"The [former] Liberal government is more conservative on most issues than the [earlier] Progressive Conservative government. Whatever the Liberals [did] seem[ed] moderate because [we] urge[d] them to go further and faster. Conservative voters [got] better results as outsiders influencing a Liberal government than they did as an inside influence within a Progressive Conservative government."

Well, that's a time warped excerpt of an article jointly penned by Stephen Harper and Tom Flanagan circa 1997, Our Benign Dictatorship (click for the non-time warped full text). It is a startling observation in a very well written peice by the now prime minister and his mentor that provides a solid analysis of the political situation as it was then.

Times change of course and so do we. Vindicating Prime Minister Harper's claims, here is a graph showing how true his words really were.