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No, what ails conservatism in Canada at this present moment is simpler than that. The big problem is an inability to stake out firm policy positions not because the polls told you to but because you believe them to be right and then planting your feet firm and arguing for your position.

Conservatives should try this some time. It’s what the left always does and, hats off to them, they’re great at it — routinely pushing the culture in their direction.

Some of my fellow columnists regularly lament the lack of Big Ideas within the broader conservative movement and everyone nods in agreement, but then when a Big Idea crops up they all pile on to attack it. And the attack usually isn’t rooted in logical argument, but more from the horror that someone’s departing from the very narrow lanes our politics travels along.

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Throughout the year there are conservative conferences and think tank gatherings where Big Ideas are put forward. Politicos spend their years out of power champing at the bit for a chance to implement these ideas and then as soon as they get back into office they get cold feet. Then what happens is cabinet ministers show up at those same conferences to chastise the attendees about why that Big Idea can’t happen after all.

A prime example is Ontario: The Tories have been waiting for their chance to govern for 15 years. They won a resounding majority mandate last year under a man who seemed like even more of a reformer wrecking ball than Mike Harris. Yet their first year in office — when they should be quickly doing the most radical changes — was a lost one, spent backtracking on half-baked ideas of little consequence.