NOT A ‘TEAM PLAYER’
THE INSIDE STORY OF BERNIER’S BATTLE WITH SCHEER
Andrew Scheer was sitting at a desk in his Regina constituency office when he got the call back, after four days of silence.
A media storm had erupted over a series of tweets that accused the federal government of promoting “extreme multiculturalism.” Many were calling on the Conservative party leader to respond, or to orchestrate a booting from caucus. A full four days after his Twitter account argued that “ever-more diversity” would be bad for Canada, during which Scheer had tried in vain to reach him, on Wednesday, Aug. 15, Maxime Bernier finally called.
They talked for more than an hour. It was frank and open and emotional, according to a source. It ended with Scheer saying how he planned to respond — with a statement saying Bernier didn’t speak for the party on “any issue” — and with Bernier agreeing to cool down on Twitter, at least for now.
But the next morning there were more tweets. A week later, Bernier quit the party.
At an Ottawa press conference on Thursday, the Beauce, Que., MP said it was after the phone call with Scheer that he decided to quit.
More than a year of tensions between the two men had boiled over.
It started during the Conservative party’s marathon leadership race. Nearing its conclusion, armed with good polling results and enthusiasm for his ideas among young Conservatives, Bernier’s odds looked good.
But his rival, Scheer, was bolstered by down-ballot support for his pitch to keep the party united. His organizers readily admit that votes from advocates of dairy supply management, which Bernier opposed, and of socially conservative policies, which Bernier had little to say about, also factored in.
Scheer won on the last ballot, with 51 per cent of the vote to Bernier’s 49 per cent.
He faced a challenge in keeping the former cabinet minister with popular ideas in the fold without threatening his own leadership. “He’s a senior figure in the party,” a senior Conservative source said, “so you want to try to work with somebody like that.”
Last summer, when he announced his shadow cabinet, Scheer offered Bernier innovation critic. Bernier had expressed to several reporters he preferred finance. But the innovation file would allow him an opportunity to advocate against corporate welfare, a major plank in his leadership bid.
Several party sources said Bernier had not taken to his role, however. Defence critic James Bezan said Bernier wasn’t a “team player,” rarely participated in caucus meetings and didn’t consult other MPs on policy ideas.
In January, Scheer and senior staffers from his office paid Bernier a visit, imploring him to champion whatever cause he wanted — as long as it wasn’t supply management or free trade with China, the two biggest sources of disagreement between them. But sources close to Scheer said Bernier seemed uninterested in cooperating.
In April, the Globe and Mail published a chapter from a book he had written, which theorized that Scheer had won the leadership because of “fake Conservatives” who signed up to protect supply management. After a tense caucus meeting just over a week later, Bernier said he would “indefinitely” postpone the book’s publication.
Upon discovering that the chapter had been published on Bernier’s website, Scheer removed him from the shadow cabinet in June.
But by then, Bernier had been attracting attention for different reasons. At the end of May, his Twitter account was getting into arguments with a black Liberal MP, Celina Caesar-Chavannes, over identity politics and racism.
(Because many politicians run their own social media accounts, some had assumed Bernier was writing the tweets. But a source confirmed it was his friend and collaborator, Martin Masse, who wrote the tweets, although Bernier said on Thursday he approved the content before it was sent out.)
Over the summer, in an effort to resolve debt from his leadership campaign, Bernier sent fundraising emails to supporters. In some of them, he outlined his disagreement with his own party. He called himself the “only politician in Ottawa” who was advocating to put everything on the NAFTA negotiating table with Donald Trump, including supply management.
By August, Bernier had raised enough to settle his debts. An email to supporters on Aug. 2 said an “exciting new chapter” was beginning. “I am now free to devote all of my time, all of my efforts, and all of the funds I will raise in the future, to defending principled conservative ideas,” the email said.
Two weeks later, Bernier was on the phone with an upset Scheer. Still, sources said, Bernier was expected to attend this week’s party’s policy convention in Halifax.
But on Wednesday, Scheer’s chief of staff received a call from the Beauce riding association, offering a heads-up about Bernier’s intention to leave the party.
Sitting in a room at the Halifax Convention Centre, Scheer and his senior staff streamed Bernier’s press conference live.
A caucus meeting Thursday went late as MPs discussed Bernier’s departure, uninterrupted by their cell phones, which were being guarded just outside the room.
As the initial shock wore off and as former prime minister Stephen Harper publicly supported Scheer, there was a sense that it all could’ve been much worse.
“For the first time ever, this is now Andrew Scheer’s party. It’s like when an unhappy player finally quits or gets traded. The locker room loosens up and the team goes on a run. It’s addition by subtraction,” said a senior Conservative source.
On Friday, Scheer was said to have seemed relieved, like a weight had been taken off his shoulders. “Ten pounds lighter,” one person said.
FOR THE FIRST TIME, THIS IS NOW ANDREW SCHEER’S PARTY.