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Red Tory
DCHP-2 (Nov 2012)
Spelling variants:"Red Tory", red-Tory
n. & adj. — Politics
a Conservative with liberal views on social welfare issues.
Type: 1. Origin — The term Red Tory became popular in the mid-1960s (see the 2012 quotation). Note that Canadian conservatism is "distinctly different and much older than American conservatism" (see the 1999 quotations). As Chart 1 shows, the term is most frequent in Canada.
See also Gage-5, s.v. "Red Tory", which is marked "Cdn.", ITP Nelson, s.v. "Red Tory", which is marked "Canadian", and OED-3, s.v. "Red Tory", which is marked "Canad.".
See also Gage-5, s.v. "Red Tory", which is marked "Cdn.", ITP Nelson, s.v. "Red Tory", which is marked "Canadian", and OED-3, s.v. "Red Tory", which is marked "Canad.".
Quotations
1965
The term "Red Tory" is experiencing a mild vogue at present but has not been defined with any great clarity or precision. Stated briefly, the "Red Tory" is a conservative who believes in an organic society, one that rejects individualism (that individualistic philosophy deriving from Locke and culminating in modern Liberalism).
1971
"I think I'm probably more of what's called a Red Tory than a Socialist..."
There is a delightful quality to Fiona Nelson that is not innocence, not naivity but a sort of cheerful, unjaded, uncynical welcome to all that the world has to offer.
1978
It's rare that one finds so few things wrong with the first edition of a major new reference work. The only term I could think of that isn't in Fontana is Red Tory. (I guess it isn't used much outside Canada.)
1988
His politics, as expressed through his many speeches, are best described as ''Red Tory,'' which doesn't endear him to Thatcher and her ministers.
1999
If there is a genuine Canadian ethos and worldview, it most certainly comes to us from our unique Red Tory tradition. Canadian Red Tory convservatism has concerned itself with the commonweal - the common good of society. It is within this Red Tory tradition that we find conservative support for the social programmes, such as Medicare, which are the great Canadian moral accomplishments.
Throughout our history, Red Toryism has been the bastion of defence of Canadian national sovereignty. Red Tories have always recognised the truth that without a clearly defined sovereignty and strong federalism, democracy cannot be preserved.
1999
Canadian conservatism is distinctly different and much older than American conservatism, and, it is more true and honest to history, to call American conservatism liberalism and Canadian conservatism the genuine thing.
We need not be co-opted by the empire to the south; we need to reclaim what it truly means to be a conservative and, more to the point, a Canadian Red Tory.
The Canadian Red Tory tradition is grounded in a notion of the common good that is much older and quite different from the Americans. We, for example, are not as suspicious of the state as the empire to the south; the state, for a conservative and a Red Tory, has a vital role to play in thinking through and bringing into being the good and just society.
2008
"It's the ebb and flow of politics." One of the reasons for the absence of Red Tories today he explained, is that "we don't have seats in the major urban centres of Canada. When we get them it will change."
2012
The language of Red Toryism became popular in the mid-1960s when Gad Horowitz suggested that George Grant was Red Tory. The publication and immediate success of Grant's work, Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism (1965), made it abundantly clear that there were historic forms of conservatism in Canada that could not be equated with US republicanism. Horowitz, in the article "Tories, Socialists and the Demise of Canada" (1965), argued that there was a "Tory touch" in the Canadian political tradition that leaned more towards the commonweal and socialism than did the free enterprise system of Blue Toryism. It was this "Tory touch" that was more "Red" than "Blue" in orientation that distinguished the Canadian from the US notions of CONSERVATISM.
References
- OED-3
- Gage-5
- ITP Nelson
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