Pragmatic Conservatives

At the recent Conservative leadership convention, Prime Minister Stephen Harper declared: "We will have to be both tough and pragmatic, not unrealistic or ideological, in dealing with the complex economic challenges that confront us."

Get that, the Tories are no longer ideological, but pragmatic: The Pragmatic Conservative Party.

I guess this means Prime Minister Stephen Harper is now officially dumping the incrementalism idea, whereby he would introduce conservative values in tiny, slow steps.

Now it looks like he won't be introducing conservative ideas at all.

As Publius over at the Gods of the Copybook Headings writes, "The PM's comments at the policy convention in Winnipeg are worrisome, they suggest that his default policy is not one of incrementalism, but of pragmatism. An essentially correct ideology provides a guide for long-term action. Pragmatism is the expediency of the moment. This crisis too shall pass, the new government programs and regulations born of this crisis may not."