The Conservatives might find more support if they were more thoughtful, confident, and unafraid.

How can Canada’s Conservative government improve? Critics obviously see great room for improvement – on climate change, on healthcare, on public spending. Supporters, too, have their ideas – on the deficit, on taxes, on … public spending. The fact is, we all have policy ideas that we’d like the government to adopt, and a lot of them are great ideas that would make this government better.

I’m a conservative and I generally support the Harper government. I’d like it to stay in power, advancing the principles of small-government conservatism through smart policies tailored to Canadian needs. And because I want it to succeed, I also want it to improve.

But my suggestion is not a policy shift; it’s an attitude shift. We’re told that the Tories have hit a ceiling in public support, that Canadians are fundamentally left-of-centre and that a Conservative majority is forever out of reach. I’m not convinced. I suspect that there are an awful lot of Canadians who’d be happy to support the Tories, if they weren’t so turned off by the attitude that the government often seems to project – the partisanship, the defensiveness that borders on paranoia, the rhetoric that borders on boorishness. Maybe that’s unfair – maybe an unsympathetic press distorts the Tories’ true character. But it’s hard to deny that this is the impression many Canadians have.

So I propose a simple attitude shift: be thoughtful, be confident, and be unafraid. If the government and its supporters were to take these steps in that order, I think they’d make great headway not only toward improving their electoral prospects, but also toward improving the tone and quality of political debate. Here’s what I mean:

Be Thoughtful

Or at least show how thoughtful you are. Political “debate” in Ottawa usually involves absurdly mischaracterizing another party’s positions. So, on the topic of Afghan detainees, the Liberals intimate that detainees were transferred to Afghan custody at the Conservatives’ direction for the purpose of being tortured; and the Conservatives respond by casting aspersions on the Liberals’ support for our troops. In parliamentary circles this is called “great political theatre,” but only in parliamentary circles. The rest of us are just embarrassed.

Why not be thoughtful? Why not acknowledge the seriousness of the allegations, explain the investigative steps being taken, commit to presenting the results of the investigation to the House of Commons, and affirm that whatever the results, policies are in place both in Ottawa and in the field to ensure that detainees will not be subject to abuse in the future, whether or not they were in the past? Why not do this even if the opposition’s questions are unfair? By construing the opposition’s questions and attacks in their best light and then responding thoughtfully and reasonably, the Conservative government would show itself to be responsible and worthy of the trust we’ve placed in it.

Be Confident

There’s nothing wrong with being conservative, either big or small c. There’s nothing un-Canadian about being a conservative either. Yet rather than shrugging off these canards – which remain unfortunately common among the Canadian chattering classes – the Tory government most often responds by retreating into itself, adopting an attitude of persecution and paranoia that only serves to alienate it from the Canadian people.

It’s time for the Conservative government to “cowboy up.” It’s a new century, and the country has a new confidence, as we saw in Vancouver. The Trudeau years, the constitutional crises, the Quebec referendum – these all inform the Canada of today, but they don’t define it. A new generation of Canadians looks forward to a century of great possibility as a stable and secure Canada finds its role in an increasingly unstable and insecure world. The times demand a politics unburdened by the assumptions of yesteryear, willing to move forward on terms that address today’s challenges and tomorrow’s opportunities. With confidence in their own identity, ideology, and ability, the Conservatives can deliver government worthy of the time.

Be Unafraid

Although the Conservatives have often been criticized for pursuing an ideological agenda, there is in fact a great reluctance in the party to move forward on many core policy goals for fear of alienating parts of the electorate. “Be patient and wait for a majority,” conservative supporters are told. But after more than four years of minority government, it’s time to consider whether reticence, not zealousness, is to blame for the lack of a majority. The Conservatives should be unafraid to stand for the conservative principles of small government and personal responsibility. They should make the case, clearly and forthrightly, that a Conservative platform offers the best path forward for a dynamic, prosperous Canada.

To be sure, a boorish, arrogant statement of principles – one that dismisses criticism out of hand or refuses to confront pitfalls and challenges – won’t be a winner at the polls. But a platform based on a thoughtful analysis of the challenges we confront with a confident statement of conservative policies designed to address those challenges just might take the Conservatives over the top.

If nothing else, it will focus the government and elevate one side of the national political dialog. That would be improvement enough.