Scheer survives leadership review by MPS, but now must take his case on the road
Ottawa: Andrew Scheer emerged from a marathon caucus meeting Wednesday, declaring that Conservative MPS are united behind his leadership after they declined to give themselves the power to boot the leader out.
Scheer’s leadership will still, however, face a test of confidence among party members at their biannual convention in April in Toronto. He said he believed that’s where the power to potentially oust him should lie. “The review as to the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada is and always will be in the hands of our members,” he said to loud applause from the MPS gathered behind him.
“We are a grassroots party.”
Though feisty after holing up with his MPS and senators for seven hours, Scheer repeated many of the same messages that he’d delivered throughout the recent election campaign and in the days afterward. He said Conservatives will be “laser focused” on four priorities: keeping the country united, restoring ethics and accountability to government, helping Canadians get ahead and getting the energy sector back to work.
And he called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whom he accused of dividing the country, to recall Parliament as soon as possible.
“By the time Justin Trudeau even names his cabinet (on Nov. 20), we’ll have been one month removed from election day. That is far too long to wait given the urgent problems we face today.”
The party’s 121 MPS were meeting for the first time since the Oct. 21 election. Scheer said they had a frank discussion about the campaign, which left many senior Conservatives sniping that Scheer had blown an opportunity to defeat a vulnerable Trudeau.
There has been internal pressure for Scheer to make some swift changes to his inner circle as proof he’s taken some of the immediate criticisms a failure to clearly communicate his ideas, but also a failure to advance any energetic new ones to heart, but he suggested if any action is taken, it won’t come in the short term.
Scheer intends to embark on a cross-canada “listening tour,” while former Conservative cabinet minister John Baird will lead an external review of what went wrong and what went right during the campaign.
Among the first order of business for caucus members had been to decide whether to adopt a rule that would allow 20 per cent of their group to trigger a leadership review.
The rule failed to pass, and longtime Alberta MP Chris Warkentin said caucus is united behind the leader. “Everybody in the room is committed to moving forward, to be unified, to undertake what we were sent here to Ottawa to do, to hold Justin Trudeau to account.” On their way into the meeting, some MPS said while they support Scheer, they’d vote in favour of the rule on the principle that MPS ought to have the power to oust a leader. Others felt as Scheer would later say that the power to kick out the leader should belong to members. On Oct. 21, the Conservatives earned the largest number of votes since their inception in 2004, and successfully elected 26 more MPS than they had in 2015. But while they won slightly more of the popular vote than the Liberals, due to overwhelming majorities in Alberta and Saskatchewan, they lost ground in Quebec and Ontario and emerged with fewer seats: 121 to the Liberals’ 157.