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While I think Gilles Duceppe’s party is nonsense and his presence as a separatist in a federal election is absurd, I also salute the leader of the Bloc Québecois for supporting Mr. Harper’s participation in the campaign against the Islamic State (ISIL). It is rare and it is refreshing when political leaders take positions of principle which they know perfectly well are politically disadvantageous. It is reassuring that both the principal opposition leaders have done this.

It can give us some comfort that if either is at the head of a government, consideration of moral principle would be a factor in decision-making. While I have agreed with most of the main policies of Stephen Harper’s government over these nine years, this is a litmus test that he has not passed in recent memory. Everyone understands the political exigencies, and no reasonable person blames any politician, especially an incumbent, for going to great lengths to win. But the demagogy and the cynicism of this government, particularly in pandering to elements that it had practically no chance of losing to its rivals, is a dismal episode which, whatever the election result, taints the record of the regime.

The government has a very defensible record and Stephen Harper on balance has unquestionably been a capable prime minister who has never embarrassed this country in the world. His fixation on shrinking the federal government’s share of GDP and his preoccupation with fiscal prudence, while terribly rigid — he has become the pub bore of Canadian politics about them — is creditable. But apart from exaggerating the government’s economic record and slagging off the opposition with unusual energy, he and his colleagues have done little that is substantive to persuade voters to re-elect them to serve for another four years and give Harper the longest continuous tenure of any Canadian prime minister except Laurier.