Some of the damage that the Harper Conservatives have done is semi-permanent.

– We may never again have a long-gun registry; no government in the next thirty-fifty years will want to take that on. What a double-waste: the initial mismanagement cost us $1 Billion, then the Harperites flush that down the toilet too.

– Losing the UN Security Council seat is the most visible (and stark) of the damage done to Canada’s position internationally. And international “stuff”, folks, is generations long. A lot of our international standing is from things we did in WWII and the 1950s. So it may take a LONG time before we restore Canada’s international reputation.

– Mandatory Minimum Sentencing, as introduced by the CPC’s “Law and Order” changes a couple of years ago, are already increasing the criminalization of our society, but its full effects won’t be seen for a number of years, and then the direct-line linkage won’t be as clear. But this fits in with the kind of fundamental societal changes the Harper Conservatives are making that will alter the constitution of Canada for decades.

Etc. Etc.

A lot of the damage they did is, unfortunately, semi-permanent.