Bernier the only Tory leadership candidate with any daring.

When seeking election in 2015, Justin Trudeau’s Liberals let loose a flood of promises that overwhelmed many Canadians. Since gaining office they’ve broken them by the boatload, but that’s not the point: Trudeau’s brashness won over many voters, even if it comprised equal parts naïveté and borrowed money.

OK, so now name any visionworthy proposal put forward by any candidate for the Conservative leadership other than Maxime Bernier.

Andrew Scheer? He’s supposedly running second to Bernier in advance soundings. What’s the main plank to his campaign? Anyone ... ? He served four years as Speaker, the youngest ever in that post. There must be a memorable moment somewhere.

Or Erin O’Toole. Like Scheer he seems a decent sort, popular with his colleagues. Isn’t he the guy with the military background? O’Toole offers a package of ideas on his website to demonstrate “where I think the puck is heading,” but cautions that “it will be up to our team and our grassroots policy process to determine which of these great ideas we will place before Canadians.”

That caveat may reflect a sense that fellow Tories are wary of electing another top-down leader like Stephen Harper, under whom policy was dictated from the top and caucus was largely reduced to nodding and clapping on command. But it also reflects the blandness of a race that seemed at times in danger of disappearing altogether. Judging by the degree to which caution pervaded the contest, you’d think the 13 candidates were competing for the post of crossing guard outside a school for the chronically clumsy, ever alert to the possible pitfalls of putting one foot in front of the other.

The exception is Bernier, whose package of proposals is anything but cautious and has thus earned him the brand of the Danger Man in the group. “Look, there goes Bernier. Can you imagine? He wants to stop the provinces from erecting barriers to trade!” Outfoxed opponents and leery press representatives warn that Bernier’s plans — he wants to end managed trade! The dairy farmers would have to compete! — single him out as a radical, which in Canada means anyone willing to stray more than a step or two from the political path that’s been followed by generations of predecessors. O’Leary’s withdrawal from the race. In the end, O’Leary couldn’t even be bothered to complete the farce he’d started. The Tories, and Canada, are better off for it, but it still defies good sense that he got as far as he did. No doubt the Liberals and New Democrats have their share of ill-informed members willing to take a flyer on whatever noisy hotdog wanders into town, but they’ve never turned one into a front-runner.

It’s also disquieting that, with the possible exception of Bernier, none of the contestants was able to cobble together a collection of proposals capable of seizing the attention of Canadians. Scheer, O’Toole, Lisa Raitt and Michael Chong are all seasoned, reasonable and capable politicians — with compelling personal stories — yet could probably march collectively down any main street in Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal or Toronto without being recognized. They’re up against a prime minister who only has to go jogging to set tender hearts aflutter. We need some personality here, people.

The party has work to do to regain the trust needed to pose a serious threat to the Liberals in the next election. There is plenty to work with — just 18 months into its mandate, the government is running out of promises to break. Rona Ambrose’s strong performance as interim leader demonstrated the fissures in the Liberal front lines. Underperformance has become a characteristic of the Trudeau cabinet. Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan is the latest to join Status of Women Minister Maryam Monsef, Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett and former foreign minister Stephane Dion as major disappointments. Scott Brison — tasked with bringing openness to Ottawa — instead resides within a party that has twice tried to force through stringent new restrictions on the rights of opposition MPs.

Whether Bernier is the politician to pull it off remains to be seen. Given the convoluted nature of the Tory balloting process, no one is entirely sure his victory is as certain as it seems. But the Tories appear to have bumbled their way to a reasonable enough choice. That’s more than 315 million Americans can say.