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Less than a week out to the election, here’s a thought: Can the Tories survive anything other than an outright majority win? If they lose at the polls, or win a minority that’s toppled, can the party hold together?

For the last nine years, the spoils of victory have allowed the party to keep a variety of ills under wraps. So long as the party was in power, able to provide jobs and power to the faithful, it was easy to manage growing discontent in the party and among the grassroots. Once the good times stop, though, the party is going to have to come to a nasty reckoning — its record in office has left few conservatives happy, and its efforts to win another election, if futile, may make winning the next one even harder.

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There are three distinct issues at play here. The first, of course, is the sense among true-blue conservatives that this government has been underwhelming … to put it mildly. I share that frustration. There’s a few bright spots here and there — thanks again for nuking the long-gun registry, fellas — but overall, the Tories have been all the centrist things I’d hoped they wouldn’t be. They spend too much. Instead of reforming the tax code, they’ve actually made it worse through their ridiculous boutique credits. They haven’t found a sector of the economy they don’t feel would benefit from corporate welfare. They have actually boasted of defending supply management. And under Harper’s watch, despite all Harper’s tough talk, the Canadian Armed Forces are too small and in desperate need of new equipment. In some areas, the Navy, first and foremost, things have gotten worse. Our once-proud fleet has rusted out on Harper’s watch, and help is years away … if it ever comes at all.