actually, how about this for a stark and obvious truth: the reason there are so few fiscal conservatives left is that fiscal conservatism is irrational in a fiat monetary system, and most people alive today fully understand that.

the only people that don't seem to understand this are the aging old tories in the dying print media who are holding to an obsolete message as they hold to an obsolete medium, and the handful of liberal party insiders that they happen to have sway over. even the conservative party doesn't bother much with fiscal conservatism any more.

if canadians were ever "socially liberal and fiscally conservative", that description met it's end somewhere around the demise of brian mulroney. harper was able to run huge deficits without anybody caring much. and, nobody cares much about trudeau's deficits, either.

....and this isn't some deficit of fiscal understanding that needs to be explained. it's a stark reflection of the reality of monetary policy: deficits do not matter, and most canadians are educated enough to realize it.

aging political strategists will no doubt continue to hammer this issue that nobody cares about. but, voters in the near future will make decisions based mostly on social policy and successful political parties and movements will gear themselves around this truth.