Conservatives look to future at convention
WHICH IS THE WAY THIS PARTY SHOULD BE MOVING FORWARD TO ATTRACT CANADIANS? — MP DEEPAK OBHRAI
Thousands of Conservatives from across Canada will begin charting a new course for the federal party this week at the Tories’ national convention in Vancouver. Members will debate fresh policies, leadership candidates will fish for support, and some MPs will be hoping the party emerges as more of a big-tent party than it has been in the recent past.
But while many in the party are pushing for more progressive policies on things like same-sex marriage and the environment, they will be facing resistance from social conservatives who maintain a strong voice in the party. In many ways, from social policy to arguments over the best system for electing a new leader, it marks a renewal of the old tensions between the Reform/Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative parties.
Calgary Conservative MP Deepak Obhrai, the dean of the Tory caucus, said the convention will be arguably the most important ever for the Conservative Party of Canada.
The party, he said, must demonstrate it has learned the lessons of the last election and show what it will do to get back into government.
“What people want to know is how do we move ahead to ensure that the mistakes, or the reasons why we lost power, must be addressed,” Obhrai said.
“The loss of this election is an excellent learning experience for anybody to say, ‘Which is the way that this party should be moving forward to attract Canadians from coast to coast to coast?’ And to do that, we have to have a larger tent with larger policies.”
Obhrai and many other Conservative MPs, including leadership candidate Michael Chong and former minister Michelle Rempel, hope members support a resolution that would remove the party’s definition of marriage — “the union of one man and one woman” — from the policy declaration as part of an effort to promote a more inclusive party.
But some Conservatives say the party is deliberately stifling policy debate at the convention, perhaps in a bid to prevent the old fault lines from splitting too far apart.
Doug Hawkins, a member of the national policy committee, is assailing the party for not providing more time to debate a larger number of policy resolutions.
He’s promoting a website — FreeYourPolicy.ca — and a Facebook page urging members to support a constitutional amendment that would allow more policy resolutions to be debated.
“At every convention, the number of proposals being submitted by the membership has increased ... while the number of policy proposals discussed has decreased!” Hawkins said in an email to Conservative supporters.
“We cannot stand idly by and watch our membership be muzzled.”
Among the constitutional resolutions that will be debated is one that would impose a term limit on the leader, allowing the person to serve “no more than eight continuous years after being appointed Prime Minister.”
And though the party’s actual leadership vote won’t be held for another year, the race will be top of mind for many party members in Vancouver. Declared candidates and those thinking of declaring will use the gathering to try to gauge support and recruit organizers.
Former ministers Kellie Leitch, Maxime Bernier and Chong have already registered, while Jason Kenney, Peter MacKay, Tony Clement and Lisa Raitt are also weighing potential bids.