Article content continued

Photo by Jose Luis Magana/AP/The Canadian Press

Harper also ran massive deficits to stimulate the economy, littered the tax code with vote-buying loopholes, pledged to defend supply management in trade negotiations and lost after one majority term of timid incrementalism leaving no worthwhile legacy. And the dumber and scarier you consider Trudeau the more embarrassing and blameworthy it is to have lost to him.

I say we can do better and should dare to dream big. But any time we “radicals” speak up we’re told whoa, this is no time to rock the boat. See we have to stick together to implement our agenda. Or win the election. Or regroup after a defeat. Or get re-elected. Or because we have a new leader. Or because we don’t. Or because they do. Or because there’s a crisis. Or because nothing is happening. But if it’s never a good time to good time to raise fundamental questions, the specific excuses stop mattering.

If you’re going to sell your soul, at least get paid

Is Maxime Bernier perfect? No. Oddly enough, neither am I. Or possibly you. Is starting a new party easy? No. Is standing on principle easy? No. Will it work? Probably not. Damon Runyon said all life is six to five against and the odds here are worse. But is running against the Liberals from the mushy middle a sure bet? Hardly.

Mike Harris and Doug Ford won in Ontario, not John Tory and Ernie Eves. Harper and Mulroney won campaigning from the right and lost governing from the left. Stanfield just lost. If you’re going to sell your soul, at least get paid.

Conservatives in this country win majorities federally once a generation: Harper in 2011, Mulroney in 1984 and ’88, and before that … Diefenbaker in 1958 and Bennett in 1930. If you have genuinely conservative principles hidden somewhere on your person, be ready to act boldly and swiftly on them when opportunity knocks.