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There is an imbalance in Canadian politics. It takes most obvious form in the presence, federally and in some provinces, of two parties on the left to only one on the right. But its essence is not institutional but psychological. It is the crippling insecurity of the right, a crisis of confidence in stark contrast to the robust, and growing, self-assurance of the left.

Part of this is simply the accumulated legacy of electoral defeat. When you have lost as many elections as the federal Conservatives have — two in every three, over the last hundred years — it is bound to do funny things to your psyche. But the self-doubt of Canadian conservatives is seemingly inbred, out of all proportion to external events.

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Even when they are in power — especially when they are in power — their every thought is to deny and dissemble, to pretend they hold no views on policy or the good society, or none that would distinguish them from their opponents. The Harper era came and went, 10 years of it, without much to show for it, other than another $150 billion added to the debt. They were in power, to be sure, but the policies they pursued — certainly the policies they were prepared to advocate openly — were broadly indistinguishable from those of a moderate Liberal government.