In today’s Sun: John Diefenbaker has left the building
I define a liberal as someone who believes in protection of citizens by government. A conservative, on the other hand, is someone who wants citizens to be protected from government. Conservatives believe in liberty and in freedom.
They don’t believe those things come from governments. They believe those things are taken away by governments.
I have a slightly more benign view of government. But, since I wanted to write for a conservative audience, I looked around and I found some pretty good quotes. They were about what a conservative is and what freedom is, and they were words spoken by former prime minister John Diefenbaker.
Around my house, we held Dief in pretty high regard. When he died in 1979, in fact, I remember my dad crying — even though he was a Liberal like me. Here’s what the giant of Canadian conservatism said:
“Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong.”