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Asmall-c conservative is anyone who believes in the philosophy ofconservatism but does not necessarily identify with an officialConservative Party. The word "conservative" is used in lower case as the word refers to general principles of conservatism and is not a proper noun, as in a political Conservative Party.
The term was especially popular in Canada during the 1990s when theProgressive Conservative Party wascentre-right with theReform Party (later, theCanadian Alliance) further to theright. Members and supporters of the Reform Party/Canadian Alliance would thus describe themselves as small-c conservatives.
Sometimes referred to asRed Toryism, a notable example is theProgressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador's 'Anything But Conservative' (ABC) campaign, which encouraged voters to support any party other than the Conservatives to prevent Conservative candidates from being elected in the next federal election in the province.[1] In more recent times, provincial Progressive Conservative parties have distanced themselves from the federalConservative Party of Canada in an effort to appeal to a broader base. For example, theYukon Party and its leader Currie Dixon publicly stated that the party "has no formal relationship with any federal party",[2] while the leader of theProgressive Conservative Association of Nova Scotia,Tim Houston, similarly distanced his provincial party from a federal Conservative's outreach campaign, clarifying that "it’s two parties".[3]
This term is also used in the United Kingdom to describe those who are conservative in the sense of resisting radical change rather than being members or supporters of the officialConservative Party. For example, theHouse of Lords as a body tends to resist social change and executive power and therefore—regardless of the numbers of lords who take the Conservative partywhip—it is described as "small-c conservative".[4]
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A small-c conservative in Australia is generally a member of theLiberal Party who is more moderate on social policy and conservative on fiscal policy. The Liberal Party is made up of such small-c conservatives as well as the more right-wing big-C conservatives.
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