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I’m really proud of what we accomplished in government. I’m proud of a lot of the policies we pursued. I think that particularly in recent years, we moved away from presenting it to Canadians in a way that they understood fully, not only the policy, but that it wasn’t intended to be done in a way that came across as mean and even intolerant at times.

It’s what happens after almost a decade in government. You tend to be too insular and in a bit of an echo chamber.

The criminal justice issues that I was involved with I sincerely believe were very necessary to recalibrate where we were going with our justice system. The victims’ bill of rights, in particular, is a centrepiece of what we did in terms of putting the emphasis back on those who have suffered as a result of crime.

You lose the human touch, and you lose the ability to connect to people on a whole range of issues as opposed to just those specific ones you may be trying to slice off

We were, some would say, thrashing around a bit and trying to come up with policies that perhaps were aimed a little too narrowly, things like niqab and life-means-life sentencing. Some of the direction was not as appealing to a broader swath of people who would be viewed in the more centrist, progressive heart of the population. You have to appeal to the masses in order to maintain a level of support that’s going to keep you in government.

There’s a calculated risk in sometimes taking too strategic an approach. You lose the human touch, and you lose the ability to connect to people on a whole range of issues as opposed to just those specific ones you may be trying to slice off.