KEVIN O’LEARY SIPPED ON ALE, TWO STUDENTS PRAISED ERIN O’TOOLE, SELFIES WERE SNAPPED AND ANDREW SAXTON CLOSED THE JOINT. THESE TALES FROM A CONSERVATIVE DEBATE AFTER-PARTY AND MORE ON
CATCHING UP WITH LEADERSHIP HOPEFULS AS THEY CUT LOOSE
On Tuesday night, after the latest in an unending slog of Conservative leadership debates, many of the party’s wouldbe leaders retired to Edmonton’s Craft Beer Market to take the edge off.
The National Post tagged along, judiciously selected the bar’s cheapest and most high-alcohol offerings, and presents this report.
❚ 9:25 Kellie Leitch was allegedly here, but according to witnesses, her standard after-party policy is to have a single drink (reportedly beer) and then flee into the night. Fun fact: A lot of Conservatives seem to be as confused by this whole “Canadian values” thing as everyone else.
❚ 9:30 Kevin O’Leary is indeed here. Mr. Wonderful is drinking what appears to be ale, as an excited young Tory tells him “you’re bringing a lot of good blood into the party.” It’s been an expensive night for O’Leary. Skipping Tuesday’s debate apparently incurred a $10,000 fine from the party.
❚ 9:40 A fan moves in for a selfie with O’Leary. To be sure, selfies are usually taboo at Tory gatherings, mostly because they’re the primary method by which Conservatives make fun of Justin Trudeau. “The selfie Prime Minister,” “taking selfies is not leadership,” etc.
❚ 9:44 It’s worth mentioning that this after party, hosted by University of Alberta Conservatives, counts a large proportion of attractive, socially adjusted young people. In many parts of Canada, going to a Young Conservatives gathering is to condemn oneself to hours of basting among World of Warcraft nerds clad in ill-fitting double-breasted suits. But in Alberta, it is apparently possible to be a 19-year-old right-winger without assassinating one’s sex life.
❚ 9:49 A small coterie of Andrew Scheer supporters surrounds our reporter and expounds on the Trudeau-smashing wisdom of their candidate. He connects with the “soul” of Conservatives while others obsess over math. He is “Canada’s Reagan” (seriously, this was said).
❚ 9:55 No fewer than two students expresses undying support for Erin O’Toole. “There’s nothing wrong with him,” one of them declares. To be clear, almost no political reporter gives O’Toole a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the leadership. But jaded cynicism aside, we should all take heart that it is possible for two Alberta young people to get sleeplessly excited about O’Toole’s well-costed plan for skills training and youth-focused tax exemptions.
❚ 10:07 Andrew Scheer is a towering giant. The emerging frontrunner for the leadership may look like a baby-faced nerd on TV, but in person he is a hulking mountain of a man. “You’re just more pragmatic … “a supporter can be heard telling him. By the way, Sheer’s drink was Yellowhead Lager, the standard local Edmonton session beer. Shrewd choice, Mr. Big Tent.
❚ 10:10 There is a Conservative leadership candidate who judiciously washes their hands before he urinates. This is the practice recommended by doctors, of course, but it still seems wrong to identify the candidate here.
❚ 10:15 Apparently, a common side-effect of being a Conservative Party staffer is that random members of the public constantly hand you cardboard boxes filled with God-knows-what. Sometimes it’s family court documents. Sometimes it’s detailed theories on how Canada needs to send its homeless into Arctic gulags in order to mine diamonds. My source indicates that he just burns them all lest they become a liability on his flight home.
❚ 10:19 Andrew Saxton, his fiancée and a campaign manager hold court around a bar table as the candidate dines on soup. Saxton is a hard nut to crack in this race. Only six or seven candidates have a real chance of winning, and it is generally assumed that everyone else is simply angling for a future cabinet post — or to have their pet policy included in some future platform. This is how Canadian policy is made, after all; good people immolating themselves in failed bids for power, only to have their ideas stolen at the last minute by a shrewder rival. Saxton’s plans aren’t all that revolutionary, but he does say rivals have started to steal his plans for increased skills training.
❚ 10:25 Stephen Harper is here! Just kidding; now that he’s out of politics the famously asocial Harper will likely never attend another pub night until he is dead. However, many Conservatives got so used to seeing him lead the party that it’s probably why so many of them ended up running to succeed him. “I could do that,” they probably thought. Of course, only now are they discovering the madness of attempting to keep a Canadian conservative party from going all squirrelly.
❚ 10:31 Pierre Lemieux addresses a small circle of entranced young supporters as he tells them that the days of being silenced for one’s social conservative views are over. Now, they can be debated. But just as quickly, Lemieux dismisses the gathering. “I have to finish these ribs,” he says, turning to some ribs.
❚ 10:40 Spotted: A man in a blue “Make Canada Wonderful Again” hat. This is presumably an endorsement for O’Leary. That, or he just really likes the Everclear song “Wonderful”.
❚ 10:46 Again with the selfies. Chris Alexander tells Andrew Saxton and a young supporter “all right guys, selfie.”
❚ 10:52 Alexander lost his seat in the last election, so he has more time to devote to this race than most. His French is tip-top, he’s essentially a child prodigy and, more than any other, his platform is filled with visions of foreign policy triumphs. Standing at Craft’s bar, Alexander describes the lure of political power almost the way a musician describes the thrill of a tight jazz band. When things are really moving — and everything’s working as planned — there’s really nothing like it.
❚ 11:26 And Andrew Saxton, of all candidates, closes the place. Steven Blaney, Chris Alexander, Rick Peterson, Andrew Scheer, Pierre Lemieux, Kellie Leitch, Kevin O’Leary and Erin O’Toole all turned in early (“I’ve got to get up early to go to Red Deer”) but the Sax Man held out almost until midnight.