INDEPTH: CONSERVATIVE PARTY
When is a Tory no longer a Tory?
By Dan Brown, CBC News Online | December 11, 2003
The future of the party's traditional nickname is uncertain
The Conservative Party of Canada may now be a living, breathing entity, but that doesn't mean the questions springing from the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives have all been answered.
What does the new party stand for? Who will be its leader? Can it beat Paul Martin's Liberals?
And those are just the obvious ones. There's another crucial question, one that will go a long way toward determining the new party's identity, that has so far gone unposed. What, exactly, will the nickname be for the Conservative Party?
For decades, the traditional nickname in Canada for Progressive Conservative politicians and voters has been "Tory." But that word is now at a crossroad because the party of Joe Clark and Brian Mulroney has been voted out of existence.
To make matters more precarious for the storied term, the people who used to make up the Canadian Alliance have always taken pride in being a different breed of conservative. The Reform Party, then the Canadian Alliance, changed the electoral landscape by not being a party of Tories. They reject the label. Some use "Tory" as a derogatory term.
Peter MacKay
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According to Jack Chambers, a sociolinguist at the University of Toronto, the nickname's days are numbered: "It can't survive, you would think." Chambers doesn't believe it will ever catch on with the followers of Alliance Leader Stephen Harper. "I think the Alliance folks are certain to be upset if they get called Tories," Chambers says.
"If you're a diehard Reformer, you probably have reservations," echoes William Stairs, the spokesman for PC Leader Peter MacKay.
Chambers says it's impossible to predict what form the new nickname will take, but he does say there are certain preconditions that must be met before one can emerge. "For the nickname to come, there must be some kind of unification process that makes [the Alliance and PCs] one."
In other words, the members of the new party must find out what they agree on before there can be agreement on a nickname Chambers thinks something as simple as "the New Tories" could catch on. "If I were a spin doctor, I'd be out there promoting that," he says. The advantage of the term, to his mind, is that it has links to both the past and the future.
Other language experts aren't so sure "Tory" will die out. Katherine Barber, the editor-in-chief of The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, is convinced the word is elastic enough to stay in circulation. "I think people will just adapt it to the new party, that's my feeling," she says.
Kiss my Grits?
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Although not as commonly used as "Tory," Liberals are sometimes called "Grits" in headlines and informal settings.
The nickname comes from the phrase Clear Grit, a term popularized by editor and political reformer George Brown in Canada West in 1849-50.
Clear grit was a type of sand the Scottish stonemasons of Upper Canada used in making mortar.
Brown used it as a description of the type of character required for members of his wing of the Reform party in the Province of Canada.
The Grits themselves disappeared in the 1870s, but the term stuck to Liberals and the Liberal party.
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Barber points out that the word has been used since the 17th century. It originated in Ireland as a term for outlaws, from a word meaning "to pursue," then was absorbed by the supporters of James II in England. Eventually, it came to apply to Britain's Conservative party. Britain exported the word to its colonies, where it came to be the generic label for the party of the right in any given country.
"It's been around to designate conservatives for a very long time," she notes (and even though the federal PC party is no more, there are still going to be Tories at the provincial level in most regions of Canada).
Barber doesn't believe "the New Tories" will stick because anything labelled "new" eventually grows old. (She says "New Democrats" endures because "the New Democratic Party" is the NDP's official name.)
One thing Barber and Chambers do agree on is that a nickname will likely not be inspired by the Conservative Party's founding leader. If Harper enters the race and wins, for instance, it's doubtful that Conservative Party members will be known as "Harperites." Those kinds of handles don't have staying power.
Says Barber: "They don't seem to stick on a long-term basis."
"It's likely to be more generic, less personal than that when it comes," adds Chambers.
Tories themselves remain attached to their traditional nickname. Gary Schellenberger is the member of Parliament for Ontario's Perth-Middlesex riding. Elected in a byelection as a Progressive Conservative, he now belongs to the Conservative Party.
"I still call myself a Tory and I would hope that it wouldn't offend any of my new brothers and sisters," he says. Schellenberger is circumspect when asked if former Alliance members will accept the Tory label. "That's to be decided," he says.
In his view, the word has a very specific meaning. His understanding is that people who have voted in the past for the PCs at the provincial level and the Alliance or Reform federally are not Tories: "You can't be. A Tory's a Tory's a Tory. So if you're a Tory, you're Progressive Conservative provincially, you're Progressive Conservative federally."
He also says "Tory" conveys a sense of moderation.
"I've always figured myself not to be extreme on anything, so I'm a moderate. And I always figured that's what a Red Tory was or a Tory would be: a moderate-type conservative."
Unlike Schellenberger, New Brunswick Progressive Conservative MP John Herron refuses to join the Conservative Party. He is sure the word "Tory" has a future, albeit in a modified form. "I think the term will live, but I think it will be propped up by multiple parties," he says.
What the member for Fundy-Royal means is that he expects the Liberals to co-opt the word into their vocabulary. He predicts Paul Martin will start using it to appeal to voters who have traditionally supported the PCs. It will no longer apply to a political entity, but it will be shorthand for an identifiable bloc of voters.
And how does he feel about the impending change?
"I'm a federal Tory, kind of like the California Golden Seals. I'm a hockey player who would like to play some more except my team folded."
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