Canadian social conservatives, sometimes referred to pejoratively as socons, openly support notions of natural law, tradition and conservative family values and policies. Compared to the United States, social conservativism is not as widespread in Canada. Social conservatives are usually restricted to more rural settings, especially in Western Canada and have generally had very little influence in the Canadian government, although that may be beginning to change with the emergence of the Conservative Party of Canada. Strong expression of social conservatism is almost universally opposed in Quebec.

Socons believe in traditional morality and social mores and the desire to preserve these in present day society, often through civil law or regulation. Many social conservatives describe themselves as traditionalists. Social change is generally regarded as suspect, while social values based on tradition are generally regarded as tried, tested and true. It is a view commonly associated with religious, militant and nationalistic conservatives. It is particularly associated with the Christian right, including fundamentalist and evangelical Christianity, and conservative tendencies in the Roman Catholic Church.

It should be noted that socially conservative values are not necessarily attached to right-wing fiscal conservatism. Many fiscally left-leaning politicians have embraced socially conservative values, such as PC leadership candidate David Orchard and Christian Heritage Party leader Ron Gray. However, other social conservatives, such as Craig Chandler or Stockwell Day, do embrace neoconservatism.

In modern Canadian politics, social conservatives were largely regarded as abnormal oddities or religious zealots by officials in the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. Over the years, many of them felt shunned by a party that was largely led and run by Red Tories for the last half of the twentieth-century. Many eventually made their political home with the Reform Party of Canada and its forerunner the Social Credit Party of Canada. Despite Reform leader Preston Manning's attempts to broaden the support of the Reform movement through populism, the party was largely dominated by social conservatives. Manning's reluctance to allow his party to wholly embrace socially conservative values contributed to his deposition as leader of the newly minted Canadian Alliance in favour of Stockwell Day.

The social conservative movement remained very influential in the Canadian Alliance even after Day's defeat at the hands of Stephen Harper in 2002. Many have suggested that the new Conservative Party of Canada, led by Harper, is becoming more beholden to socially conservative values in its recent positions against same-sex marriage and moderate de-criminalization of marijuana possesion.

Despite this, social conservativism is viewed with suspicion among the general public in Canada, where only a small minority were polled as being favourable to George W. Bush's reelection as president of the United States. This sentiment contributed to the Conservatives' defeat in the 2004 Canadian election, as many Canadians suspected the Tories of having a hidden social conservative agenda, such as after the party issued press releases which appeared to imply that Liberal leader Paul Martin and New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton were in favour of child pornography.