CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP
Scheer hopes for come-from-behind win today
Saskatchewan MP Andrew Scheer will soon know if he will have a chance at becoming the prime minister.
His challenge is to win the Conservative Party of Canada leadership race.
Members of the party have mailed in ballots, but the results won’t be known until the complicated ranked ballot voting process for the leadership is completed Saturday in Toronto.
Scheer is viewed as one of the front-runners for the job, but going into Saturday he is not the frontrunner. That mantle belongs to Quebec MP Maxime Bernier, who has been the focus of Scheer’s criticism throughout the campaign.
According to a Mainstreet poll, Bernier has an 85-per-cent chance of winning the leadership. Scheer has nearly a 15-per-cent chance. Because Scheer is expected by many to be the second choice of voters, pollsters are suggesting it could take several rounds of ballots before a new leader is crowned.
Scheer, who served as Speaker in the House of Commons under the Harper government, is positioning himself as someone who can keep the Conservative party united under a big tent.
He said a common theme of all Conservative members is that government is not always the answer.
“That’s kind of one general thing that we all agree with,” said Scheer.
Another thing they can all agree on, said Scheer, is that “it’s bad when Justin Trudeau is the prime minister.”
The Regina- Qu’Appelle MP said his pitch to party members is that he is capable of taking different factions of the conservative movement — mainly fiscal and social arms of the party — and uniting them.
“My pitch to the membership the entire campaign is, I can do that,” he said, knowing there is a long history of right-wing parties dividing, then uniting, in Canada.
Scheer has targeted his main rival — Bernier — as someone who could have a problem identifying with other Conservatives and undecided Canadians in the next election.
“It’s not a theoretical threat that Conservatives can become divided,” he said. “Other candidates, I believe, will have challenges in terms of maintaining that unity.”
Whether or not the membership believes he can unite the party under one banner better than the 13 others vying for the leader’s job will likely take several rounds of ballots.
To that end, Scheer said he will be watching the distance between the first-place candidate and others at the party convention on Saturday.
“If I’m within single digits of being in front on the first ballot, I believe I can win on the subsequent rounds,” he said.
Having to pay such close attention to the distance between him and the front-runner could have been avoided altogether for Scheer when Kevin O’Leary dropped out of the race. The television personality was polling well for the leadership before exiting the race and throwing his support behind Bernier.
Scheer said “feelers were put out” to O’Leary regarding that support going instead to the Saskatchewan MP.
Overall, Scheer is confident going into Saturday, saying he is “very pleased with our turnout” and that “it looks like we’re coming in a very competitive position.”