what we call the conservative party in canada actually represents a coalition between two different political ideologies: toryism (which in canada has tended to be moderate) and social credit, which was an odd philosophy that merged a kind of theory of value with a lot of hard right-wing social views, and was prominent in the west and in quebec. until 1980, social credit regularly elected mps in canada. this was always a strange marriage, one that erupted in the 1990s as a consequence of the collapse of toryism, and a resulting shift to the hard right in the prairie provinces. what happened was that social credit eclipsed toryism (under the 'reform' brand), and then launched a hostile takeover of the conservative party, a takeover that ended in much of the conservative intelligentsia moving to the liberal party.

stephen harper was both the culmination of the reform movement and the architect of a slow return of toryism to the conservative party. today, the conservatives are still struggling with this, but the old tories seem to have the upper hand, again.

what maxime bernier represents is consequently relatively easy to understand. he's representing a strain of the canadian right that has historically tended to exist outside of the conservative party. there is a place in the canadian discourse for this - it is an important part of the country's fabric. it's always been there, and any stable party system will acknowledge that. the centre needs to get their heads around this.

but, a more interesting question is whether the quiet tory takeover of the conservative party, this counter-revolution on the right, is reflective of the views of voters or not.

people like michelle rempel live in a bubble of upper class tory media. she doesn't have to spend a lot of time talking to her constituents, because she has no meaningful opposition in her riding. and, she's consequently likely very out of touch with them.

does it make sense for bernier to start his own party? i think the stable spectrum in canada has four parties in it, and one of them is on the right of the conservative party. so, i'm going to argue that it does - and that this is all very canadian. our spectrum has been unstable for much of the last 40 years; the re-establishment of social credit could stabilize the party system..

but, the tories might want to re-evaluate the level of support that exists for a reform type party.