If one majority in the last 18 years is the barometer for "cut throat policies..."; well, using your 18 years, the federal Liberals have had exactly one majority election win as well (so they must have "cut throat policies" as well). You can paint your picture any which way you want - historically speaking, Liberals tend to beat themselves. And if recent history is a barometer - 10 years is about the self-life of a federal Liberal government (in very recent history, 10 years is about the shelf-life for any federal government, Conservative or Liberal). Assuming the Liberal/NDP deal lasts until 2025 - that would be 10 years. That will be the electoral question in the next federal election - what is the public's appetite for change (it tends to be high after roughly 10 years of the same party in power). People forget the 2015 election - the polling (through-out the early part of the election) was fairly close between all three major parties - obviously that changed towards the end of the election, what didn't change throughout the 2015 election was the polling showing nearly two-thirds of voters consistently saying that they wanted change (that never changed during the entire election). And that's exactly what happened! That's the polling to look at come the next federal election - not who's popular, not approval ratings - it's going to be the desire (or lack thereof) for change. Desire for change is stronger than any "feelings" voters have for "this" or "that" party. If the desire for change is strong come the next federal election - the Liberals will have beat themselves. Because the Libs should not let Trudeau run again (albeit they can't really stop him from running again, which he said he will do, therefore if he is a "party guy" he should be smart enough not to run again), the Libs shouldn't let anyone that can be seen as a "senior member" of this current government run as leader/selected/voted as leader to challenge the next election (like Freeland) - they can only beat the "change momentum/desire" with a new outside leader. The federal Libs should be courting Mark Carney and trying to dump Trudeau if they want a 4th mandate - he's an outsider (kind of) and no one (although I'm sure many will try) can challenge his economics bona fides. Polievre (like him or not) is seen as "good"or "strong" at hammering about the economy/economics - can't really do that with Mark Carney and I would imagine Carney would poll higher than Polievre on the economy file.