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The wave of conservative provincial governments elected across Canada over the past year all face the same challenge every new government must decide: whether to implement its mandate gradually over time or all at once. The pressure on a new government to proceed rapidly always comes from their supporters, anxious for change, and the media, a legacy of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt’s dramatic first 100 days when he laid the foundation for the welfare state and resuscitated the banking system.

Conservative governments, however, face an added complication in choosing how fast to proceed because conservatism inherently favours gradual change. The debate between gradual change versus the “shock therapy” approach has been around for centuries. Rapid change contradicts the gradualism at the heart of mainstream conservative thought. After all, modern conservatism was born in response to the upheaval of the French Revolution, which dislodged institutions such as the church and family from their traditional moorings. David Hume warned that “Given the fallibility of human reason and the complicated, variable nature of the political world, we should be wary of grand schemes for radically restructuring society.”