Liberals have a special place in their hearts for Conservatives who get trounced at the ballot box

Former prime minister Kim Campbell waded back into federal politics last week, slamming Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre as a “liar and a hate-monger,” without providing evidence to back up her assertion.

With their party badly trailing Poilievre’s Conservatives in the polls, Liberal MPs, staffers and partisans praised Campbell’s name-calling. This was not surprising as Campbell is part of a special group within Canadian politics.

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Campbell is one of those old Progressive Conservative leaders who did very little, and whom the Liberals had little trouble defeating on election day. Along with Joe Clark and Robert Stanfield, these PC leaders are beloved by the Liberal establishment.

That is not to say that Conservatives don’t respect Clark or Stanfield, but Liberals love them to a far greater extent. They often wistfully long for the days of PC leaders who never presented serious alternatives to Liberal policies, or serious threats at the ballot box.

This is the type of PC leader who Liberals will claim they would have voted for had they been alive. In many cases, they were alive and voted for the Liberals anyway. Nonetheless, who can feel vitriol for those who are completely........

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