Grass roots Conservatism: Fiction and Hypocrisy

For the longest time, in my small hometown of Rycroft, Alberta, I have been deluged in  an ocean of Conservative rhetoric.

As I grew up and became more politically aware, I began to become more and more demoralized by what I perceived to be the widespread proliferation of popular conservative ideals among the masses of most Northern Albertan towns. In the midst of this fortress of conservative-capitalist thought, my life more and more became an exercise in futility as I waged a lone war against Christian fundamentalism, Racism, gender Chauvinism, militarism, Nationalism (whether it be Canadian nationalism or Albertan soveriegntist nationalism,) and the general anti-social offensive being carried out by the rank and file peoples themselves.

 Needless to say, the situation seemed hopeless. Many times, I was demoralized to the point of considering giving up the struggle for Marxism-Leninism. 

 Since that time, as I left the largely rural North of Alberta for the Provincial Capital of Edmonton, and later for the British Columbian Capital of Victoria, I came to realize that this entire perpetuated notion that Alberta (or anywhere else) is a “Conservative stronghold” is a facade.

Even though I long ago rejected Parliamentary Democracy as a legitimate model for peoples rule, consider the following example: When I was living in Edmonton , during the 39th federal election of 2006, I participated as the campaign manager for my Comrade, (name removed) (Communist Party of Canada-Marxist Leninist). It was noticeable that the Conservative, Rahim Jaffer, who was trying to be re-elected, did not make to much effort to show his face at town hall meetings, or to try and spread his campaign at a grass roots level. While his Social-democratic competitor, Linda Duncan, had her partie’s signs spread across lawns, apartment windows and cafe’s, Rahim had to buy add space on billboards and such. It didn’t seem as if Jaffer had very much public support, and the election results reflected it; Rahim Jaffer managed to get only 41% of the vote. Unfortunately, not unlike his boss Stephan Harper, that was all he needed to get into office. Now, my criticisms of the “first-past-the post” system aside, logically that means that almost 60% of the population of Edmonton-Strathcona did not desire a conservative as their representative. Even, for the sake of argument, if you wanted to add the results of other right-wing conservative parties  in that riding (Progressive Canadian) to Rahims total, it still comes to only 42.1 %. Only 42.1% of the people of Edmonton Strathcona selected a party with any measure of Conservative economic/social platform. (source: Elections Canada, Wikipedia)

 Now that was just one electoral riding in all of Alberta. You have to wonder, how many other Albertan provincial ridings have a Conservative representing them, against the will of the majority of constituents?

 Now, I have no doubt in my mind that out of Alberta, the base of all Conservative-capitalist ideology is in the rural Albertan north, where Conservatives often win elections by landslides, and the people themselves tow the line of conservative ideology.

 Still, I would even argue that among this ideological power base of reaction, there are no true Conservatives in the rural Albertan north.

It is very easy for the residents of Northern Alberta to claim to be Conservative, and fervently defend it, but upon closer inspection very few of them actually practice their Conservative ideals.  Albertan Conservatives have their proverbial cake, and eat it too.

While the average rural Albertan farmer will claim loyalties to Conservatism, speak out against so-called “hand-outs” and social services, the fact of the matter is that collectively owned means of production and social programs are a day-to-day part of life. To give an example, in my home town of Rycroft , Alberta and the neighboring town of Spirit River, most of the local farmers rely on the Canadian Wheat Board to market and sell their crops. The Canadian Wheat Board, in addition to being a form of pseudo-collective bargaining on the rural workers behalf, states as their goal to “..create a level playing field for all producers.” “level playing field”, eh? That sounds a little bit pinko, don’t you think? A system where elected representatives of the farmers themselves try to sell the fruits of their labour for a fair wage, does seem to be kind of contrary to the “free market competition” ideals of conservatism, don’t you think? In fact, that’s probably why Prime Minister Stephan Harper (and American overlords via NAFTA and WTO) is trying to shut it down in the first place.

 Now, these same “conservative” farm folk in Rycroft/Spirit River, who depend on the Canadian wheat board to make a fair living, also get their groceries at IGA/ Co-op, get their fuel at UFA and their insurance from Co-operators, all of which are co-operatives.  The International Co-operative alliance defines a co-operative as a “an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise”.  Wow, that sounds really anti-free-market, don’t you think? I mean, “United to meet common economic,social, cultural needs”?  That’s not dog-eat-dog capitalist competition!

Even the Albertan farmers that farm livestock get in on the co-operative scene, as farmers themselves in places like Beaverlodge organized co-operative slaughterhouses.

So, let’s recap… These conservative farmers rely on co-operatives for all of their needs from petroleum to groceries, they rely on the Canadian Wheat board to sell their crops fairly… Many of them do their banking with “Alberta Treasury Branch”, which is a provincially owned, and therefore state owned bank (not exactly laisez-fair economics). Am I missing anything?

Oh yeah, they all subscribe to nationalized health care. I forgot.

Yes, all of these farmers are “conservatives”…sure. I’m sure that this is exactly what Reagan had in mind.

I’m biting my lip to see how “conservative” these closet-social democrats remain when Stephan Harper abolishes their Wheat Board. 

In the meantime, have your cake, my pinko conservative friends. Your secret is safe with me.