The platform of Erin O’Toole, the new leader of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), is unsurprising: he wants to criminalize rail blockades, following the series of protests against the Coastal GasLink Pipeline on Wet’suwet’en land; take a hard line against China and heighten support for Israel; slash the budget of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; reduce taxes and balance the budget; and engage alienated prairie provinces.

It’s a unity platform in its own way, bringing together the base’s Trumpish, right-populist tendencies, the suburban deficit-obsessed, big business, and the West. Save for a few topical updates, it’s not substantially different from a standard Conservative platform, except in one key way. On Labor Day, O’Toole signaled an interest in economic nationalism, calling for a “Canada First” approach. This would mark a large break from the Conservative Party’s free trade past. Everything else, though, appears to be business as usual.

However boring, Erin O’Toole shouldn’t be underestimated. As the governing Liberal Party increasingly racks up pandemic debt, exploitable opportunities are opening up for the Conservative Party. Some tactical deficit-talk — i.e., “the adults have arrived to clean up the mess” — could likely sway some Con-curious suburbanites. And economic nationalism could pick up some working- and middle-class voters, at least theoretically. Combined with the usual rhetoric that marshals the Conservative base, O’Toole could very possibly put the party in a solid position. And that makes him dangerous.