As Will Rogers once said, politics is applesauce.  Bernier has been around the block politically and compared with lightweights like The Dauphin has had more than sufficient relevant education and private and NFP sector VP experience to know that compromise and consensus are critical to success.  The new leader cannot be a policy dictator and will need to be attuned to both new year's policy convention and the changing opinions and polling of Canadians.   This must be true whether Bernier, Scheer, Raitt, Chong or O'Toole (all of whom have a shot) emerges as leader.   I agree with you about the abortion issue and any attempts to re-open same sex marriage or other once hotly disputed social issues and policy.  As a libertarian, Bernier is most unlikely to re-open such matters.  Neither are the other four likely finalists.   Some backbencher may move a private member's bill on such issues but private members bills invariably go nowhere without government support and this it would not get.