Enviromentalists not all Left-Wing
For the Welland Tribune: By Adam Shoalts
Often when I am a guest speaker in a clasroom or elsewhere I find myself confronted with the question of how someone who advocates protecting the planet's wild spaces avoids the left-wing, tree-hugger label.
This stems from the widely held perception amongst the media and general public alike that enviromentalists and enviromentalism is hand-in-hand with leftist political thought. This is an erroneous assumption, by which I myself have long been exasperated.
While it is correct to say that currently the Liberals are more "green" in their platform than the Conservative party, it would be inaccurate to presume that all environmentalists are left-winged.
I am a self-described "Green Tory." Unfortunately, it is a phrase virtually no one has heard before, but since the time of Benjamin Disraeli in the 1830s we have had "Red Tories," so I think it is high time a new term entered the political lexicon, Green Tories.
In many respects, perhaps most, true Toryism or conservatism more logically fits with an environmental outlook than it does with the traditional, progress-driven liberal ideology.
Respected author Charles Taylor outlined in his classic book Radical Tories the deep connection between conservatism and the land that has always been a hallmark of Toryism.
As for concerns that environmentally friendly practices have deterimental economic effects, that is a demonstrable myth.
Take for instance British economist Sir Nicholas Stern's high-profile, 700-page report to the British government on the potential economic effects of unchecked climate change.
Stern, the former head chief economist of the World Bank, is certainly no leftist, yet his report concluded that global warming has the potential to trigger an economic depression on par with the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Needless to say, no business-minded person in his or her right mind would desire such an outcome. Moreover, this is to say nothing of the potential to make money capitalizing on consumer desire for more energy efficient products.
Green Tories in Canada may be something of an endangered species today, but a glance at our past shows many Conservatives have strong environmental credentials.
Canada's first and greatest prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, was a Conservative yet created Canada's first National Park, Banff, in order to preserve this nation's natural beauties for posterity.
More recently, in 2006 Brian Mulroney, a Conservative, was named Canada's "greenest" prime minister ever.
Elizabeth May, the leader of the federal Green Party, at the time correctly noted that, "Mulroney had an enviromental record that puts subsequent prime ministers to shame."
It is also worth nothing that May's predecessor, Jim Harris, was a self-described "eco-capitalist" and small "c" conservative with a business-friendly agenda.
Provincially, Mike Harris' Conservative government is best remembered for its cuts to social services. However, it was these same Conservatives that created 378 new provincial parks and protected areas, more than any previous government in Ontario's history. They also abolished the spring bear hunt.
At any rate, the Conservatives under Harris did more to protect this province's natural wonders than either the New Democratic Party under Bob Rae or the Liberals under Dalton McGuinty have done (thus far).
Longtime organic farmer and avowed environmentalist David Orchard placed second in the 1998 leadership convention for the federal Progressive Conservative party, and third in the 2003 one.
Unfortunately, the merger between the much-larger Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives largely eliminated the green aspects of Canadian conservatism, and incidentally helped strengthen the left-green perception in this country.
However, it is my sincere hope that Canada's Conservatives will eventually come to their senses and return to their inherited environmentalism.
Besides, if conservative parties continue to permit leftist and centralist parties to occupy the moral high ground on environmental issues, the prospect of capturing a majority government federally for Stephen Harper, and provincially for John Tory to return from the political wilderness remains doubtful.