MacKay entry boosts Tory leadership race

It may go down as the shortest major political announcement in Canadian history.

“I’m in. Stay tuned.”

That was all Peter MacKay tweeted on Wednesday. It was all he had to. Those four words signalled as effectively as a 50-minute speech to some service club that he’d officially entered the race to lead the Conservative Party of Canada.

It was an important message for beleaguered Conservative supporters. But it was just as significant for all Canadian voters, regardless of political stripe.

MacKay’s tweet, to be followed by a more formal entry next week, raises hopes the next Tory leader will be more attuned to the needs and desires of voters than Andrew Scheer, who dragged his party to a depressing defeat in October’s general election. And the more Canada’s Official Opposition Conservatives do to keep the Liberals on their toes, the better that Liberal government will be.

These are early days in the Conservative leadership contest and, after Ontario MP Marilyn Gladu, MacKay is just the second candidate to officially join it. He’ll give it the jolt of energy it needs.

MacKay has a high-profile across Canada, but especially in his party, having played a major role in creating it by uniting the former Progressive Conservative party with the Canadian Alliance in 2003.

He has buckets of credibility and experience, having served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Minister of National Defence and Minister of Foreign Affairs under prime minister Stephen Harper. Despite his long, distinguished resume, MacKay is a 54-year-old with as much youthful vigour as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The Conservatives should carefully weigh what MacKay can offer. They lost an election they thought was in the bag, largely due to Scheer’s lackluster campaign. Then, after rumours he might be ousted, Scheer resigned after revelations Conservative party funds paid for his children’s private school tuition.

Cut down to a minority in the last election, the Liberal government is also vulnerable. Yet the Conservatives are unravelling just when they should be coming together for another bid for power.

As they approach their leadership convention in June, the Conservatives need a new direction as much as a new leader. It’s possible that as the last leader of the old Progressive Conservatives, MacKay could push today’s party back to the centre of the political spectrum.

Such a political realignment seems even more conceivable given that Jean Charest, another former Progressive Conservative leader as well as a former Liberal Premier of Quebec, may announce his candidacy in the leadership race next week.

Would the Western Conservatives and social conservatives who backed Scheer feel at home in a party led by MacKay or Charest? Would the pair be rejected as Red Tory relics of the past?

That, of course, is up to Conservative party members to say. We think a more progressive Conservative party would mean a bigger tent for voters, particularly the ones from large urban centres and Quebec, who resoundingly rejected Scheer. And the Tories might remember that after being labelled “yesterday’s man,” Jean Chretien become a Liberal prime minister for 10 years.

Of course, this race has barely started. It could be the candidate who could best bridge the divide between the more progressive and right-of-centre wings of the party is another former Tory federal cabinet minister — Rona Ambrose. She has yet to state her intentions but could emerge as the real star.

Already, this is a race to watch closely. Stay tuned, indeed.