Canadian values shifting to the right, poll suggests

**OntarioVanMan** · 03-12-2010, 07:09 PM

Canadian values shifting to the right, poll suggests - thestar.com

Conservatives now ‘own the centre,’ while the left ‘is a very lonely place to be’ in Canada, pollster says

OTTAWA—The Canadian political “centre” is shifting to the right, a new national poll suggests.

A Harris-Decima survey for the Manning Centre, says Canadians who identify themselves as in the centre of the political ideological scale are increasingly embracing traditionally “conservative” values.

Those include the “supremacy of the family,” an incremental approach to resolving problems, the definition of marriage and that abortion is “morally wrong.”

Pollsters Allan Gregg and Andre Turcotte said that most believe governments should play a minor role or no role in the regulation of individual behaviour and morality.

As for conservative government policies, the poll suggested a majority of Canadians supported spending deficits, abolishing the long gun registry, action on climate change, the decision to leave Afghanistan in 2011, and management of the economic recession.

Gregg said there is an “ambivalence” among Canadians toward more notionally conservative views about the role of government in society.

**greg334** · 03-12-2010, 10:49 PM

I think, and don't be offended by this but I think the Canadians are getting a bit silly - Managing the economic recession?

I often wonder when Ottawa is shifting to the right, is it the European defined right or the American defined right? Conservative and liberal means nothing to many of us when it comes to foreign politics.

**OntarioVanMan** · 03-13-2010, 12:41 AM

all things considered..even a Canadian Conservative would be a liberal to you guys...considering that Can. society revolves around a social democracy. But I think the article was pointing out the more important issue of the idea of less government.
Which is a shift to a more American ideal...

Maybe when Canada takes over the US eventually Americans would be happier.....

**Ragman** · 03-13-2010, 12:51 AM

Originally Posted by OntarioVanMan

Maybe when Canada takes over the US eventually Americans would be happier.....

YES! .... Tim Hortons in all 50!!!!

**OntarioVanMan** · 03-13-2010, 12:56 AM

Originally Posted by Ragman

YES! .... Tim Hortons in all 50!!!!

And you'd get the Loony and the Toony to boot...

**flattop40** · 03-13-2010, 02:05 AM

They must be missing a shoe to be leaning to the right.

**layoutshooter** · 03-13-2010, 07:10 AM

OH NO OVM, none of the royalty stupidity down here!! We are not "looney" enough to believe that just because a person is born to an incest ridden family that they are somehow better than us. Besides, since when was Canada a democracy? Can you even show me one country that is? OH YEAH and TEA SUCKS!! So there!!

**OntarioVanMan** · 03-13-2010, 11:32 AM

Originally Posted by layoutshooter

OH NO OVM, none of the royalty stupidity down here!! We are not "looney" enough to believe that just because a person is born to an incest ridden family that they are somehow better than us. Besides, since when was Canada a democracy? Can you even show me one country that is? OH YEAH and TEA SUCKS!! So there!!

Yeah this countries roots were built on the same incest families...

Greg a couple months ago called Canada a Social democracy..so I went from there....

and its a ZED ..not ZEE...so there...

**piper1** · 03-13-2010, 11:37 AM

All I can say is its about freakin time. And it's real! The left may be louder (media, blog experts, loud morons etc) but more and more regular people are figuring out government should not be the helping hand.

**OntarioVanMan** · 03-13-2010, 11:53 AM

Originally Posted by piper1

All I can say is its about freakin time. And it's real! The left may be louder (media, blog experts, loud morons etc) but more and more regular people are figuring out government should not be the helping hand.

Thank you Mr Piper!!

**piper1** · 03-13-2010, 11:56 AM

Originally Posted by OntarioVanMan

Thank you Mr Piper!!

My lawn signs at election time have always been Tory blue sir!

**greg334** · 03-13-2010, 12:11 PM

SO then I assume it is the European right.

OK so that means they are leaning to the side of fascism and all of that, because that was the European right, not the US right.

**OntarioVanMan** · 03-13-2010, 12:13 PM

Originally Posted by piper1

My lawn signs at election time have always been Tory blue sir!

We or you now...need more Mike Harris's....

I think Canada had its own version of right...

**piper1** · 03-13-2010, 12:38 PM

Originally Posted by greg334

SO then I assume it is the European right.

OK so that means they are leaning to the side of fascism and all of that, because that was the European right, not the US right.

No....it's Canadian right, not European...not American. A right that says government should pretty much stay out of my personal life, mange the country's finances in a prudent manner, regulate what needs to be regulated otherwise hands off, quit trying to socially engineer life through forced multiculturalism or forced bilingualism.

A right that realizes there are certain realities in Canada that require government to do certain things, but do them as efficiently as possible and be accountable to the end user, not the bureaucracy that runs it. A right that wants to do what it can to HELP the economy not BE the economy.

To try and compare Canadian political party's values to anywhere else s version of right and left is not easy. While all the Canadian party's have core values, they all tend to be more practical than ideological. Even the far left realizes that to govern purely based on ideology serves no purpose.