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What the party shows signs of understanding is that, if it wants to broaden its base, as it must, it will not be by abandoning its principles — for who would want to join a movement that does not believe in itself? — but by adapting them to new challenges, in response to the needs of a changing society. Accepting same-sex marriage is certainly part of that. But if conservative parties want to make themselves relevant again, it will not be enough merely to acknowledge defeat, on those issues where progressives have had the better of the argument.

They will need, rather, to start setting the agenda themselves: to force their opponents to the left to respond to them, rather than allowing themselves always to be put in the position of having to respond to the left’s initiatives. Once, when the Conservatives were the party of such radical ideas as free trade and the GST, that was the case: though they eventually defeated the Tories at the ballot box, the Liberals were forced to embrace much of their legacy in government. But it has not been true for some time.

In truth, power was a devil’s bargain for the Conservatives. They won government, but gave up much else: not only their principles, but their freedom, and ultimately their self-respect. But the price need not always be so high. Liberated by defeat, the party’s challenge now is to discover a way to win power without repudiating its convictions; to find the overlap between what it believes and what the public can be persuaded of.

Politics, it is said, is the art of the possible. Not quite. Better to say it is the art of expanding the possible.