As Cariboo-Prince George MP Todd Doherty meets with fellow Conservatives in Winnipeg this week before heading back to Ottawa for the fall sitting in the House of Commons, he shouldn't be shy telling his "how I spent my summer" story.
For the second straight year, Doherty completed all 24 hours of the Relay For Life by himself to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society. When the Cariboo forest fires in the southern portion of his riding forced area residents out of their homes, Doherty was everywhere, both online and in person, offering both essential information and consolation for evacuees.
Both his words and actions define him as a "compassionate conservative," which sadly has fallen out of fashion and is desperately due for a comeback.
Conservatives on both sides of the border, as well as in Europe, have increasingly abandoned compassion in favour of strength and relentless attacks on liberal ideals. Donald Trump is far from the only conservative targeting immigrants, refugees, Muslims and racial minorities. Right-of-centre politicians in France and Eastern Europe have attracted increasing support with strident rhetoric about closing borders to the unwanted masses from the Middle East and Africa fleeing war and persecution.
This week, Trump threw the legal status of hundreds of thousands of American residents in limbo by dumping the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which sought to offer some legal protection to the children of illegal immigrants born outside of the United States.
That is seen in many conservative circles as strong, decisive leadership to stem the tide of illegal immigration, despite the obvious human costs of potentially deporting more than half a million adults with little or no memory of living in the country of their birth, punishing them for a crime committed by their parents decades earlier.
Lack of empathy for the suffering of the sick, the poor, the dispossessed, the racially and religiously oppressed and any victim of violence or misfortune has been growing among conservatives for decades.
Ayn Rand's novels of the 1940s and 1950s are held up as the blueprint for civil society by many of today's prominent conservatives in America and around the world. Archie Bunker on All In The Family was an early embodiment of that white working-class resentment towards anyone sponging off the government with some woeful tale. One of Ronald Reagan's most famous quotes is his comment that the nine most feared phrase in the English language should be "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
Conservatives have increasingly sought more and more money for the military and the police while slashing budgets for social services. The rationale is that America needs to be powerful to thwart all of the external (terrorism) and internal (crime) threats it faces. Worse, spending too much on power is better than not spending enough.
Meanwhile, conservatives increasingly define freedom in absolute terms, making everyone equal and equally capable of fending for themselves, regardless of the obvious advantages and disadvantages of wealth, education, health, physical and mental ability gender, race, religion and a host of other variables decided simply by birth.
This leads some conservatives dangerously close to a social Darwinism that sees the weak members of society as little more than obstacles holding back the deserved success of the rich and powerful elite.
Compassionate conservatives have long fought against these cruel instincts, arguing that there is nothing contradictory about adhering to traditional social beliefs and reduced government size with unwavering help to those in need.
Over the decades, both compassionate conservative and responsible liberal politicians have talked about tough love, a hand up not a handout and focusing on needs, not wants.
In Canada, Stephen Harper only infrequently showed a compassionate side (his formal apology for residential schools, for example).
In B.C.,Christy Clark's compassion towards working families got her elected in 2013. If she had showed half as much as that spirit this past spring, both in her party's policies and on the campaign trail, she'd still be premier.
Compassionate conservatism is always a political winner because many people head to the polls utterly ignorant of party or policy. They mark their ballot for a representative who seems to care, for them and for their community. Trump beat Hillary Clinton last November because his sales pitch convinced millions of Americans that he cared about them and their concerns more than she did.
Doherty's new boss, Andrew Scheer, has shown a willingness to embrace a return to compassionate conservatism by kicking Kellie Leitch to the back benches, where her and her intolerance belong. If the Conservatives want to have any chance of defeating Justin Trudeau's Liberals and forming government in two years, they need to demonstrate that they care for people as much as they do for principle.
Doherty has shown his colleagues and his leader the way. They'd be smart to follow.
-- Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout
