A colleague took exception to the casual habit already emerging in the press of referring to members of the new Conservative Party of Canada as "Tories."
The word Tory applied to members of the former Progressive Conservative Party, he maintained. The new party is a merger of the PCs and the Canadian Alliance. Alliance supporters didn't call themselves Tories — in fact, they rather dislike Toryism — so it is unfair to call members of the new party Tories, he reasoned.
This is a Big Deal. Okay, it's not. But would you rather hear about whether Belinda Stronach will join in more than two leadership debates? (She probably won't.) Or where the third-place finisher's supporters will go after the first vote count? (Tony Clement's would go to Stephen Harper; Ms. Stronach's would go to Mr. Clement.) Or whether Mr. Harper still has this thing locked up? (Odds are eight-to-one in his favour.) Wouldn't you really rather hear about the fall of the Stuarts?
The political party system in the English-speaking world evolved in the 17th century, during the fight over the ascension of James the Second to the British throne. James was a Catholic and a Stuart, and the English had no end of trouble with the Stuarts. Those who argued for Parliamentary supremacy were called Whigs, after a Scottish word whiggamore, meaning "horse-driver," applied to Protestant rebels. It was meant as an insult.
They were opposed by Tories, from the Irish word toraidhe (literally, "pursuer," but commonly applied to highwaymen and cow thieves). It was used — obviously derisively — to refer to those who supported the English crown. The Tories lost out to the Whigs, which is why the house of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (though they prefer to be known as Windsor) dominates the tabloid headlines today.
By the mid 1700s, the words Tory and Whig were commonly used to describe two political groupings. Tories supported the Church of England, the Crown, and the country gentry, while Whigs supported the rights of religious dissent and the rising industrial bourgeoisie. In the 19th century, Whigs became Liberals; Tories became Conservatives.
In pre-Confederation Upper Canada, the term Whigs was replaced by Grits. Clear Grits stood for free trade, democratic representation ("rep by pop"), and selling Church lands to the common folk. Clear Grits were "all sand and no dirt, clear grit all the way through." They existed in uneasy alliance with Reformers (who stood for much the same thing, though not as fiercely), led by this newspaper's founder, George Brown. The formal merger of the Reform Party with the Parti rouge in Lower Canada (anti-clerical and pro-democracy) created the Liberal Party after Confederation. (And now you know why Liberals wear red ties and moderate conservatives are known as Red Tories.) Upper Canadian Tories supported the Church of England, the local aristocracy (the Family Compact) and keeping people — especially the Irish — in their place. Their alliance with the pro-Church Parti bleu in Lower Canada gave us the Conservative Party.
By the 1990s, it had all become a mess. You had Preston Manning Reformers, who were pro-American Prairie populists. (Very Clear Grit.) You had Progressive Conservatives, who were pro establishment, and liked the Queen, and therefore were rightly called Tories. You had the Bloc Québécois, who were sort of bleu and sort of rouge, and who had been with the Tories, until they defected after the Meech Lake fiasco. And you had the Liberals, who are sometimes called Grits but who are really whatever anyone wants them to be.
And now the Reform-turned-Alliance Prairie populists have merged with the establishment Progressive Conservatives. Which brings us back to the original question: Should we call them Tories?
Stephen Harper refuses to call himself a Tory. When asked about it, he replied: "I'm a conservative Conservative." Tony Clement, when asked, replied: "I've called myself a Tory and I consider myself a Tory, though the meaning of the word has evolved." Ms. Stronach could not be reached for comment.
The truth is, there are elements of both the Tory and Whig traditions in the new party. The effort to fuse those traditions into a single organization that can offer a politically coherent alternative to the Liberals is what this leadership campaign is all about. So asking the candidates if they are Tories is not an idle question.
Although it hardly matters. Members of the new party will be called Tories, whatever the party ultimately comes to stand for, for the simple reason that "Conservative" has too many letters for a headline. Unless they would rather we call them "Cons."
