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E.R. Campbell said:The sort of "advice" which Conservatives need to ignore, in total, is the sort offered, in this column, which is reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from the Globe and Mail, by Jeffrey Simpson, unofficial spokesman for the Laurentian Elites:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/globe-politics-insider/jeffrey-simpson-for-tories-a-long-list-of-difficult-questions/article27008823/
Please, please, PLEASE Conservatives, ignore every single word after "Think about Shakespeare’s plays." We should, all of us, think about Shakespeare's plays more often than we do, that's good advice for one and all, but everything that follows is intended to help the Liberals, not the Conservatives.
Do not worry about why the CPC government was "at daggers drawn with scientists, civil servants, “experts,” journalists, the cultural community," those "communities" were "at daggers drawn with YOU before you turned on them.
"How did we manage to fritter away about a fifth of the support we had secured in the 2011 election by voting day 2015?" "Why are we by far the least-favoured second-choice party, with the fewest number of people who would consider voting for us?" and "Is it the correct strategy to try for a maximum of 40 per cent of the electors?" are interesting academic questions and party followers, not its leaders should worry over them.
Especially ignore Mr Simpsons concerns that the most likely leaders "are holdovers from the Harper years. They were ministers in Harper governments. They helped frame the government’s policies – at least they did at the margin, given that so many decisions were framed by Stephen Harper. But they defended those policies. They did so in the verbally pugilistic, take-no-prisoners style so typical of the Harper party. They were, are and will be Harperites," he's just annoyed because your, Conservative, opposition "front bench" is qualitatively superior to all but a tiny handful of Prime Minister designate Trudeau's.
Read Mr Simpson's column, "know your enemy," as we used to say ... then do the reverse.
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What the CPC needs to do is to:
1. Reconnect with its legitimate values and ambitions, which are grounded in the families who live in the suburbs around Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto and Ottawa and in the small cities and towns that stretch from Vancouver Island to the Avalon Peninsula;
2. Enunciate those values, clearly to all Canadians;
3. Select a leader who personifies those values ~ and there are many useful candidates, including several "Harperites."
Jeffrey Simpson says "Harperites" with a sneer of contempt; Conservatives need to say it with pride. Jeffrey Simpson represents a fast fading past of elites and croyism; Stephen Harper is the face that showed us the way to a better, more egalitarian society.
Edit: format
Simpson paraphrasing Rex Harrison
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Doz5w2W-jAY
Why can't a Conservative be more like a Liberal?
He is the last troll from whom I would be taking advice.