By now you've probably read today's column by Andrew Coyne wherein his expresses concerns that the CPC has become Liberal-lite.
...A party that plays on its opponents’ pitch, that lacks the self-confidence to define the terms of debate for itself, will soon find that even if it wins it loses. Either the Conservatives really mean it when they promise they will privatize nothing, deregulate nothing, and make no significant cuts in spending -- in which case they will have achieved nothing but to preside, temporarily, over an unchanged Liberal apparatus that will not thank them for putting their old friends out of jobs. Or they are simply lying, misrepresenting their true intentions in their consuming lust for power: in which case, they will find their reward is a poisoned chalice, a government without a mandate. Having been elected as Liberals, they will be judged by Liberal standards, and meet the fate that previous Liberal impostors met.
Mr. Coyne has carved out a very nice career by swimming against the stream. Fundamentally I think he is correct but at this point in the history of the big-C Conservatives it is not about small-c conservatism. Rather it is about small-c competance. Task number 1 for the Conservative Party of Canada is to convince the electorate that they are a rational alternative to the Liberals. Yes, it will be a limited mandate. How can be anything else since the best the Conservatives could possibly hope for is a minority government? If this mandate is limited to a reasonable reduction in taxes, rational decision on the Kyoto Protocol (i.e. clean the Canadian environment, not hot-air credits) and nipping the Institional Day-Care program in the bud then I can live with that.
If the Conservatives can prove in a minority government that they are responsible stewards of the Canadian government then they can slowly push the envelope (nothing "hidden"; campaign on it and then do it). The principles of the modern-Socialist agenda were not introduced in a single mandate, they can't be dismantled in such a way either.
Update: MP Monte Solberg weighs in on the Andrew Coyne article.
