Emma Teitel: Tim Houston's positive brand of conservatism
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This week, while the federal Conservatives were renewing their vows to crack down on so-called woke ideology, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston released a three-minute video that did more to counter the excesses of political correctness than Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has done in his entire career.
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This is because Houston's 'I am Nova Scotian' video (what some suspect is a precursor to his future bid for federal leader) offers a version of Canadian conservatism that celebrates patriotism and diversity at the same time — and most rare: in a way that isn't annoying or cringey.
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The video is a disarming Maritimer take on the 'I am Canadian' Molson ad from the 1990s. Instead of beer, its focus is Peggy's Cove, Celtic strings and 'skaw-lups' (not 'scaah-lips,' we are sternly reminded).
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We see the premier, in a windbreaker of course, tour various Nova Scotia landmarks while his voiceover recounts the long list of important things invented in the province. Hockey. The telephone. Newsprint. Kerosene. The donair.
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There are many nods to old-stock maritime tropes. 'I have asked who your father is, and I give directions based on landmarks that are no longer there,' Houston says.
But there are also nods to themes rarely seen in Canadian Conservative politics these days.
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We were 'first in the country to legalize that love is love,' the premier says about his province, amid images of gay couples marching in a Pride parade.
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'And ours is the province where Viola Desmond sat wherever she damn well pleased.… Inspired by the Black Loyalists and the Trelawney Maroons, we will not be bullied by those that look to oppress us. We were the first province in Canada. The first port of call for generations of new Canadians. And we will never be the 51st of anything. My name is Tim and I am Nova Scotian.'
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Houston's video could be naked political opportunism masked as Maritimer pride, or a little bit of both of those things (it probably isn't a coincidence the video launched days prior to an election result that could spell the end of Pierre Poilievre's tenure as party leader).
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But whatever its motive, it is frankly a masterclass in inclusion done the right way. Houston manages to acknowledge his province's painful complexities without endlessly apologizing for the injustices of its past; he includes diverse groups without casting them as victims or invoking jargon to describe them.
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In other words, the Nova Scotia premier is offering Nova Scotians — and by extension Canadians — a picture of a conservatism that says, 'We see you for who you are — now let's get on with it and do something great together.' It might seem trite to some, but it is a whole lot more invigorating than the identity politics offered by the federal Conservatives, which could be boiled down to: 'We must destroy the woke mind virus to re-establish a warrior mentality in the Armed Forces.'
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It's not just that the latter worldview is, as many have pointed out, a tad Trumpy for an electorate practically allergic to U.S. President Donald Trump. It's that it has almost zero relevance to the lives of average Canadians.
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