Lonely lives of campus Conservatives

Five years into Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, right-wing university students say they feel ostracized for their political views

Chad Bowie, a communications assistant for the Nova Scotia Progresive Conservative caucus, shows off his membership card for the Conservative Party of Canada. (Photo: David Kumagai)

Michael Kennedy stirs in his seat as his professor mocks the idea of gays supporting Conservative parties.

Kennedy looks around at his classmates nodding in agreement and raises his hand.

"I'm gay and I'm a Conservative," he says as the nodding heads turn in shock and the professor drops the subject.

Kennedy is a rare breed on a university campus - a vocal advocate of conservatism. His politics, more than his sexuality, have led him to feel ostracized at Dalhousie University.

Enlarge Image
Ginny Movat, president of the Dalhousie-King's Conservatives, feels there's a stigma against conservatives on campus. (Photo: David Kumagai)

Related Stories

• Student Tories upset over 'partisan' tactics (Jan 11, 2010)
• Campus Conservatives chastised over nomination stunt (Jan 26, 2009)

Related Websites

• Dal-King's Conservative Facebook Page
• St. FX Conservative Facebook Page

"My point was taken, but not pursued," says the fourth-year political-science student, "and that summarizes my whole experience in academia."

A half-decade after Prime Minister Stephen Harper's ascent to power, Conservative students say it's as difficult as ever for right-wing university students to feel comfortable speaking up.

"It can be very disheartening when you tell someone you're a Conservative," says Kennedy, "a lot of students shut off when they hear that."

The c-word

Ginny Movat, president of the Dalhousie-King's Conservatives, says that if she wants someone to like her in day-to-day encounters, she'll avoid any mention of the c-word.

"The word ‘conservative' carries such horrible connotations at university," says Movat, a fourth-year contemporary studies student at the University of King's College.

But Dalhousie's acting director of the political science department Jennifer Smith says she's surprised to hear such complaints.

"Professors work very hard to ensure that students don't feel cut off, because that's not the purpose," says Smith.

Since coming to Dal in 1980 when Marxist theories had a robust presence in the department, she says she's witnessed a gradual rise in conservative, pro-market views in her classes.

But Smith suggests that the party's environmental policies and high unemployment are the two main reasons the Conservative Party is unpopular among young people.

An EKOS poll released in December showed support for Conservatives at 18 per cent among people under 25, which is at least 10 percentage points lower than the party's support among other age groups.

In the youngest voting bloc, the governing Conservatives placed fourth, behind even the Green Party, which has yet to win a seat in the House of Commons.

Social stigma

Movat says the stigma against Conservatives extends beyond the classroom to social situations as well. "In a bar, people are visibly horrified," she says, recalling a time when an acquaintance approached her at the King's bar and started quizzing her about her political beliefs.

"It was more of an attack than an attempt to understand," she says.

Movat and Kennedy agree that contempt for conservatism stems from the perception that right-wing people don't care about issues like poverty or women's rights.

But Kennedy says when he is able to engage someone about his beliefs, they understand that "conservatism is just a different response to the ails of society."

Conservative groups idle

While the Conservative party has consistently led national polls since elected in 2006, the party's campaign success hasn't led to a rise in membership for campus Conservative groups in Nova Scotia.

Movat says membership is about the same as when she joined the club three-and-a-half years ago. They have nearly 40 people on their email list and a core group of between 10-to-15 students who attend their monthly events.

At Saint Mary's University, the Conservative group is struggling in its second year, says Dane Richard, one of only two students involved in their club.

They haven't held a single event this year and probably won't, says Richard, because there isn't much interest.

Mel Book, president of St. Francis Xavier University's Conservatives, restarted the club this year after several years of inactivity. She says she feels ostracized for being a conservative every day of her life.

Book is studying education and finds the department inherently liberal. In a class about teaching Canadian history to middle-school children, the discussion turned to residential schools and Book presented a case in Alberta where an aboriginal group actually supported the disgraced program.

"The whole class took a huge gasp and just stared at me," she recalls, "people said to me, ‘you hate aboriginals, you're a racist.' But I was just trying to present all sides of the story."

Richard echoes Book and says academic life at SMU is almost entirely left wing.

In debates with his peers, Richard's afraid to speak up because he doesn't want to be pegged with "that evil conservative stereotype."

"I've had professors bash Harper as if it's not an opinion, but a fact and I look around and all the students are nodding their heads," recalls Richard.

Chad Bowie, a communications assistant for the Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative caucus, says the disdain for conservatism on campus stems from fear.

Conservative values of fiscal restraint frighten institutions dependent on government funds, he says, explaining what he sees as a liberal bias in academia. "If your career is based on government grants, why wouldn't you be afraid of a Conservative government."

Underground conservatives

But the president of the Dalhousie-King's New Democrats says conservatives are paranoid.

"They're trying to play the victim," says Justin Ling, a second-year journalism student at King's and the co-chair of the Young New Democrats of Nova Scotia.

Ling acknowledges a liberal bias on campus, but says he's also experienced a backlash when voicing beliefs he sees as left-wing in class.

"It's not personal," he says.

Kennedy says there are more people with conservative perspectives at Dalhousie than he first thought.

And Bowie has no doubt the country is more conservative today than it was five years ago. He says a lot of Conservative sympathizers are quiet and that's why it may seem like students are overwhelmingly left wing.

But Movat and Kennedy insist there's hostility towards conservatives on campus.

Movat feels pigeonholed by her right-wing label. "My reputation certainly precedes me as that ‘conservative girl,'" she says, frustrated.

And Kennedy feels the same.

The disheartened Conservative says disdain for right-wingers is born of ignorance.

He believes the more engaged students become, the further right their politics will shift.

"More involvement would lead to more conservatives," he says.

Comments on this story are now closed