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Unless the Newfoundland Tories produce a miracle on Monday, there won’t be a party with the word “Conservative” in its name anywhere in Canada for the first time since 1943. At the risk of leaping to conclusions, we are beginning to suspect the brand is tainted.

It is possible to quibble that the Saskatchewan Party is conservative in all but its name. The B.C. Liberals are also to the right of their federal namesake. Oh, and the Yukon Party is secretly Tory. But is it really good news that conservatives can still get elected in some places, but only if they don’t call themselves “Conservative”?

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It might also be pointed out that the NDP holds only two provinces, including its surprising but fragile Alberta breakthrough. So maybe it’s not the Tory brand. Or maybe it’s all the fault of the Canadian propensity for vote-splitting. Or perhaps the Liberals are just in vogue at the moment.

Yet conservatives can take solace in the historical precedent that, in general, the longer a party dominates federally, the worse it does provincially. For instance, when former prime minister Pierre Trudeau first took power, the Liberals controlled five provincial legislatures; by the time he was done, not one. Former prime minister Brian Mulroney went from eight to three. So maybe it’s just vote-splitting plus Harper fatigue. A temporary blip. No big deal folks. Nothing to see here.