Imagine if instead of facing Opposition parties in the House of Commons, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faced nothing but a wall-to-wall mirror, meaning all he could see was his own adorable reflection.

OK, don’t worry, this is not a set up for a lame joke about Trudeau’s narcissism. It’s actually a set up for a lame metaphor about the Canadian media’s dogmatism.

My point is many mainstream pundits and journalists (I’m looking at you The Globe & Mail and CBC and Maclean’s) keep pushing Conservatives and New Democrats to mirror Liberal Party policies.

Indeed, anytime Conservatives or New Democrats stray too far from Liberal orthodoxy, media-types condemn them swiftly and savagely as if they were political heretics.

We’re certainly seeing this dynamic in action during the ongoing Conservative leadership campaign.

In fact, Conservative leadership candidates are routinely flayed in the media for such “sins” as opposing the Liberal carbon tax or for opposing the Liberal firearms policy or for opposing the Liberal definition of the word “Islamophobia”.

Such transgressions can get a candidate quickly labelled as a bigot or climate-change denier or worse – a populist!

And I fully expect New Democratic leadership candidates will get the same treatment.

If any one of them starts talking about opposing free trade or taxing big corporations, or leaping on a Manifesto he or she will likely get pilloried as a Marxist, a Trotskyite or worse -- a populist!

What’s more, whether the target is conservative or socialist, media attacks against ideological nonconformists will usually adopt an insufferably smug tone, i.e. “How could anyone be so stupid as to question Liberal Party wisdom since Liberal Party wisdom has already received the stamp of approval from the Mainstream Media Echo Chamber?”

In other words, media mavens, along with their friends who make up Canada’s intellectual, cultural and corporate elites, figure they and the Liberals have the final answer to every issue facing humanity, from how set up global trade to why we need to mandate transgendered bathrooms.

For lack of a better term, I call this the “establishment view.” And no political party better represents the establishment view than the Trudeau Liberals.

Even though Trudeau campaigned in the last election on a theme of “real change” he is really all about protecting the comfy notions of the status quo elites.

Consider how he staunchly defends the current economic global order, or how he cavorts with millionaire capitalists at fundraising events, or how he bails out big corporations, or how he shies away from reforming our electoral system.

Simply put, Trudeau will not upset any status quo apple carts or challenge any opinion establishment voices have deemed “politically correct.”

This is why he has emerged as a kind of world-wide establishment mascot.

And this is also why prominent pro-establishment media voices want the NDP and Conservatives to mirror Liberal policies, so that if the Liberals ever lose power they will be replaced by another establishment party that doesn’t upset the apple cart, one which will promote all the “correct” policies.

The only problem with all this is that lots of people out there aren’t crazy about politically correct establishment ideas, because they don’t address many everyday concerns.

And unfortunately if the media intimidates politicians out of addressing non-establishment concerns and fears and anxieties, these feelings among the public will only continue to fester and grow, until one day they might explode.

Such explosions, by the way, usually spawn Rob Fords and Brexits and Donald Trumps.

So maybe politics in this country needs fewer establishment mirrors and more diverse opinions.

Gerry Nicholls was formerly vice president of the National Citizens Coalition