Cole Hogan: If conservatives shun Canada’s institutions, how can we possibly reform them?

Until there is ideological parity, conservatives cannot afford to be hands off.

(Norman McLaren, filmmaker at the National Film Board, 1971.)

There’s been a major conversation going on between the old and new guard of Canadian conservatism. It’s been enlightening and useful for conservatives as we move forward. It has also been undeniably enjoyable.

The New Right will not stop insisting that conservatives must tackle social issues in addition to holding the edge on economic and pocketbook issues.

With even more force, they have to forcefully attack the sharpening cost of living, housing affordability, untethered mass immigration, degenerating public safety, and community-smashing drug policies.

Some will describe the New Right’s approach as a culture war, even “lefty authoritarianism,” but this is incorrect. It is merely an effort to not cede even more ground to progressives in every single social issue under the sun.

As a response to Howard Anglin’s latest in The Hub, where he reiterated that there is no room for pacifists in the culture wars, Sean Speer offered his own critique of New Right thinking.

Speer writes, “It [the New Right] effectively takes for granted that the state will only grow, and that the right response is to seize this expanding machinery and turn it toward conservative ends.”

It begs a question for Speer: what indicators have we been given that the state will ever meaningfully decrease in size or scope?

A decade ago, the size of the civil service was 257,034 persons. As of March 2024, the size of the civil service had grown by more than 43 percent, ballooning to 367,772 persons. Carney’s pledge to reduce the number of public servants to 330,000 by 2029 still represents a bloated federal government, insistent on inserting itself in whatever jurisdiction it sees fit.

It cannot be taken for granted that a future government will remove itself from the lives of Canadians in a meaningful way. The only recourse is playing the field as it exists. If conservatives will not fill these spaces in government, the public service, and other institutions, then someone else will.

Canada will be taken even further away from conservative ideas and voices, let alone achieving a sort of ideological balance with the left.

In his piece, Speer continued with, “We should be cautious about concentrating cultural authority in the hands of federal bureaucrats and politicians. That’s why devolving these questions downward, to provinces, markets, and civil society, as much as possible is, in my view, essential.”

There is merit to this. However, cultural authority is already in the hands of the federal bureaucrats hired by the Liberals, and the Liberal government itself.

Simply wrestling this power away from them in an election is not good enough, for democratic governments are fundamentally temporary. If the left is asked to not try and remanufacture culture along the lines of their vision, they will laugh at the inquirer, and rightfully so.

Brazenly progressive ideology has impregnated the majority of Canada’s institutions, and counterbalance is a bare minimum. We can devolve as much power as possible to the provinces, markets, and civil society, but until there is ideological parity, conservatives cannot afford to be hands off.

In the words of Speer, “It also means recognizing where the state is the wrong instrument altogether. For example, we don’t have to imagine what a conservative National Film Board or a conservative arts bureaucracy might look like. We should just get rid of them altogether. The same goes for the CBC, private news media subsidies, and the panoply of federal grant programs that fund civic and political advocacy.”

Here, I agree with Speer that conservative governments should reverse progressive excesses within public institutions, but what do we do in the meantime?

The speed of federal reform is glacial at best. If we don’t participate and involve ourselves in Canada’s institutions, how can we possibly reform them?

It’s not enough to seek elected office or wait for our government of choice to attempt to reverse progressive excesses or extend conservative norms. Engaging on cultural and social issues surrounding and within these institutions is the most surefire way to begin addressing their unbalanced nature.

The state and its scope have ballooned so significantly that the only way to reform it is from within.

Cole Hogan has played a leading role in conservative campaigns in Ontario and Alberta, and has advised elected conservatives across Canada. He is a regularly featured national media pundit.