure you're aware, in the North American context "conservative" is very often little more than a synonym for liberal. As I argued in the post, I think a plausible pushback on the spatial revolution so rapidly accelerating in Canada would require a recapturing of Canada's populist tradition institutionally, rather than merely rhetorically. But, as I also mentioned above (I think), most Canadians don't know their own history (and appear little interested in correcting that lacuna). So, I certainly agree with your bleak anticipation of the likely fate of prairie conservatism. On the other hand, though, I do perceive a still dim flicker of populist communitarianism in some quarters, and certainly the pluralism of heterarchical federalism continues to be well represented among such people. So, who know? History is long and winding.
As ever Archangel, thank you for your thoughtful contributions to the comments section here.
Dear Evolved Psyché,
I am back to this post because my mind finally understood something fairly obvious related to Canada. Although the facts have been known to me for years, I connected them only recently. As far as I know, the main loyalist and anti-modernist organisation in Toronto and Ontario was the Orange Order and the main anti-modernist and conservative organisation in Montreal and Quebec was the Catholic Church. Both of them have collapsed and barely subsist.
Since their political and social force has vanished and since Ontario and Quebec are the central and driving provinces, Canada is now ruled by unfettered liberalism and shall remain so for the foreseeable future. I do not see the conservatives of the prairies as strong enough to mount a successful intellectual and cultural counterattack hence they are a mere redoubt to be swept sooner or later by the forces of liberalism/spatialism.
Have I understood the situation correctly ? Does this explain the premiership of Harper as a simple sword hit in the sand ?
There's certainly a credible story to be told along those lines. And of course, as I'm sure you're aware, in the North American context "conservative" is very often little more than a synonym for liberal. As I argued in the post, I think a plausible pushback on the spatial revolution so rapidly accelerating in Canada would require a recapturing of Canada's populist tradition institutionally, rather than merely rhetorically. But, as I also mentioned above (I think), most Canadians don't know their own history (and appear little interested in correcting that lacuna). So, I certainly agree with your bleak anticipation of the likely fate of prairie conservatism. On the other hand, though, I do perceive a still dim flicker of populist communitarianism in some quarters, and certainly the pluralism of heterarchical federalism continues to be well represented among such people. So, who know? History is long and winding.
As ever Archangel, thank you for your thoughtful contributions to the comments section here.