I don't think conservatism is inherently anti-intellectual, it's just that current "conservative" parties seem to have adopted anti-intellectualism as a platform.
Not in Canada, though. They have flirted with it, and Harper and Leech patronize the brainless "I hate brown people" types as much as Trudeau patronizes the "I love brow people" types.
Our parties seem to compromise, or alternately steal from each other, more than the American ones. Balanced budgets are a thing that Liberals try for and even the NDP was touting it last federal election, ie. lowered spending.
In the US, you have these ridiculous purity tests that are driven by media outlets who try to out-nutbar each other. This used to happen on the far-left too, but I don't have any examples.
There is a golden path ahead to any party that figures out how to restructure the machine of democracy and government to lower overhead and pass the savings onto its citizens in the form of greater benefits for the poor, and lower taxes for middle and upper income earners. This was ostensibly what Trump was supposed to do, but he has too many blockers to success.