I generally thought of my self as moderate-conservative in HS, but as I learned more about politics and whatnot I find myself leaning a bit more left. Keep in mind that by growing up in Canada, my idea of conservative is probably close to lining up with Ralph Nader....
I think the whole US healthcare bill is a bit of a farce in that it doesn't do enough; It should have been done much more like Canada; with the resources, population density, etc etc that the US have, they should be able to take Canada's healthcare system and improve upon it.
At the same time I believe in balanced budget; the government shouldn't be ALLOWED to run a deficit for more than 2 years out of 10 (to account for some recessions etc) unless during a period of TOTAL war (not this Iraq/Afghanistan stuff), and must have net balanced budget over that time. Canada had a surplus for a number of years before the last 2 or 3 years, and Clinton had eliminated the deficit. This in my opinion, is a hallmark of the term conservative, being fiscally responsible. Unfortunately for both the US and Canada, our conservative parties don't seem to think so. (the liberals got rid of the deficit, the conservatives created one, similar to in the states).
I am also pro-nuclear, though that has more to do with it being cheap, good for the environment, higher-tech stuff, efficiency, and the fact that Canada should press forward in the nuclear field. This is something that both conservatives and liberals have to realize at some point, that if you want clean, cheap power on a large scale, nuclear is the way to go.
I think state/provincial rights are all very well and good, but they make the law much more fragmented; I'd tend to lean towards a stronger federal government.
Taxes are a useful and necessary tool; simplifying them is good, but making sure that you don't tax the poor out of existence, and tax those who can afford it makes sense imho. Once again I'd point to Canada as a good model, even though Americans on the high-end of the income scale would shudder. I think simplifying the tax code (in both countries, but america more so i understand) would *seriously* help almost everybody save more money, other than accountants who might get laid off as a result. But yes, taxes need to be raised/set to the point where you can afford your expenditure. Smaller government // responsible government good! smaller government == conservative imho, responsible government should be a general principle.
Pro-life is a bad term in my opinion. I wouldn't consider myself anti-life (life is pretty good you know), therefore i must be pro-life; but i would consider myself pro-abortion. The fact that an issue of religious morality even comes into politics is absurd imho; and it shouldn't be labelled as conservative or liberal, though it has because most of the religious fundamentalists have aligned themselves with the conservative elements.
I also believe in R&D for the military and space; these things keep industrial research going. I believe there should be tax cuts for corporations doing basic scientific research. I also believe that corporations, if they are treated as people under law, should have criminal penalties that result in their dismantling; and if a corporation is "too big to fail" then they need to be broken up or nationalized, as they undermine government control. This I guess is kindof liberal, but at the same time it kindof embraces free-market ideas as it's rationale... so kindof centrist maybe?
I also think that representatives (congressman/senator/MP/MLA) should have to sit through the full reading of a bill to be allowed to vote on it. This would encourage having small enough bills to be able to read through in a reasonable time frame. Things like this Obamacare would have to be split up into maybe 1 or 2 thousand individual smaller votes that way, which would be much more manageable. This, in effect, means smaller government, as you can't pass thousands of pages of bureaucracy-creating-
fluff all at once; smaller government == conservative, imho :)
As an aside, while i'm on this rant, i think that penalties in law should be handed out on a percentage basis, not a flat rate; For example, these recent copyright infringement things have penalties of $750-$150k; these are extreme amounts for an individual, but nothing for a big corp. If instead they made it 20%-150% of assets+revenue then when a corporation violated these laws they'd really get slammed for it, just like the individual does. And class action lawsuits need to stop giving out "$7 per person who bought a rootkitted CD"
http://en.wikipedia.org/...fornia_class_action_suits and be fined more like $1000 per CD + billing for removal of rootkits, assuming there was intent of course.