Leitch woos Montreal Tories
She donned a Habs sweater. Check.
She spoke French passably well. Check.
And kicking off a 15-day tour of Quebec in the midst of a snow squall in downtown Montreal Wednesday night, Tory leadership hopeful Kellie Leitch met with more than 30 Quebec Conservatives at a La Cage restaurant on Ste-Catherine St.
The Habs were playing in Dallas, and Leitch was spreading her message of protecting “Canadian values” by ensuring that every immigrant, refugee and visitor to Canada receives a face-to-face interview with a trained immigration official.
“I will be spending my time visiting various ridings and party members in Quebec, and I want to talk to them about what my key messages are and the key policy ideas I’m putting forward,” Leitch said in a brief interview.
“As I mentioned to some folks yesterday, we have a certain number of elites, insiders, people that are part of the left-wing media that have a viewpoint that isn’t in touch with the average Canadian, isn’t in touch with the average Quebecer. And I want to make sure that the ideas that they have are brought forward. I don’t agree with the sort of open border, globalist agenda that some of these elites have.”
The day before, Leitch appeared on the Fox Business Network, expressing similar views that Conservative leadership rival Lisa Raitt would later compare to those of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump.
At a news conference in Ottawa on Wednesday, Raitt warned that Leitch and possible contender Kevin O’Leary promise negative political agendas that would only serve to divide Conservatives and scare away potential converts.
“If principled and pragmatic Conservatives don’t join together, we will see our party hijacked by the loudest (voices) in the room, who are really just aiming to boost their own profile,” Raitt said.
Leitch, MP for the Ontario riding of Simcoe-Grey, released a statement after Raitt’s news conference accusing her of siding with the governing Liberals on immigration.
“Lisa Raitt drew a line in the sand today and showed that she stands with the Liberals and media elites. She does not think it is important to ensure that the people we welcome into our country share our historic Canadian values of hard work, generosity, freedom, and tolerance.”
More than a dozen young Conservatives met with Leitch at La Cage. One of them is her Quebec youth chair Adam Wilson, 21.
“I think her willingness to talk about issues that other politicians are scared to talk about is something that impresses me,” Wilson said, adding that he supports Leitch’s position on face-to-face interviews with immigrants.
In her statement on Wednesday, Leitch declared: “I will never again allow 270,000 immigrants into the country in one year without a faceto-face interview. Our immigration system is too important to the success of our nation. We cannot play games with it.”
At present, there are 13 candidates vying to lead the party.
The deadline to register for the Conservative leadership race is Feb. 24, with the winner to be chosen May 27.