The sad part for me is, my riding elected a Conservative, and in general he’s a pretty good guy. He’s old school conservative, and does a good job representing his constituency in parliament.
But the party he’s stuck with is not the party it was when Mulroney was PM; people in leadership positions are actively pushing fascist and populist ideology, and feeling it’s fine to actively deceive the Canadian public to gain more power.
That’s not something I can respect. Old school conservatism I often disagreed with, but at least I could respect those who stuck with the party line out of a sense of integrity. I could have good-faith discussions with them about the best way to govern. How do you do that with someone who is only telling you what they think you want to hear, all the while having totally different behaviour where it counts?
Only with the extreme Overton shift in the US. Democrats may be more progressive than Republicans, but that’s really not saying much. Most actual Democrat policy is right of center, to the frustration of representatives like Sanders and AOC.