The word \u201cdisruption\u201d pops up just about everywhere these days, suddenly transformed into something companies and governments actually want. Uber is an example of a disruptor \u2014 shaking an age-old industry to its core, with an innovation that the marketplace suddenly realizes it desperately needs.<\/p>\n
The Conservative Party of Canada needs a disruptive leadership candidate.<\/p>\n
You mean, like Donald Trump, some might naturally ask. The short answer is, yes.<\/p>\n
Donald Trump has disrupted politics in the United States. This week, he become the presidential nominee for a party that didn\u2019t even want him. He has risen to the top against the predictions and warnings of pundits on both the left and the right.<\/p>\n
Michael Lind, co-founder of the New America Foundation, told NPR late last year<\/a> that part of Trump\u2019s success can be explained by the fact that so many voters aren\u2019t seeing their issues addressed by either of the parties. He pointed to the substantial percentage of Democrats who want to curb immigration, and the large numbers of Republicans who don\u2019t want to see social security cut.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you get large groups in the population whose combinations of particular policies do not fit the combinations on offer by our two parties, you get a substantial part of the electorate turning to outsiders because of a lack of any other choices,\u201d Lind told the On the Media program.<\/p>\n Lind wondered aloud why elitist Democrats would ignore potential support from religious Americans, who can simultaneously support progressive policies such as child care and Wall Street reform.<\/p>\n The point isn\u2019t that the Conservatives need a candidate with Trump\u2019s bombast or policies, but that they need a leader who can help identify and build a different coalition of support. Stephen Harper certainly did that, successfully pursuing ethnic groups that had traditionally backed the Liberals. He understood that socially conservative Canadians within those populations would be natural supporters. (Of course, that support withered away with the Barbaric Cultural Practices Hotline and the revocation of citizenship campaign in the 2015 election).<\/p>\n A bold Conservative leadership candidate would take another look at the Canadian population and see different configurations of support. She or he would take Tom Flanagan\u2019s advice in the book Winning Power<\/em> and not rely on the intuitions of party strategists alone, \u201cbecause they themselves are not typical of the people they are trying to attract.\u201d<\/p>\n Such a Conservative candidate might decide to usher in an entirely new chapter of Canadian conservatism, one that is not based on constantly \u201ccracking down\u201d on people and things, but on building and innovating \u2014 in a fiscally responsible way, of course.<\/p>\n A bold Conservative candidate might aggressively go after women voters by focusing on them as drivers of economic growth, rather than just as two-dimensional \u201csoccer moms\u201d who want a tax break. David Cameron went this route by making pay equity<\/a> and access to child care<\/a> a major promise. He didn\u2019t achieve what he said he would, but perhaps a determined Canadian Conservative could. Justin Trudeau\u2019s child care approach appears (so far) to be the same as Harper\u2019s \u2013 mail out cheques. How does that help a working woman living in a small town who has limited daycare options, or who needs to get to an industrial park but has no reliable source of transportation?<\/p>\n (And incidentally, all Conservative candidates should be promising to do something about their party\u2019s dismal record on the recruitment of women candidates \u2013 inexcusable.)<\/p>\n A savvy Conservative candidate might recognize the folly in demonizing carbon taxes, and embrace the long-term economic possibilities that moving away from fossil fuels hold for the economy \u2014 including in the agriculture and forest-product sectors<\/a>. Angela Merkel, another conservative, has done just that with her country\u2019s Energiewende<\/a> policy of transitioning into renewable energy and cutting carbon emissions. Over the decade of Conservative government, Canada lost 39 percent of its market share<\/a> in manufactured environmental goods, and it continues to be overtaken by other countries.<\/p>\n That disruptive Conservative candidate could tap into the concerns that Canadians have about elementary-level education (especially math) and about care for the aging. She or he could promise to do away with supply management as well as foreign-investment limits, could make consumer protection a cornerstone of their platform.<\/p>\n The policy possibilities are endless, and it would be silly for any Ottawa pundit to claim they know what Canadians want \u2014 that\u2019s what public opinion researchers are for.<\/p>\n But listen up, potential and existing Conservative contenders: you don\u2019t need to read the previous guy\u2019s script. There isn\u2019t one mold for a Conservative today.<\/p>\n By the end of Stephen Harper\u2019s time in office, the party\u2019s policies and rhetoric seemed so\u20262000-and-late, to borrow a phrase from the Black Eyed Peas. It\u2019s high time someone shook things up, and perhaps a new universe of support would shake out in the process.<\/p>\n Photo:\u00a0IBL\/REX\/CP Photo<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Do you have something to say about the article you just read? Be part of the\u00a0<\/em>Policy Options\u00a0discussion, and send in your own submission.\u00a0Here is a\u00a0<\/em>link<\/em><\/a>\u00a0on how to do it. <\/em>|\u00a0Souhaitez-vous r\u00e9agir \u00e0 cet article ? <\/em>Joignez-vous aux d\u00e9bats d\u2019<\/em>Options politiques\u00a0et soumettez-nous votre texte en suivant ces\u00a0<\/em>directives<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The word \u201cdisruption\u201d pops up just about everywhere these days, suddenly transformed into something companies and governments actually want. Uber is an example of a disruptor \u2014 shaking an age-old industry to its core, with an innovation that the marketplace suddenly realizes it desperately needs. The Conservative Party of Canada needs a disruptive leadership candidate. 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