The problem with the NCC

Watching my old employer the National Citizens Coalition from afar I have reached two conclusions.

First, they try too hard to curry favour with the Conservative government.

Second, even when they do criticize the government they sometimes do so for the wrong ideological reasons.

Author and blogger, Paul Tuns recently picked up on this. Here's what Paul wrote about the NCC's response to the federal budget:

I couldn't help but notice the similarity between the National Citizen's Coalition and the Canadian Auto Workers:

CAW: "This budget does little to help Canadian workers secure their footing during a period of severe economic instability..."

NCC: "Instead of fixing the job crisis as it promised in yesterday’s Throne Speech, the Harper government appears to be coasting on last year’s stimulus budget, offering no meaningful new initiatives to get Canadians working again."

To be fair, the CAW veers further left and the NCC then goes to contradict themselves by calling for less government spending after indicating its displeasure that the government faltered in some way by "coasting" off last year's stimulus.

I'm just saying that the messaging from the NCC would have been clearer five or ten years ago; the NCC isn't supposed to be worried about job creation except as a talking point about lower taxes and less government.

Paul's comment reflects the weakness with the current NCC leadership. They have no clear understanding of true conservatism.

Sure they know that deficits are bad and that taxes are too high, but beyond that basic knowledge their grasp of ideology is weak.

Hence they often make statements which contradict conservative values (and sometimes long-held NCC positions).

Too bad.

Canada's conservative movement needs all the strong voices it can get.