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All that said, the notion that people widely viewed as pugnacious, obnoxious and partisan-to-a-fault can’t win in Canadian politics is belied by reality. A quick glance around the federation brings Jason Kenney, Doug Ford and Justin Trudeau immediately to mind.

That’s not to say they won because of those character traits: Kenney’s and Ford’s leadership opponents would likely have fared just as well. Trudeau hoodwinked many with his Sunny Ways fraud, but he might well have won as the classic born-to-rule Liberal he turned out to be. If his government continues venting credibility at the rate it established late in its first mandate, the next Conservative leader could well become prime minister no matter who he is.

Pushing back is a delicate proposition, of course, requiring a mixture of legitimate conviction, restraint and eloquence that’s vanishingly rare in Canadian politic

Of course, this race ought to be about more than who can win. Some ideas would be nice. An honest assessment of just what the Conservative Party of Canada represents in 2020 would be nice. But especially after Scheer’s milquetoast campaign, some pugnaciousness would be rather nice as well.

It was ludicrous that Scheer couldn’t answer a question as simple as “why do you support same-sex marriage now when you didn’t 15 years ago?” But it was equally ludicrous how often he was asked. If he wasn’t going to answer, he could at least have objected to being asked so many times — if only to spice up the press conferences!

On abortion, he was even more maddening. Unlike the idea that same-sex couples shouldn’t enjoy equal marriage rights, the idea that Canada ought to have moderate legal restrictions on abortion just like every other progressive Western nation is entirely mainstream everywhere except in the media. Scheer’s position should have been perfectly defensible: personally opposed, no intention to legislate, will allow private member’s business to proceed as it should. By the time a normal human being is asked 100 times to repeat that entirely reasonable position, he should evince at least some annoyance, exasperation or irritation.