Thanks, Paul, for digging this up, like a real journalist should but as so few seem to.

It cemented my belief that Prime Minister Harper is one of the few public intellectuals Canada actually has. The trick is, as always, translating the big ideas into action on the ground. Unfortunately, the system of government we have has barely evolved, even incrementally as a conservative should prefer, and attracts a lot of merely ambitious or argumentative types who can boil off a lot of rain before it can reach the ground.

I can get behind a lot of what he says, while recognizing (and also supporting as an incrementalist) that there is an 'art of the possible' - which is not the same as hypocrisy at all. Just because one cannot do everything does not mean one should do nothing.