5846 replies to this topic

[Mike K.]

I'm sure it didn't help, but in general he wasn't charismatic and came across as weak. He got absolutely dominated in every interview he ever did. He tried too hard to be soft spoken and nice but it just didn't come across well.

 

Are you talking about Scheer or Trudeau?

[RFS]

Are you talking about Scheer or Trudeau?

Scheer. Like it or not, Trudeau's pretty confident and strong in interviews.

[Mike K.]

When Trudeau is off-script it's a train wreck. He cries a lot, too.

[Kapten Kapsell]

Given Jason Kennedy’s massive dip in popularity in Alberta, the new party leader of the Federal Tories might opt to give him the “Doug Ford” treatment in the next election...

https://nationalpost...rta-budget-cuts

[RFS]

Given Jason Kennedy’s massive dip in popularity in Alberta, the new party leader of the Federal Tories might opt to give him the “Doug Ford” treatment in the next election...

https://nationalpost...rta-budget-cuts

Doubt it. Whatever small issues people may have with Kenney, nothing will convince them to vote for a party that actively campaigns against their jobs and businesses and futures.

[Mike K.]

His popularity will ebb and flow but now that the parties have merged the Cons are entrenched. The NDP's stint was a disaster for the province and they're unlikely to make that mistake again.

 

Also, take a moment to reflect on the fact that the media will blow out of proportion tiny issues just to get a reaction. They make the news more often than report on it.

[Awaiting Juno]

Wow Scheer's resigning after misappropriating funds for his children's tuition....

 

Hopefully a more progressive and generally palatable replacement will be found.

[Mike K.]

No kidding. This is a disappointing revelation.

[AllseeingEye]

Ah the man with all the depth of wallpaper paste, caught with his hands in the party cookie jar. It looks good on him. What a shock - a two faced, hypocritical evangelical.

 

Ideally the Tories need to find someone who can energize and excite the people of the GTA and Quebec. Therefore much as I like him personally that would not be Peter McKay.

 

Although she's another Westerner/Albertan I would OTOH be leaning very hard on Rona Ambrose if I were the Tory back room boys. Smart, savvy, eloquent, deeply experienced in Ottawa and elsewhere beyond our borders, Ambrose is connected out the ying yang (remember in her time with Harper & Co she was a member of the Trilateral Commission). She knows people that matter.

 

One caveat and a request Rona if you do come back: put the "progressive" back into Conservative Party please and thanks - at the same time flush all those "Reformist/Canadian Alliance" elements of the party down the toilet with the rest of the s***. I just might vote for you if you do.

Edited by AllseeingEye, 12 December 2019 - 06:18 PM.

[VIResident]

Praise be.

[John M.]

So shall we start taking predictions? McKay seems like the obvious front runner and has re-entered the public spotlight recently. I feel like he would do well. He comes across as reasonably intelligent and has an Iranian super model wife.

Brad Wall! 

[Kapten Kapsell]

I do think that a move closer to the political centre is the only hope the Tories have of forming a majority government, and McKay and Raitt are two possible leaders who might get them there.  In the past 3 decades (90s, 00s, 10s) the Libs have won 4 majority governments and 2 minorities vs 1 majority for the Cons (Harper in 2011) and 2 minorities.  Despite his weaknesses, Trudeau and the Liberal Party have been adapt at adopting positions favoured by the large majority of Canadians in opinion surveys, and that has translated into electoral success more often than not...

[Mike K.]

I think Ambrose would be a decent pick.

 

Conservatives should also stop putting up with the terrible shaming and criticism the media and politicians lob at them. That plays into people's choices to some degree, especially if they start believing that if you're on the right side of the political spectrum you can't support LGBT rights, you're a sexist, a racist and a generally awful person.

[Kapten Kapsell]

I think Ambrose would be a decent pick.

 

Conservatives should also stop putting up with the terrible shaming and criticism the media and politicians lob at them. That plays into people's choices to some degree, especially if they start believing that if you're on the right side of the political spectrum you can't support LGBT rights, you're a sexist, a racist and a generally awful person.

I think that it works both ways, i.e. Scheer (as leader) did little to assuage concerns amongst voters that he supported LGBT rights, for example.  He looked visibly uncomfortable when reporters asked him about these issues, so of course everyone was left wondering where he stood.  All he had to do was say something along the lines of "I strongly support LGBT equality, and I will do everything in my power to further advance LGBT causes via specific actions as outlined in my platform." But he didn't, and the platform was silent on these issues; furthermore, he released the platform so late in the campaign (after early voting had already begun!) that even if it *had* contained specific promises voter awareness would have been minimal.  In other words, Scheer had opportunities to define his narrative that he didn't take, and the late release of his platform was a missed opportunity. Finally, once the election was over, one of his first statements to the media was, "I will never march in a Pride Parade..."

 

I also think that the media - in general - went after non-Conservative parties over racial/religious issues/controversies that came up in the election.  Trudeau's blackface controversy got massive coverage that dominated the campaign for days, and there was substantial coverage (especially in the Atlantic Canadian press) about the former NDP candidates who seemed to jump to the Green Party in NB because they didn't feel a 'turbaned Sikh' could win seats.  Then the French media went after Jagmeet Singh for appearing to be non-committal on Quebec's secularism bill (which allowed Trudeau to position himself 'to the left' of Singh on this issue).  

Edited by Kapten Kapsell, 13 December 2019 - 09:40 AM.

[RFS]

Conservatives need to grow a spine. Living in constant fear of the CBC is far worse and more unappealing than actually take a solid position on something. I don't think the problem is that they are too right wing. The problem is they are weak and weasels about it.

[gstc84]

Erin O'Toole's announced he plans to run for the leadership. He came third in the 2017 contest behind Scheer and Bernier, and is currently the Foreign Affairs critic.

 

I think Rona Ambrose would be a great choice. Even among my hardcore leftie friends, she was pretty well liked and respected. I think she could do a lot to reinvent the party's image and bridge some of the ideological divides that are ever-growing in our current political culture.

[AllseeingEye]

Brad Wall! 

 

Brad Wall has already said he isn't interested. And I agree with the Kapten - Brian Mulroney came out recently and said point blank it doesn't matter what your personal beliefs are, if you are a party leader and especially if you want to be the PM, you represent ALL Canadians regardless of gender, color or sexual orientation. Period.

 

Obviously Scheer was massively conflicted on the latter issue as you could visibly see his sphincter tighten up whenever he was asked point blank what his thoughts were re: LGBT or pride parades or abortion etc. Not leadership material. You don't get to pick and choose which Canadian citizens you represent, or divvy them up depending which ones happen to agree with your personal choices; as PM you work for all of us, or none of us. 

[lanforod]

^ yep. Think you could get that message across to our resident PM?

[JimV]

The dull and uninspiring has beens mentioned widely as possible successors to Scheer don't arouse a flicker of interest in me. And who needs a Conservative party that's even more spineless and wimpy; we've already got the Liberals for that.

I would like to see a candidate with significant life experience and from outside the political mainstream who would champion a robust platform of freedom, strength and prosperity. That's asking a lot in the timid and mediocre culture of Canada, but you never know. Who would have thought Boris Johnson would capture seats owned by Labour since 1950.

[RFS]

If Maxime Bernier hadn't spazzed and left he'd be a shoe-in