Senator Hugh Segal

Canada has been in the throes of a scandal in its Upper House of Parliament, The Senate, this past year. Hugh Segal, a Conservative appointee by the Harper government, has just announced that he is resigning his post at age 63 though he could by rights hold it until age 75. Segal succinctly defined conservatism as the promotion of equal opportunity for all compared to socialism which he states seeks to legislate equal outcome for all. Pretty clever. He would be considered on the left wing of his party (at least under the Harper regime) and he claims his support for unions and mechanisms to eradicate poverty only harken back to Tory policies post Confederation i.e. early 1870s. When asked on CBC The Current to define his politics he said he was a traditional Tory, one who holds an integrated view of society and who wishes to facilitate connections between people. Those he considers neocons he says are all about the aggrandizement of selfishness, insensitive and representative of the me, me, me approach to life. Harper he says is an everyman PM, somewhere in the middle of the conservative spectrum. This last comment makes me begin to doubt him.