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To be sure, not all of the policy solutions cited here are truly “conservative.” One may not expect a conservative government to legalize prostitution, for example. But as the Post‘s Colby Cosh wrote on Tuesday, “How many times have you heard someone say, ‘I’m a social liberal but a conservative on economics’? This is the default political position of most adults now, is it not?” Indeed, while most Canadians may not be ready for a capital-L Libertarian government, there is a broad base of support for a party that is fiscally prudent, but socially liberal. A Conservative party that used evidence-based policymaking, to borrow a phrase from Trudeau, to make the case for how freer markets would benefit all Canadians, including the most vulnerable among us, while allowing people the freedom to make their own choices on issues such as abortion, prostitution and marijuana, would appeal to the broad section of the population that does not want government telling them how to live their lives, but also does not want to saddle future generations with crippling debt.

For any of this to happen, the party will have to do some deep soul-searching and avoid the Red Tories (who generally have an unhealthy respect for big government) and social conservatives who would like to take the party in different directions altogether. Most importantly, it will have to avoid sloshing around in the mushy middle of the political spectrum, ready to cave to special interests on both sides in order to win (we already have a Liberal party for voters who value pragmatism over principles). But if the party can come up with a good set of principles that will guide party policy in the future, it will have a real shot of appealing to Canadians come the next election.

National Post

jkline@nationalpost.com

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