Farage is a close student of the near-total collapse of the intellectually bankrupt Canadian Conservative party in the early Nineties, and its split into various factions.
The western-based Reform party could not get elected nationwide, but they kept certain political ideas in play, which moved the governing Liberals to the right, and eventually enabled them to engineer a reverse takeover of the Tory party.
UKIP, likewise, is keeping certain important, indeed existential questions in play, and it’s not inconceivable that Farage, who regards himself as a member of “the Tory family,” could yet engineer a reverse takeover of whatever post-Cameron husk remains half a decade down the road.
Then Farage knows what more international conservatives should keep in mind:
Twenty years ago, Canada’s “fringe” Reform Party was written off as a haven for backward creationist kooks and, of course, “racists.”
They were called every name in the liberal book, every day, by all the most powerful people (left and right.)
Today, and for the last several years, a former leader of the “stupid crazy racist” Reform Party has been the Prime Minister of Canada, and he’s had a majority Parliament.
