William Watson: Conservatives should stay conservative

Skip to Content News Archives Economy Energy Oil & Gas Renewables Electric Vehicles Mining Commodities Agriculture Real Estate Mortgages Mortgage Rates Finance Banking Insurance Fintech Cryptocurrency Work Wealth Smart Money Wealth Management Investor Personal Finance Family Finance Retirement Taxes High Net Worth FP Comment Executive Women Puzzmo Newsletters Financial Times Business Essentials More Innovation Information Technology FP500 Podcasts Small Business Lives Told Tails Told Shopping Financial Post Store Obituaries Place a Notice Advertising Advertising With Us Advertising Solutions Postmedia Ad Manager Sponsorship Requests Classifieds Place a Classifieds ad Working Profile Settings My Subscriptions Saved Articles My Offers Newsletters Customer Service FAQ News Economy Energy Mining Real Estate Finance Work Wealth Investor FP Comment Executive Women Puzzmo Newsletters Financial Times Business Essentials This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.HomeFP CommentWilliam Watson: Conservatives should stay conservative Margaret Thatcher said that on a difficult ocean voyage you need stars to steer by — and they can't be shooting starsLast updated 54 minutes ago You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.Andy Burnham makes his first comments outside No. 10 Downing St. in London on July 20, 2026, after becoming prime minister of the U.K. Burnham said the Thatcherism of the 1980s was a mistake and the country needs to go back to the policies of the previous decade. Photo by Dan Kitwood /Getty ImagesNew U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who just spent nine years as mayor of Manchester, 19th-century cradle of free trade, says the Thatcherism of the 1980s and the decades that followed, including 15 years of Labour government, were a neoliberal mistake and Britain should go back to many of the policies of the 1970s — though presumably minus the general strikes, brown-outs and three-day weeks for which that decade is remembered. (Average U.K. working days lost to strikes through the 1970s were 18 times what they were last year.)THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLYSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESCreate an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountIn this country, some people argue that the message of lower taxes and smaller government no longer resonates with older Canadians, in whose golden years state pensions and government health care (however imperfect) figure importantly. Because seniors are more likely to vote than the young people whose growing support for the Conservatives was one of the big political stories of the past half decade, the party needs to reconsider its traditional playbook — so long as the boomers live, that is, after which it will have to reconsider again.Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Top Stories will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againIf Thatcherism really is dead, if Canadians really are less open to smaller government, what’s a conservative party to do? Keep flogging ideas that for the moment may have lost purchase? Or see if something less conservative is to voters’ current taste?The answer depends on why the politician providing it got into politics.If you like dealing with people and fancy a career in government, you’ll try to figure out what menu a potential majority of voters would like and offer it to them. (If there are lots of competing parties, a plurality is all you need.)Purely transactional politics of this sort aren’t quite as immoral as they sound. We’re a democracy, after all. The people are supposed to get what they want. The whole people hardly ever does: few policies will please literally everyone. Pleasing some of the people some of the time may be all that’s possible. But members of successful electoral coalitions may get many of the things they want.There’s also the argument that countries need to change governments every so often, so responsible parties really do have an obligation to do what’s necessary to get into office, presumably by sailing closer to the prevailing electoral winds than they like. As the Carney government evolves, it’s clear the identity politics of the Trudeau years have not been swept from the stables, as they almost certainly would have been had the Conservatives won the 2025 election. Their failure to turf the Liberals becomes more and more costly the longer this undergrowth lasts.The alternative political approach is to hold fast to things you believe in, keep fighting even when your ideas fall from favour and try to get people to support what’s right for the country rather than whatever government largesse may be to their own temporary benefit. As Margaret Thatcher herself told the Fraser Institute in Toronto in 1993: “I find, as I have been interviewed in Canada … that all commentators seem to regard one as something of a phenomenon because one set out in politics with convictions. They don’t quite understand that. They say ‘Well, here we have pragmatism.’ To this I say, if you are embarking on a great voyage across the oceans, you have to have some stars to steer by, and the stars have to be constant. It’s no good steering by shooting stars.”This advertisement has not loaded yet.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.(Memo to that ’70s-guy Andy Burnham: in the same speech Mrs. Thatcher said “Britain in 1979 was a country not only in decline but whose people had accepted decline.”)The great advantage of conservative ideas is that so many of them are true — meaning they accord not with my truth or your truth but with the truth. John Stuart Mill warned that “every increase of the functions devolving on the government is an increase of its power, both in the form of authority, and still more, in … indirect … influence.” Would Donald Trump have such power as he does to silence the American business class if the United States government were not involved in virtually every aspect of American economic life? What head of a major company has no dealings with the Trump-led executive branch?Even if you regard Trump as a Black Swan event and government and the people who run it as entirely good-hearted and well-intended, there is the problem, as Mill also wrote, that “every additional function undertaken by the government, is a fresh occupation imposed upon a body already overcharged with duties.” And he was writing in the 1840s, when taxes were less than 10 per cent of U.K. GDP, not verging on 40, and Britain had not yet become, as Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch describes it, “a welfare state with an economy attached.”So that there could be brokerage politicians who deliver whatever people decide they need this week is why God invented Liberals. But Conservatives exist to aim for what is best to, yes, conserve the successful society for which we are all custodians. Smaller government, less regulation and lower taxes are what that requires today.Notice for the Postmedia NetworkThis website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.