Ezra Levant slouches in his seat, checking his phone. His mouth is smiling, but his eyes are not. After he exits the stage, he'll glad-hand admirers and do interviews with the CBC and Sun News. He'll even pose for a photo with me. But he's a little off his game, and I think I know why.
Because here at the Manning Networking Convention, in front of a ballroom of his most powerful peers, he just got owned. By a conservationist.
It should have been a relatively easy discussion for Ezra to win: should Conservatives be green? A year ago, he'd probably have held his own. But it’s been a long year. In the last twelve months, the Conservative government has stripped away environmental protections with Bill C-38, officially left the Kyoto protocol, and lobbied hard at home and abroad for oil sands expansion. Environmentalists have pushed back at them every step of the way with strategic campaigns and huge public rallies. They’re drawing strong public support and they’re not backing down. What’s a Conservative to do?
Ezra Levant says they shouldn’t do anything, that being an environmentalist and a conservative is antithetical. He says broadly that environmentalists “want to put the planet above all and I am always a Conservative first.”
But this kind of reductionist thinking isn’t going to win over undecided voters, and Monte Solberg knows it.
"Nothing is more conservative than conservation"
“In Canada, Greenpeace has 75,000 members. But millions of people belong to conservation groups like Ducks Unlimited and Fish and Game clubs.”
Monte Solberg, a former Conservative MP and Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, has been in meetings since last July in an attempt to bring together a conservation-focused organization founded on Conservative principles.
“We will still support development,” he explains, “but smart development that allows voters to protect where they live, other sensitive places and advance the goal of abundant wildlife.” The result of these conversations is Conservation Works Canada, a new organization just in the early stages of development.
“Being green is like the family secret -- the eccentric uncle we have living up in the attic that we don't talk about…But like Russell Kirk said ‘nothing is more conservative than conservation," he said.
Solberg believes that conservation-minded Conservatives—he calls them ‘common-sense conservationists’—will value sensible development of natural resources, embrace technological innovation to reduce environmental damage and support renewal projects that “leave the environment better off than you found it.”
He’s even confident that Conservatives will be able to reach out to those who want action on climate change should they support active conservation and renewal projects.
“The biggest cause of climate change emissions is deforestation and when you rebuild wetlands and conserve forests and other spaces you do a tremendous amount to sequester carbon.”
While Conservation Works is still in its infancy (the organization doesn’t even have a website yet), Solberg is confident its message will resonate.
“[At this time next year] I’d like to see regular Canadians feel they have a voice that represents their point of view, and secondly I’d like to see Conservation and common sense conservation be a central plank in the platforms of political parties in Canada.”
The Shield, the Sword and the battle ahead
To be fair, there were still climate change skeptics and global warming deniers in attendance at the Manning Networking Conference. But their ranks were slim and voices muted among the greater discussion of expanding the Conservative 'big tent'. As Preston Manning said in his Saturday keynote address, “We need to change the climate of the environmental conversation in Canada…[because] whether we agree or not, whether it’s fair or not, the bad news is that this perceived deficiency on the environmental front has become a political and economic liability."
And the Conservatives are not here to lose.
Throughout the convention, the halls buzzed with talk of the latest National Post pollshowing that Justin Trudeau’s Liberals would beat the Conservatives handily if an election were held right now. The Manning Centre’s own 'Barometer Poll' revealed a similar result, including the surprising statistic that the majority of Canadians would rate environmental protection a higher priority than oil sands expansion. If the Conservatives want to ensure a majority victory in 2015, they need to show Canadians they can be environmental leaders and "harness a multitude of local and small-scale initiatives to the task – the “little platoons” of civil society”.
It’s a place where Manning feels Conservatives can hold the moral high ground, particularly at the federal level.
“Conservative political strategists and policy makers need no longer treat the environment as a “shield issue” as we have in the past, but begin to treat is as a “sword issue” on which we can take a positive and proactive approaches to selling community and market-based solutions to environmental challenges.”
The final speaker of the convention is British politician and YouTube celebrity Nigel Farage. He mugs and crows his way through a bold denial of the existence of global warming, delivering a 'fact' I first heard from Lord Moncton when he was posing as the delegate from Myanmar at the UN climate talks in Doha, Qatar. The assertion that the planet has not warmed since 1990 is as far from the truth as Master Farage wishes to be from the Eurozone.
Still, as he says it, I hear someone to my left start applauding as Farage lays down the hammer on the green agenda. They managed only three brief claps before realizing the room was otherwise silent.
It’s a small moment, but with everything I’ve seen this weekend, it feels like a sign. And somewhere in downtown Toronto, a certain TV personality frowns.
Photo by Alex Tétreault of Heather Libby, Ezra Levant and Kai Nagata from Deep Rogue Ram Facebook page