OTTAWA — Brian Lee Crowley was the toast of conservative Ottawa on Monday night as the Nova Scotia intellectual launched his latest book.
A handful of Conservative cabinet ministers came out to fete Mr. Crowley, president of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, and his new book, Fearful Symmetry: The Fall and Rise of Canada’s Founding Values.
Mr. Crowley was introduced by former cabinet minister Monte Solberg.
“I think of him really as Canada’s answer to Indiana Jones,” said Mr. Solberg after citing the many roles Mr. Crowley has played in his career. He called him “a courageous and brilliant happy warrior in this contest of ideas.”
Mr. Crowley’s book traces the development of the welfare state in Canada to the 1960s, when two levels of government were competing for the political loyalty of the baby boom generation in Quebec.
Mr. Crowley suggests that with the aging of the boomers and the reduction of the threat of Quebec nationalism, the country has an opportunity to take a new, more conservative approach to social issues more in line with traditional values.
“I think these things will fundamentally change Canada again in the next 50 years,” he said.
The book has been warmly received by conservative commentators.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, Transport Minister John Baird, Labour Minister Rona Ambrose and Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl were among those on hand to celebrate with Mr. Crowley, drinking wine and nibbling canapes at Play, a chic restaurant in downtown Ottawa.
Mr. Crowley is in the middle of a cross-country tour to promote the book.
He is about to move to Ottawa to launch a new project. He isn’t ready to announce his plans, but it is rumoured to be a new think-tank based on the work in the book.