And the votes are in: 73 in favour, 45 against and it’s off with his head!

The federal Conservative party’s Erin O’Toole was removed as leader by a decisive majority of the Conservative Caucus on February 2. My concern of course is not for Mr. O’Toole, or for the Conservative party itself for that matter, but rather for how I fear the Canadian political landscape may be about to change not for the better but for the worse.

For many years since the 1950s, the then Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was more moderate and as the name implied, progressive. This resulted from the fact that there were enlightened currents within the party.

Former Progressive Conservative prime minister John Diefenbaker brought us the Canadian Bill of Rights in 1960, the country’s first federal law to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms. While somewhat limited as it applied only to federal statutes, it led the way to the 1982 enactment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as part of Canada’s Constitution. In 1960, very few developed countries had a bill of rights. Diefenbaker’s foreign policy was so independent of Washington’s that then President John Kennedy set in motion a plan to ensure Diefenbaker’s defeat at the polls.

Flora MacDonald, former Progressive Conservative foreign minister, was quite enlightened on the Middle East and the plight of the Palestinians.

My hero Elizabeth May, former leader of the federal Green Party, is of the view that on environmental issues our best prime minister ever was former Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney.

Then in 2003 the Progressive Conservatives dropped the word Progressive and merged with the Canadian Alliance to become the Conservative Party of Canada. Any pretense of being progressive went out the window. However, the party had not yet been captured by the far right.

We need look no further than the truckers’ convoy and demonstration in Ottawa to become aware of the fact that there is a growing, very dangerous and irrational right emerging on the scene. They are not just opposed to mandatory vaccinations. Many in the demonstration hold extreme views such as homophobia and belong to the alt-right.

O’Toole supported Prime Minister Trudeau’s carbon tax. He supported legislation to ban conversion therapy. These are just two of his "crimes" in the minds of the majority of his caucus.

Long story short, I fear that the federal Conservative Party may now become a version of the Republican Party to our south. This would be a disaster for the environment. A disaster for minority rights. A disaster for those that depend on social programs.

It would be an absolute disaster.

Daily atmospheric CO₂[Courtesy of CO2.Earth]

Latest daily total (Feb. 3, 2022): 419.39 ppm

One year ago (Feb. 3, 2021): 415.97 ppm