But that does not begin to capture the significance of what occurred over the weekend, or the newness of the political age thus inaugurated. Begin with what it means for the new Conservative Party. In one sense it is not a new party at all: the party of Macdonald was not extinguished by the merger with the Canadian Alliance (it was the death of the old guard, but we need not indulge their solipsism), but merely took on a new form, as it had in the past. But in another sense it is completely new. For the first time in, well, ever, Canada now has an opposition party that offers a principled, identifiably conservative alternative to the Natural Governing Party -- and has a serious shot at governing. You could say the first about Reform and the Alliance, but never the second.

Mr. Harper is both the cause and the consequence of this transformation. In a way, it has been thirty years in the making, since the rediscovery of classical liberalism -- what some have called the New Right Enlightenment -- that swept over the western world in the 1970s. Yet in Canada it ran aground, for lack of a political vehicle: though much of the Conservative membership could be described in these terms, the leadership blocked its progress. Eventually the impasse led to the rise of the Reform party and the implosion of the Conservatives. But the process was not complete until the old Progressive Conservative rump, having descended into utter self-parody, was at last given a merciful execution: a cause in which Mr. Harper and Joe Clark can take equal credit. Now at last the members are in control of the party.

Mr. Harper, likewise, is something utterly new in Conservative leaders. After the succession of oily connivers and earnest plodders the party has elected in the past, it has finally got it right. Tactically shrewd, policy-sound, quick on his feet and possessed of enormous self-confidence, Mr. Harper will be a hard man to rattle. One cannot imagine him running away from his platform in the manner of some previous leaders. He knows what he believes, and he knows how to present it in a way that does not frighten the children. Preston Manning had many of these qualities. But Mr. Harper is more ruthless, and is less culturally alien to central Canada.

Certainly the leadership race has put paid to the nonsense -- which is to say, the settled conviction of every Ottawa pundit -- that Mr. Harper cannot win in Ontario. Indeed, the announced results -- 55% of the vote -- significantly understate both the size and the scope of his victory. In popular vote terms, it was probably closer to two-thirds of the vote. But even on the lunatic riding-by-riding method the party adopted, he simply lapped the field. He won every riding west of Ontario, usually by margins of 80% or more. He won 90 ridings in Ontario, to 9 for his rivals. True, he won only 24 ridings east of the Rideau, but that is an expression of the party's organization weakness there as much as anything: you can buy a lot of instant members with a billionaire's money.

But don't just look at Mr. Harper. Look at the people around him, the probable Conservative front bench: people like Chuck Strahl, Diane Ablonczy, Monte Solberg, Jason Kenney, James Moore, and now with the addition of Tony Clement. What do you notice? They are all young(ish), confirmed of principle, and conspicuously decent. There is a generational shift at work here, yes, but more important is that it is made up of people who have spent their entire adult lives in the political wilderness. That has prevented the usual accretion of opportunists and bagmen: if you were in it for the perqs, you weren't likely to be a Reform or Alliance member. Indeed, the very suddenness of the Liberal collapse has probably foreclosed any last-minute rush to clamber on board.

What does that mean? It means that for the first time in my lifetime, there is a real prospect of cleaning up Canadian politics. I don't wholly agree with Michael Bliss's suggestion that the Liberals have been the unwitting victims of a sudden shift in public expectations. I think the public has been signalling for decades that it was fed up, but has been hoodwinked time and again. The Mulroney Tories were elected on a promise to clean up the mess the Trudeau Liberals had left; the Chretien Liberals were elected on a promise to clean up Mulroney's mess; now the Martinites are campaigning on a promise to clean up after Mr. Chretien. Perhaps they mean it. We'll see. But after nearly 40 years of Trudeau-Mulroney-Chretienism, where the names of the players changed but not the tune, the public is plainly ready for something new.