Nowadays, virtue signalling is usually reserved for what some perceive as the self-righteous and morally superior attitudes and statements of the political left.

Elitism, if you will.

When those on the left use language such as equity, accessibility, and, rather controversially in the current political climate, diversity and inclusion, they are often pushed aside as virtue signalling radical ideologies by right-wing critics.

But does critiquing the left with such a term as virtue signalling suggest that those on the right are without virtue?

No. Of course not.

Virtues are subjective, and the many elected officials who have charted our political fortunes view their own actions as virtuous and morally just. The actions of elected officials can easily be reframed as virtuous.

Retaliation can easily be reframed as seeking justice. Cruelty can easily be presented as being logical, pragmatic, or just common sense.

In Alberta, at least, right-wing actions from city council to the Premier’s office are often reframed as virtuous. Separation and sovereignty reframed as national unity. Underfunding public education is reframed as parental choice. Removing social supports, depending on your class and status, is reframed as austerity, fiscally efficient, and for the greater good.

It would be a mistake to think that those on the right are without virtue. Instead, it is important to question what modern conservative virtues are, and what they are signalling us toward.

From right-wing councillors like Landon Johnston to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, the values these elected officials have touted are often followed by action, albeit with variable levels of success. Their perceived virtues are often visible in public statements, media releases, and posts on X (formerly Twitter).

They have clearly signalled the moves that define our current moment in Alberta: a separation referendum, a referendum to limit access for tax-paying Albertans to public education, healthcare, and social services based on their immigration status, and locally, a call to deny a service called Fair Entry from tax-paying immigrants to Calgary who do not yet have permanent residence or citizenship.

It is important to remind readers that everyone who lives in Alberta pays taxes, be it property tax (whether renting or owning) or through income tax, regardless of immigration status.

Pandering to the middle by muddling the message

Right-wing politicians often share values of austerity, of corporate welfare over social welfare, of traditional nuclear family values (with sometimes overt religious undertones seen in book bans and Christmas messages), of neoliberalism, and of a pull-up-your-bootstraps sense of hyper-individualism. Discussions of welfare supports are commonly grounded in a subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, declaration that poverty is some degree of a moral failure and not a systemic failure.

Alberta’s right-wing politicians, from the UCP to conservative city councillors, have told us who they are, what they stand for, and what they’ll do.

Even when they pander to the middle, they do so in a way that rarely betrays their values – often choosing rhetoric that muddles the message so that voters can project their own beliefs onto the party position rather than definitively providing one. Who is surprised that a question of separation will be on the October referendum when the UCP’s Bill 1 was the Sovereignty Act, later to be muddled by a new name, The Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act.

At the local level, Calgary is experiencing this same level of clarity from our conservative politicians. Ward 14 Coun. Landon Johnston, propelled to council by a movement to get more conservative councillors elected, has long since signalled to the public that his values lie in opposition to those so often referred to as performative virtue signalling.

He has taken positions against anti-racism work by questioning the legitimacy of systemic racism in Calgary as well as voting in opposition to the Anti-Racism Action Committee’s bylaw ratification.

Further, Councillor Johnston has attempted to stop a practice of screening out hateful, sexist, racist, or even confidential information included in public submissions to council from being permanently placed in the public record.

Most recently, Councillor Johnston has a motion in front of Calgary city council to remove an endorsement of anti-racism, truth and reconciliation, and inclusion from the sign-up process for public speaking at council.

The endorsement Coun. Johnston wants to remove asks public speakers to abide by the “expectation that participants will behave respectfully and treat everyone with dignity and respect to allow for conversations free from bias and prejudice.”

These are the signals that Coun. Johnston has laid out for us – often citing a fear of diminished freedom of expression rights that echoes the rights of Americans rather than the Canadian constitution, which embeds reasonable limits rather than unalienable absolutism.

It should surprise no one that after months of conflict with policies and practices rooted in diversity, equity, and inclusion, Coun. Johnston has proposed the idea of excluding tax-paying Calgarians who are not Canadian citizens (or permanent residents) from being able to access the City’s Fair Entry service.

He wants them to pay taxes but not be eligible to access the discounted services that other Calgarians can.

For those who do not know, Fair Entry is a service that provides a sliding scale of discounts for low-income Calgarians to access services such as transit, recreation centers, and even internet, phone, and cable through a partnership with Rogers Communications.

Coun. Johnston is using the same logic as the UCP with their referendum questions on immigration and social services – to make our systems more fiscally efficient. They argue the need to distinguish between Albertans who will receive unhindered access to public services and those who will not.

The virtues being signalled by our conservative leaders are not ones of universal justice, of fairness, but they do believe they are acting with good moral character.

In cultivating the “us” vs. “them” culture that pervades Alberta politics, conservative leaders, from our local city councillors to the Premier of Alberta, are setting the stage to determine who gets the benefit of Alberta’s prosperity and social services, and who does not.

They’ve been signalling this from the moment they were elected.

Where will their virtues signal us next?