This column is spot on. But Kaplan doesn't offer any insight into what's really needed, beyond picking apart each candidate (with the curious exception of Mr. Chong). Picking up where Mr. Kaplan leave us, I offer the following:

The CPC needs a candidate who knows political philosophy and dare I even say history. They will come to the conclusion that the current CPC is not so much formed around a set of sound conservative political principles as much as it was formed around a loose and unruly amalgam of varied and contradictory views, from an anti-science to social conservative-Christianity, etc.

The CPC desperately needs an "idea person" to build a political platform around the core principle of conservative political ideology - namely, the inherent value and rights of the individual. From that, a set of policy directives will flow. It also entails acknowledging science, progress, women's and  Indigenous right, and a strong government to protect individual rights from corporate power