UCL Conservative Society

An excellent day-long free event hosted by the Fraser Institute for students and academics, held in the beautiful surroundings of the Hilton Bonaventure hotel with world-class speakers. Topics included anti-capitalism in Quebec, why we shouldn’t fear China, environmentalism and reforming the health service through greater competition between hospitals. Over lunch we heard from David Frum, among other things former speechwriter for G.W.Bush and one of the big men in Rudy Giuliani’s campaign.

I’d like to focus on his words because they were surprising coming from a Republican. He gave a deep analysis of why the Republicans might be out of the White House for quite a few years, having polarized an entire demographic cohort against themselves. His remarks pointed out that the GOP can no longer appeal to reaganomics nor high-income groups, who tend to lean more Democrat because if you want to lounge around with people, it’s easier when you vote for the Democrats. Advocating a rethinking of the Republican Party rather than just its slogans, citing Canada’s and our own British Tories, Frum got us interested in the new book he’s presenting around the continent. “Comeback: A Conservatism That Can Win Again”.

In their different ways, Harper and Cameron have brought their parties back into power on onto its doorstep. The Republican Party will have to find its own way, but the seeds are there.

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