John Robson: Conservatives need to tell Canadians the truth — there’s no free lunch

If I were to say the Conservative Party of Canada has a serious problem, you might well reply that it was not the sort of deep insight for which you would pay money. But when Post columnist Geoff Russ writes that the Tories’ problem is an aging populace unreceptive to a message of limited government and Carson Jerema adds that everybody hates their leader, I hope to earn my keep by offering a simple solution: Tell the populace adults truths in an adult voice.

Not the sort of shallow insight for which political consultants would offer a dime. But Russ is bang on that “The Conservative Party of Canada’s problem is not only one of messaging. The country to which tax-cuts and smaller-government conservatism once spoke has aged, slowed, and become more dependent on the state.” Partly for jobs, sure. But “(t)he real culprit is the growing share of the population made up of retirees and pensioners.”

Which amounts to chickens coming home to roost. To echo Hungarian economist and philosopher Anthony de Jasay’s warning in The State, growing dependence sticks politicians and bureaucrats on an accelerating treadmill. Every election voters are offered an even more cunningly tweaked free money platform and say yes. But in direct consequence there’s less and less money. And the solution to there being no free lunch isn’t a more appealing menu.

Speaking of messaging, Jerema is right that Poilievre is hated, inconsistently, for being “too mean” and “not mean enough,” “too much like a Liberal or not enough like one,” ignoring Trump or aping him, being “(t)oo focused on the economy, or too focused on the culture war.” But it’s just desserts for trying to be all things to all men.

Or women, who live longer and increasingly dominate the public service, thus being troublingly married to a state that’s busted. But the solution is not to “let Pierre be Pierre” on the eccentric theory that he’s secretly a charming principled conservative. As J.B. Priestly said, “Be yourself is about the worst advice you can give to some people” and Poilievre unimproved still seems glibly juvenile pushing 50 and married with children. He needs to grow up.

Speaking of adults, so long ago there were approximately two genders, The New Republic ran a piece “Parenthood: The Mommy party and the Daddy party,” arguing that “Republicans protect us with a strong national defense; Democrats nourish us with Social Security and Medicare” and voters liked this daddy-tough-mommy-nice arrangement. But it caused a bidding war for the children’s affection and huge debt.

Regrettably, the proposed solution of both getting into non-traditional roles seemed unfocused even then. And worse now that we’re decades older and deeper in debt.

That same year, 1991, humourist P.J. O’Rourke wrote in “Parliament of Whores:” “God is a Republican and Santa Claus is a Democrat.” And “Santa Claus is preferable to God in every way but one: There is no such thing as Santa Claus.” Which points to the solution.

Conservatives must be the reality party. Which they are inherently anyway. They know citizens have voted themselves more largesse from the treasury than it contains and you can’t fix that one by promising them more. So don’t.

Sure, you could do much better at boosting productivity than the Liberals, whose idea of removing interprovincial trade barriers is letting B.C. charge royalties for an interprovincial pipeline. But as long as every extra dollar of tax revenue buys $10 of promises it just speeds up the treadmill. And as Stein’s Law says, “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” The Tories must say so.

Back when I was not an aging member of the populace, I urged the Reform Party to propose easing Canadians out of their growing state dependence while there was still time for a soft landing. They fired me instead, having a cunning plan to win power by running as Liberal lite which failed dismally for two obvious reasons: nobody believed they were liberals, but many believed that if even Reform said the Liberals were right, they should vote for the real thing.

I’m not bitter. Well, a bit. But if it was a bad plan then, it’s worse now. And it’s more tempting to worldly serpents because the hole has predictably grown far deeper economically and politically. But it’s even more futile.

Russ says “The Conservatives will keep running into this wall if they stick to a platform of smaller government and lower taxes without expanding their arsenal.” But not to what or how. And it’s not some arcane “puzzle.” It’s a reality thing.

The fundamental problem is the state cannot support all these dependents. And conservatives know it. To pretend otherwise is to be false to themselves and voters and politically feeble into the bargain.

Tell voters there’s no free lunch and they can’t eat paper promises with dentures.

National Post