Canada deserves better, because better is, after all, always possible. Our democracy permits us to choose a new leader when the current one falls short of even his own stated ideals, as Trudeau repeatedly has

There was a telling moment on the campaign trail just days ago. Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau was asked if he had any regrets about his four years in power. Trudeau answered, in part, that Canadians “find ourselves more polarized, more divided in this election than in 2015. I wonder how, or if, I could have made sure we were pulling Canadians together?”

It was a revealing answer. Trudeau is certainly right that Canadians are divided today. He may indeed genuinely wonder if he could have done more to help. But his answer doesn’t contain a hint, not even the faintest glimmer, of any understanding that he himself shares some responsibility for the discord — not because of helpful things he could have done but didn’t, but because of the harmful things he and his party have done. Trudeau is a man much better able to apologize for the failures of those long dead than recognize where his own conduct has fallen short.

And he has fallen short. History tells us that Trudeau, elected in 2015 with a strong majority mandate and promising a sunnier kind of politics, should be facing an easy re-election campaign. The economy is, in general terms, good. The country is not beset by war or economic crises. In times like these, Canadians tend to stick with their leaders, yet Trudeau is fighting for his political survival. Canadians have clearly tired of his brand of politics — all preening theatrics, all the time, even as embarrassing scandals and broken promises accumulate.

Canada deserves better, because better is, after all, always possible. Our democracy permits us the chance to choose a new leader when the current one falls short of even his own stated ideals, as Trudeau repeatedly has. This is one of those moments — and the choice is clear. Canadians should elect Andrew Scheer and a Conservative majority government.

Scheer needed some time to hit his stride on the campaign trail. He also has taken too long to answer some questions about his past positions, to his own disadvantage. But Scheer and the Conservatives are offering up a desperately needed change from the status quo. They are proposing a modest degree of fiscal restraint, bringing the federal budget back to balance in five years. They’re proposing a tax cut for the lowest income bracket and an aggressive effort to reduce red tape and regulatory burdens for businesses. Their proposed national energy corridor, though short on details, offers Canadians a chance to finally break the logjams of delayed approvals that have hobbled our energy sector and strained the unity of our federation. The Conservative climate change plan rightly recognizes that Canada’s contribution to carbon emissions is but a tiny fraction of the global total, and that it is technology, not rhetoric, that will allow us to gradually reduce our reliance on fossil fuels while still enjoying a high standard of living.

Fundamentally, in stark contrast to the incumbent Liberals, the Conservatives recognize that sound fiscal management is an unavoidable precondition for growing an innovative and productive economy.

But what the Conservatives are offering most of all is a break with the selfish, often preposterous leadership Canadians have seen these past four years. Trudeau is a recognized talent at political branding and optics — his government has been a highly polished PR machine, and the man himself, as he recently admitted in rather awkward circumstances, has a weakness for costumes and pageantry. This doesn’t only include his personal dress, and an awful habit of donning blackface makeup, but also his political career — Trudeau’s Liberals have shown themselves to be absolutely shameless in their willingness to promise one thing while delivering another. And they don’t seem to realize that Canadians have noticed.

The repeated reversals are well known and need no thorough recounting here. But regardless of the specifics of any one proposal, the Liberals ought to have known how corrosive to public faith in our institutions their flagrant breaking of central planks of their election campaign would be. The same is true of his warring with the provinces, particularly Ontario and Alberta, despite his pledge for a more harmonious federation. And there are his pledges of reconciliation with Indigenous Canadians: When he wasn’t sarcastically thanking entirely justified Indigenous protesters from mercury-poisoned Grassy Narrows for their donation to the Liberal party as they were thrown out of an exclusive fundraising event, to much laughter from the assembled party elite, he was sacking his Indigenous justice minister and attorney general when she rightly refused to abuse her authority to cut a Liberal-friendly construction conglomerate a deal over their legal troubles. Trudeau explicitly promised a brief dip into deficits — to combat an economic slowdown that never really materialized — followed by a return to balance this year. In fact, the country is still in the red, and the Liberals have no realistic plan to balance in the medium term — and that’s assuming all goes well. In today’s tense geopolitical environment, that’s hardly a safe bet. And speaking of geopolitics, has anyone asked the United States, Europe, Russia or China if “Canada’s back”? Has anyone asked the Kurds? Outside of the odd global soirée, Canada’s presence on the world stage, and influence even with key allies, is virtually nil.

Life is good in Canada. But we cannot accept as a given that it always will be. The world does not owe us our prosperity and security. Our many blessings will be squandered without effective management and prudent, realistic plans, rooted in respect for free markets and a proper role of a limited government, to foster our prosperity and unity at home while confidently confronting challenges abroad. The Conservatives and Andrew Scheer have a realistic plan to do this, grounded in an understanding of what governments can and should do.

Justin Trudeau, for his part, has his record — not that he’s dared run on it.

The choice is clear. Canada needs a Conservative government.