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{{Short description|Conservative, not identifying with a conservative party}}
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A '''small-c conservative''' is anyone who believes in the philosophy of [[conservatism]] but does not necessarily identify with an official [[Conservative Party (disambiguation)|Conservative 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.

==Context==

===Canadian===
The term was especially popular in Canada during the 1990s when the [[Progressive Conservative Party of Canada|Progressive Conservative Party]] was [[Centre-right politics|centre-right]] with the [[Reform Party of Canada|Reform Party]] (later, the [[Canadian Alliance]]) further to the [[Right-wing politics|right]]. Members and supporters of the Reform Party/Canadian Alliance would thus describe themselves as small-c conservatives. 

Sometimes referred to as [[Red Tory|Red Toryism]], a notable example is the [[Progressive 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.<ref>{{cite news |date=4 May 2007 |title=Williams escalates fight |url=http://www.canada.com/story_print.html?id=c69fe54b-8628-47ca-87c8-040c3891b22f&sponsor= |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120912081612/http://www.canada.com/story_print.html?id=c69fe54b-8628-47ca-87c8-040c3891b22f&sponsor= |archive-date=12 September 2012 |access-date=8 February 2012 |newspaper=National Post}}</ref> In more recent times, provincial Progressive Conservative parties have distanced themselves from the federal [[Conservative Party of Canada]] in an effort to appeal to a broader base. For example, the [[Yukon Party]] and its leader Currie Dixon publicly stated that the party "has no formal relationship with any federal party",<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-09-14 |title=Yukon Party clarifies 'no formal' ties to Poilievre's Conservatives |url=https://www.yukon-news.com/local-news/yukon-party-clarifies-no-formal-ties-to-poilievres-conservatives-7005178 |access-date=2025-04-10 |website=Yukon News |language=en}}</ref> while the leader of the [[Progressive 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".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nova Scotia PC leader distances provincial party from federal Conservatives' outreach campaign - Halifax {{!}} Globalnews.ca |url=https://globalnews.ca/news/5666365/nova-scotia-pc-leader-federal-conservative-outreach-campaign/ |access-date=2025-04-10 |website=Global News |language=en-US}}</ref>

===British===
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 official [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]]. For example, the [[House 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 party [[Whip (politics)|whip]]—it is described as "small-c conservative".<ref>{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sVCCLXN1UvkC&pg=PA109 |title=Economic efficiency-democratic empowerment |author=Ingolfur Blühdorn, Uwe Jun |date=2007 |page=109|publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=978-0-7391-1211-3 }}</ref>

It is often applied to groups or individuals within parties other than the Conservatives such as [[Blue Labour]]<ref>{{Cite news |last=Chaplain |first=Chloe |date=2019-12-16 |title=What is Blue Labour, the controversial 'culturally conservative' group calling for support to shape the future of the party? |url=https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/blue-labour-what-twitter-party-group-culturally-conservative-policies-explained-375553 |access-date=2025-08-09 |work=[[The i Paper | The i]]}}</ref> which support positive attitudes to patriotism, tradition or religion, or are skeptical of immigration. In May 2024, [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] shadow foreign secretary [[David Lammy]] described himself as "small-c conservative" in a speech, arguing he could find common ground with US [[Republican Party (United States)| Republicans]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Francis |first=Sam |date=2024-05-09 |title=Donald Trump often misunderstood on Nato, says Labour's David Lammy |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68983472 |access-date=2025-08-09 |work=[[BBC News]]}}.</ref>

===Australian===
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A small-c conservative in Australia is generally a member of the [[Liberal Party (Australia)|Liberal 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.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== See also ==
*[[Blue Tory]]
*[[Red Tory]]

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