Jeffrey Simpson reviews Fearful Symmetry

Fearful Symmetry in the Halifax Herald

This review first appeared in the Halifax Herald on January 3. It is no longer available online so I’m reproducing it here.

Socialist policies will be history, Crowley predicts

By JEFFREY SIMPSON

BRIAN Lee Crowley predicts that Canada is on the cusp of a profound economic and cultural change that will take the country back to its ideological roots, even if they are unfamiliar to many citizens.

Crowley, the well-known conservative thinker who founded the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, makes a compelling argument in his recently published book, Fearful Symmetry: The Fall and Rise of Canada’s Founding Values, that the last five decades spent as a nation with socialist leanings has been merely an aberration.

Since the swinging ‘60s, the true north strong and free has been drifting away from its traditional values: a commitment to family as an important social institution, a fierce work ethic, suspicion of big government and a strong sense of independence have all been swapped in favour of a large welfare state, he says.

Crowley chalks that up to the rise of Quebec separatism, which prompted undesirable policies to appease the French-speaking population, and the entry of baby boomers into the workforce, which created a long period of unemployment that influenced cultural attitudes. But he believes things will be a lot different in the years to come.

”Canada stands at a hinge of history,” Crowley says in an email interview. ”Many of the things we have regarded as settled about Canada since 1960 will be called into question.” An expanding government with myriad programs has damaged the country’s work ethic and undermined the importance of family, resulting in crime, abortion, suicide, divorce, depression and a host of other social ills, he says.

He sees the way out through reforms in taxes, marriage and social welfare that will encourage Canadians to have more children. Federal transfers will be scrapped and Ottawa will be beaten back from meddling in provincial affairs.

After having a workforce that grew 200 per cent over the past half century, Crowley predicts it’ll expand only 11 per cent for the next 50 years. ”Every Canadian who wants to work will be able to do so,” he says. ”Growth in the economy will slow because we won’t be able to find enough workers.

”Unemployment in places like Nova Scotia will be negligible and we will be desperately recruiting new workers wherever we can find them.”

This will be especially true if employment insurance is reformed to disqualify seasonal workers from collecting it after only toiling away for part of the year, he says. ”There will be absolutely no excuse for this at a time when full-year, full-time work is going begging in the region,” he says.

”If we reduce the size of government, make our taxes competitive (as New Brunswick has been working hard to do for several years), discourage premature retirement, and make ourselves more welcoming to immigrants, I think that the region will fare quite well, and the image Canadians have in other parts of the country will quickly change.

”If, on the other hand, we refuse to change our own behaviour, wring our hands, claim that the rest of the country must bail us out from the difficult circumstances headed our way, we will not get the benefits that these changes could bring.”

He paints a picture of Canada that might look similar to how many Americans view their country, but asserts that the two nations have always been different from one another.

”We have been sold a bill of goods about the nature of the differences,” he says. ”For our first century, Canada as a society was more committed than America to the ideals of personal freedom and individual responsibility.

He points out that since the years of Jean Chretien as prime minister, governments in Canada have been shrinking, while under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, it’s increasing in the U.S.

”Soon they will be spending more on government than we do and we will have reverted to a traditional Canadian policy of keeping our tax rates lower than the Americans,” he says.

”I think Canadians will be pleasantly surprised by the positive results this will create for us.”

Crowley seems well aware that some people will dismiss his ideas as a conservative pipe dream. If that’s the case, he’s at least been hugely successful in sparking an essential debate about where the country’s headed. And he deserves credit for that.

”Most Canadians will feel vindicated and encouraged that the things they have believed in all these years in fact have an impeccable Canadian pedigree,” he says. ”Returning to those values will make us more Canadian, not less.”