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Canadian social conservatives, sometimes referred to as socons, openly support notions of natural law, tradition and conservative family values and policies. Compared to the United States, social conservativism is not as wide spread in Canada. Social conservatives are usually restricted to more rural settings, and in Western Canada and generally have very little influence in the Canadian government, although that may be beginning to change with the emergence of the Conservative Party of Canada.
Socons believe in traditional morality and social mores and the desire to preserve these in present day society, often through civil law or regulation. Many Socons describe themselves as traditionalists. Social change is generally regarded as suspect, while social values based on tradition are generally regarded as tried, tested and true. It is a view commonly associated with religious, militant and nationalistic conservatives. It should be noted that Socon values are not necessarily attached to right-wing fiscal conservatism. Many fiscally left-leaning politicians have embraced Socon values such as PC leadership candidate David Orchard and Christian Heritage Party leader Ron Gray. It should be noted however that many Socons do embrace neoconservatism (Craig Chandler or Stockwell Day for instance).
In modern Canadian politics, Socons were largely regarded as abnormal oddities or religious zealots by officials in the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. Over the years, many Socons felt shunned by a conservative party that was largely led and run by Red Tories for the last half of the twentieth-century. Many Socons eventually made their political home with the Reform Party of Canada and its forerunner the Social Credit Party of Canada. Despite Reform leader Preston Manning's attempts to broaden the support of the Reform movement through populism, the party was largely dominated by Socons. Manning's reluctance to allow his party to wholly embrace Socon values contributed to his deposition as leader of the newly minted Canadian Alliance which was led by the ardent and open Socon Stockwell Day in its early years.
The Socon movement remained very influential in the Canadian Alliance even after Day's defeat at the hands of Stephen Harper in 2002. Many have suggested that the new Conservative Party of Canada, led by Harper, is becoming more beholden to Socon values and support in its recent positions against same-sex marriage and legalization of marijuana.
Despite this, social conservativism is viewed with suspicion among the general public in Canada, which only 25% were known to support George W. Bush in his campaign for President of the United States. This suspicious was probably one of the leading factors that led to the Conservative's defeat in the Canadian federal election, 2004 as many Canadians accused the tories of having a hidden social conservative agenda.
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