Launching a Canadian Conservative Magazine

Someone hoping to start to a right-wing newsmagazine for Canada asked my advice. I’ve been dying to give it. Here it is:

1. Be upbeat. Conservatives are by nature too pessimistic. But most people do not want to read things that upset them.

Rush Limbaugh figured this out; it is the secret of his success. Rush is always upbeat.

The dear old Report magazine was all doom and gloom. It scared away its audience.

WWRD: What Would Rush Do?

2. Be funny. Don’t portray the opposition as powerful and evil. Laugh at them. People do not vote out evil or corrupt governments. They vote out incompetent governments.

3. Within honourable limits, be patriotic. It is too easy for Canadians to buy the claim that, in rejecting the policies of the current government, conservatives are “rejecting Canada” or “opposing Canadian values.” To compensate, it would help to be visibly patriotic from time to time.

The Western Standard, to my mind, struggles on this score. First, its deliberate focus on Western Canada hinders this. And it runs a lot of US columnists. Canada still needs a national Conservative magazine.

It ought to be easy for Conservatives to harness patriotic sentiment. After all, the left has been trashing Canadian traditions for years.

Best to avoid always using US examples: Canada defines itself in distinction to the US. Try to find examples from other countries when possible.

4. Why cede the whole field of culture to the opposition? As in most countries, the most distinctive, lively, and durable Canadian culture is folk culture: Anne of Green Gables, William Kurelek, Stephen Leacock, Don Cherry, hockey, Tim Horton’s, Canadian Tire, President’s Choice products, poutine, Stompin’ Tom Connors, Anne Murray, Celine Dion. And folk culture tends to be conservative. Compare the left’s apparent conviction that there is “no Canadian mainstream,” that the only culture in Canada is imported from elsewhere. This ought to be a gimme for the right; instead, there is a general impression that culture is a leftist thing.

Canada is more than a medical plan.

Stressing Canadian culture, of course, also helps win the patriotism war.

5. Be aware of Catholic sensibility. I break my own rule here, but the political difference between the US, which has turned conservative, and Canada, which has not, may be due to one simple fact: since Reagan, US Catholics have swung right. Canadian Catholics still vote Liberal. That alone makes all the difference, in a 50% Catholic country.

This is anomalous, since the Liberal party has now gone so far against Catholic doctrine. It is wise for the right to point this out whenever it can.

6. Be aware of the sensibilities of recent immigrants. Again, it is madness to cede this constituency to the left, as it should by all rights be solidly in the Conservative column. Liberal big-government policies harm immigrants, who are disproportionately engaged in small business. The cultures most immigrants come from are more socially conservative than the Liberal left. The right should point this out whenever it can.