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Photo by Christinne Muschi/Reuters

The National Post launched this series on the state of Canadian conservatism several weeks ago, but the planning for it began earlier, after a conversation between myself and a colleague. We asked a very simple question: were there any issues that conservatives, or Conservatives specifically, would universally agree on, or universally oppose? Again, we were able to quickly add up some policies, but philosophical matters were harder. And those that we were able to come up with don’t stand up to much scrutiny when compared with the recent record of Canadian Conservatives in office.

Philosophically, Canadian conservatives are free traders. In practice, that comes with so many protectionist caveats as to render the notion a lie. Philosophically, Canadian conservatives believe in limited government and the separation of powers. In practice, any limits on the government’s reach were imposed only by electoral considerations — from gazebos right on up to regional development agencies, every local special interest had a friend in Harper’s Ottawa. The Conservatives are the better option on fiscal responsibility, but only by being least worst.

There was no sense of purpose behind the modern Canadian Conservative movement. We know the Conservatives want to win. We recently saw them demonstrate how they thought they could win. But it wasn’t clear to me what they’d do with the power once they had won it.

And again, that seemed familiar. Think back once more to the period I referred to above — 2014 and 2015. The Tories had enjoyed early success when they had specific policies they were planning to enact, and explanations for the changes that Canadians could buy into (or at least understand, even if they disagreed). But by the end of the majority mandate, they seemed out of ideas. I’m struggling to recall any Conservative proposal for the 2015 election, beyond the disastrous barbaric cultural practices hotline proposal. There was something about a tax break on textbooks, I think?