Éric Blais/Toronto Star: The Conservatives essentially gave up on a key competitive advantage by leaning into populist, “Canada is broken” grievance politics while allowing their main opponent to repurpose “strong Canada” nation-building policies as the adult, credible alternative. In other words, the Conservatives had a shelf full of conservative ideas, but they kept selling outrage as their flagship product.
It’s like Volvo losing its single-minded focus on “safety.” They practically owned safety in the car industry for decades. But over time, they didn’t protect that positioning as aggressively and other brands, like Subaru, or even luxury players like Mercedes and Audi, stepped up with strong safety messaging…