Published in The Charlatan ~ Carleton’s Conservative Campus

The following article appears in an October 2007 edition of The Charlatan

Political discourse on campus is pretty straightforward: you’re either a liberal or a socialist, or some more obscure or extreme variation of the two. Or so we are given the impression from day one at Carleton.

It’s not all that bad if you’re of a rightward persuasion though.

Just shut up, pay your Ontario Public Interest Research Group fees that the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) collects from you, and if nothing else, try not to get in the way of the class warfare being waged by the weekly protesters in Che Guevara shirts.

That is of course unless you’re the kind who would be so arrogant as to step out of line and pipe up once in a while. There are more than a few professors here that we pay to spew anti-capitalist, anti-American, anti-everything propaganda and belittle or shun students who challenge their point of view.

If I wanted to hear about their personal grievances I would buy them a cup of coffee at Tim Horton’s or read their books instead of paying them to lecture a captive audience.

These are professionals who should know better than to use their positions of authority to impose their views on us with our own money and tax dollars.

Professors should try to keep to the facts and when an opinion is required, they should provide us with additional opposing viewpoints.

But these professors are not alone in the role that they play in making sure Carleton students are indoctrinated with leftist propaganda.

Our self-proclaimed representatives at CUSA act more like a mouthpiece for the hard-left and CUPE 2424 than an apolitical body elected to represent all students.

Yet Carleton is not alone.

There is a general culture of conformity at many universities across Canada where it is simply not hip to be associated with conservatism, libertarianism or other ideological strains at odds with the God-that-failed of big government, appeasement of our nation’s enemies or social values we respectfully might not share.

On campus we hear a chorus of voices singing the praises of diversity. Diversity of races. Diversity of creeds. Diversity of sexual orientations. Diversity of cultures.

But where, might one ask, is the diversity of opinion?

Saying something too controversial for the thought police sitting in 401 Unicentre (CUSA’S office), could get your organization banned. Well, at least be banned in its constitution (CUSA as of yet has not enforced its ban of Carleton Lifeline, likely because of the bad press).

Even if one’s organization is not outright banned, individuals on campus who take issue with the dominant leftist thinking of many of their professors and peers, are too often made to feel that their opinions are not welcome — that their ideas are hard, mean or uncompassionate.

In my opinion, conservatism, while it is by no means homogeneous, is an ideology that seeks to make the world a better place based on what it realistically can be, from a starting point connected to what it realistically is.

It is based on the sound logic of a free economy, continued democratization, a strong national defence and a realization that changes to our social norms are often positive, but should not be rushed into head-first without due consideration for the consequences.

Those on campus of a conservative persuasion should know that they are not as outnumbered as it may seem. If one simply speaks out once in a while in their lectures, seminars or tutorials, they might not only make a good point, they might embolden some other like-minded students to pipe up and join them.

Those at Carleton on the right or centre-right are almost certainly in the minority, but if they come out of their shells once in a while, they may find that their minority is not as small as it may seem.