Scheer offers Tory twist on Trudeau’s sunny ways
Despite a seemingly endless leadership race featuring far too many candidates who were contenders only in their own minds, the Conservatives got it right Saturday, by the narrowest of margins.
In choosing Ottawa native Andrew Scheer, the Tories picked a leader with the capacity to broaden their appeal. Second-place finisher Maxime Bernier deserves credit for running a campaign of ideas, but his libertarian views were unlikely to be supported by the middle-of-the-road voters needed to regain power.
Bernier made it clear during the race that if elected, his ideas would become the party’s ideas. That’s not how you run a party with a broad a philosophical base.
Conservatives are going to like how their new leader compares to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The Liberal leader, who was broadly considered to have descended from the heavens, has proven to be mortal.
Trudeau’s big deficits, broken promises and failure to achieve much of significance make him more politically vulnerable than expected.
Trudeau’s trump card is his optimism. His “sunny ways” made a great contrast to the dark and gloomy final days of Stephen Harper. History will treat Harper more kindly than voters, but many Canadians had developed a visceral dislike for the man. In Scheer, the Conservatives found a leader who is impossible to hate. Tone is critical in politics, and Scheer has been relentlessly positive and inclusive. He gets that Conservatives don’t have to be angry.
Have you ever seen a politician smile so much when he didn’t have his hand on your wallet? Scheer has a self-deprecating sense of humour that will serve him well. His is a right-leaning twist on sunny ways.
The most-prized quality in a politician is authenticity, and Andrew Scheer has it.
I’ve known him since he was a kid. The Andrew Scheer people saw on stage at the convention is the same person in private. For voters who find Trudeau’s carefully constructed impersonation of a political leader false, Scheer is the antidote.
Scheer’s victory is also a generational change for a party that will need to attract the young voters who were key to Trudeau’s victory. Scheer is only 38, the PM 45.
Scheer’s weakness, at this point, is policy. He played it safe during his campaign, championing free speech and taking the HST off electricity bills. More controversially, he would get rid of Trudeau’s carbon-pricing policy. Conservatives will like that, but it leaves the party vulnerable on climate change. Candidate Michael Chong’s plan to support a carbon tax, but offset it with other tax cuts, is still a sound, conservative approach.
There is work to be done before the Scheer version of the party produces a real platform. The leader’s policies so far feel more like vote-attracting markers than the framework of a real plan. Scheer got started in politics working in a low-level job in the opposition leader’s office. In 2004, he contested a no-hope riding in Saskatchewan, but pulled off an upset against veteran New Democrat Lorne Nystrom. No one would have predicted then that 13 years later Scheer would succeed Harper.
It was another unexpected twist when Scheer worked his way up to Speaker, but that’s a job that doesn’t attract stars or future leaders. His leadership run was a surprise for a guy who seems to specialize in them.
In his quiet, unassuming way, Scheer has already completed two parts of what would be an unprecedented political trifecta. He has resided in the Speaker’s Gatineau residence. Stornoway is next. The new target is 24 Sussex.
Sometimes, nice guys really do finish first. — Randall Denley is an Ottawa commentator, novelist and former Ontario Progressive Conservative candidate. randalldenley1@gmail.com