Social conservatism (Canada)

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Canadian social conservatives openly support notions of natural law, tradition and conservative family values and policies. Compared to the United States, social conservatism is not as widespread in Canada. Social conservatives usually reside in rural settings, especially in Western Canada and have generally had little influence in the Canadian government, although that may be beginning to change with the emergence of the new Conservative Party of Canada. Strong expression of social conservatism is usually found in Alberta, which has long been Canada's most conservative province, and British Columbia outside of Vancouver^{[citation needed]}.

Social conservatives believe in traditional morality and social mores and the desire to preserve these in present day society, often through civil law or regulation. Many social conservatives describe themselves as traditionalists. Social change is generally regarded as suspect, while social values based on tradition are generally regarded as tried, tested and true. It is a view commonly associated with religious, militant and nationalistic conservatives. It is particularly associated with the Christian right, including fundamentalist and evangelical Christianity, and conservative tendencies in the Roman Catholic Church.

It should be noted that socially conservative values are not necessarily attached to right-wing fiscal conservatism. Many fiscally left-leaning politicians have embraced socially conservative values, such as PC leadership candidate David Orchard and Christian Heritage Party leader Ron Gray. However, other social conservatives, such as Craig Chandler or Stockwell Day, do embrace neoconservatism.

In modern Canadian politics, social conservatives were largely regarded as abnormal oddities or religious zealots by officials in the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.^{[citation needed]} Over the years, many of them felt shunned by a party that was largely led and run by Red Tories for the last half of the twentieth-century. Many eventually made their political home with the Reform Party of Canada and its forerunner the Social Credit Party of Canada.^{[citation needed]} Despite Reform leader Preston Manning's attempts to broaden the support of the Reform movement through populism, the party was largely dominated by social conservatives. Manning's reluctance to allow his party to wholly embrace socially conservative values contributed to his deposition as leader of the newly minted Canadian Alliance in favour of Stockwell Day.

The social conservative movement remained very influential in the Canadian Alliance even after Day's defeat at the hands of Stephen Harper in 2002. Many have suggested that the new Conservative Party of Canada, led by Harper, is becoming more beholden to socially conservative values in its recent positions against same-sex marriage and moderate de-criminalization of marijuana possession.^{[citation needed]}