We’re ‘ready to govern,’ says Tory leader Scheer
NEW TORY LEADER AIMS TO BE ‘AUTHENTIC’ CHOICE, BUT WILL THAT APPEAL TO VOTERS?
THE PROBLEM WITH LIBERALS IS THAT THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT THE RESULTS OF THEIR POLICIES, THEY JUST CARE ABOUT THE INTENTIONS THAT THEY SHOW. — ANDREW SCHEER
In contrast to the man he’d like to eject from the Prime Minister’s Office, Andrew Scheer’s idea of a magical Christmas break does not involve billionaires or private islands.
Instead, he was preparing to head home to Regina with his wife Jill and five kids, to sit in his pyjamas with them until noon every day watching old movies like Home Alone 2, with its brief Donald Trump cameo.
The Conservative leader will rise or fall on his extreme ordinariness — made all the more stark by the prime minister’s glamour. But as he points out, he doesn’t have much choice in the matter.
“I’m not going to try to compete on a certain level with Justin Trudeau. I can only be who I can be. But I am younger, I am modern and I have a different take on Conservative principles than my predecessors,” he said in a year-end interview in his Parliament Hill office. “People buy authenticity. When you look at political events, whether it’s Bernie Sanders on the left or Ron Paul on the right, people believe in authenticity and I think that’s what I can offer people.”
Taking stock of his first six months as leader, Scheer was happy with his progress.
“A lot of things have gone well. Our caucus is united. We’ve got former leadership candidates in key roles; we’ve got people who backed other people in key roles, so the caucus has really come together, which is not always the case for Conservative parties in Canada after an election defeat.
"We’ve also had successes on issues — we beat back most of the attack on small businesses, with (finance minister Bill) Morneau’s tax hikes, and we’ve shown that this government is not competent. So I think a lot of things have gone well,” he said.
Yet Conservative support has flatlined, and Scheer remains a mystery to nearly three in four Canadians. One opinion poll suggested those people who did know him felt him to be “intelligent” and “principled” but not “tough” or “interesting.” Does he need to get tougher and more interesting?
The question causes his self-described “resting pleasant face” to crack into an outbreak of dimples.
“We’ll see. These types of things come together over time. I believe we’ve got the fundamentals that are strong. I’m a new leader in this position, and the position itself has a natural disadvantage. The prime minister can announce he’s going to say something tomorrow morning and it gets covered. But what we’re hearing is more and more people saying: ‘We get it. We get he dresses well, we get the socks and the image they’re trying to portray. But it’s the policies that are not working, it’s the incompetence, it’s the mis-management.’”
Scheer emphasizes repeatedly that his first six months were spent establishing “the fundamentals” — who he is and what his party stands for.
“What I’ve tried to do over the past few months is set markers down about the overall Liberal approach to government and the Conservative approach,” he said.
“I believe the problem with Liberals is that they don’t care about the results of their policies, they just care about the intentions that they show. They wrap themselves up in emotion and sending a signal about what they care about. The effects of their policies are usually terrible but they try to gloss over that.
“Conservatives have the inverse problem — we don’t do enough to show that we are engaged on these issues and care about them, we go right to results. Over the past six months, I’ve tried to say: ‘Here’s what Andrew Scheer believes and here’s what the Conservative Party stands for.’ It’s based on greater individual freedom of belief and a trust in free people making free decisions in a free market, not government control and government deciding things.”
Is he planning to save the McDonald’s Happy Meal, threatened by bill S-228, which would ban food- and beverage-marketing to children?
“I’ll be voting against that bill,” he said. “I don’t believe the government needs to help me parent. I can do that. The answer with the Liberals is always ‘More government, more spending,’ and that leads to higher taxes.”
Scheer said in the new year, the Conservatives will start to roll out policies on issues like climate change. But don’t expect a U-turn on a carbon tax.
“I think the Conservative record on this (climate change) is positive. We were able to bring in a lot of changes that actually worked. (But) I’ve been philosophically and principally and ideologically opposed to a carbon tax, so that won’t be part of the equation,” he said.
Scheer’s biggest problem is the economy is humming along, and when voters are not anxious about jobs, the party in power profits. He credits the Harper government for creating the right conditions for growth, but said he fears Liberal policies will undermine competitiveness.
“I think there are some reasons to be concerned. Obviously I hope the economy continues to do well for Canadians. I believe that a lot of structural things the Conservative Party did, whether it was free trade deals or lowering taxes on business, that has been a lag effect. So I think Trudeau is riding a bit of wave there.
“I can’t point to anything that is happening in the economy thanks to Liberal government decisions. In fact, quite the opposite. We’ve seen billions of dollars in investment leave. There’s been a flight of capital in a lot of areas and that is going to have an effect. Add to that the competitiveness angle. We’re making it harder to do business in Canada, with the attack on small business, with new regulations. At the same time, our biggest trading partner is trying to make its economy more competitive. So there are some structural things that are looming there for the government.”
As he looks back on the year, he sees many reasons to be upbeat, despite losing two seats in byelections in British Columbia and Quebec.
“Obviously we’d like to have held on to the seats we had. But those seats in 2015 we kept because we had very strong local candidates who had a well-established presence in that riding. In 2015, the Conservative vote dropped tremendously all around South Surrey. We brought that vote back up, up in Saskatchewan, up 13 points in Newfoundland and cracking 40 per cent in Scarborough-Agincourt, a 416 riding. If we’re getting 40 per cent in Scarborough-Agincourt, then map that out across Ontario, there’s a lot of reasons to be optimistic.”
The Conservatives did put a dent in Liberal support over the small-business tax issue and Morneau’s personal affairs. But the Liberals look set to end the year as popular as ever, with Trudeau’s personal numbers even stronger than the Liberal brand.
The Grits continue to dominate the left of the political spectrum, which in theory should allow the Conservatives to campaign from the centre, moderate some of their more dogmatic positions and build a new electoral coalition with peeved blue Liberals.
Yet the “fundamentals” Scheer is laying down are more geared toward appealing to the 30 per cent of voters already backing the Conservatives than to expanding the universe of accessible voters. The party may be united but its growth is stalled. If there is a credible route to victory, it is not readily apparent.
Yet Scheer is confident that if he builds it, voters will come.
“I think we’ve demonstrated that our front bench is a lot stronger than the Liberal front bench. We’ve got shadow ministers who could walk into the job tomorrow morning and that’s important. Canadians have to believe that not just myself, but the entire Conservative team is credible, competent and ready to govern.”