Bumbling Conservatives

Andrew Scheer will not go down in history as the best and brightest of Conservative leaders -- nor will the people who want his job. Chantal Hebert writes:

It is totally possible to agree with the opposition rationale that no government — especially a minority one — should enjoy an open-ended pass from parliamentary scrutiny, but also to question whether what ails Conservative fortunes is really the party’s restricted capacity to hold the Liberals accountable face-to-face.

The NDP and the BQ have also lost a lot of visibility over the past few weeks, yet based on Léger’s polling, they both seem to be holding their own in voting intentions.

As matters currently stand, there is precious little appetite among the public for anything that smacks of partisan politics.

One of Scheer's biggest problems is that Ontario premier Doug Ford refuses to follow Scheer's lead:

The co-operation between a prime minister whose approval rating is currently on the rise and the Tory premier of Canada’s most-populous province makes it even harder for the federal Conservatives to credibly prosecute Trudeau’s management of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the contenders for Scheer's job keep shooting themselves in the foot:

Earlier this week, Sarnia-Lambton MP Marilyn Gladu called for an end to the social distancing measures that are keeping the Canadian economy on pause. Her rationale is that governments should focus on protecting elderly Canadians from COVID-19 and let everyone else get on with life.

And the Conservatives are still complaining about the SNC-Lavalin Affair:

Indeed, the most recent example of a tone-challenged official opposition performance goes back a little more than a month, on the very day the World Health Organization officially declared a pandemic.

On that occasion, Scheer and his caucus were happy enough to relinquish the lead on COVID-19 to the Bloc Québécois and the New Democrats, the better to focus on a dead-on-arrival attempt to resuscitate the SNC-Lavalin affair.

We are reminded every day of why Scheer and Co. lost the last election. They bumbled through it. And they continue to do so.

Image: National Observer

Not As Advertised

Throughout the election campaign, Andrew Scheer accused Justin Trudeau of being a phoney. Trudeau, he said, was a child of privilege, whereas Scheer himself was just an ordinary working stiff. Alan Freeman writes:

I can still remember the start of the English-language leaders’ debate during the election campaign when the moderator began with a softball question asking each leader how they would defend Canada’s interests and values on the international stage.

When it came time for Andrew Scheer to respond, the tone suddenly changed. The Conservative leader ignored the question and launched into a vitriolic personal attack on Trudeau, calling him two-faced, singling out the disclosure that Trudeau had worn blackface at a costume party and had demoted Jody Wilson-Raybould while professing to back Indigenous rights.

“Mr. Trudeau, you are a phoney and you are a fraud and you do not deserve to govern this country,” Scheer charged.

But, as the campaign wore on, it became clear that the tagline Scheer and his party attached to Trudeau -- "not as advertised" -- applied to Scheer in spades:

His CV wasn’t transparent or truthful. It turned out that he was never really an insurance broker before entering politics. Rather, he had worked at an insurance office in Regina for six months and never got his brokerage licence.

And then there was the fact that he was a U.S. passport holder, but never bothered to tell anybody. “I’ve never been asked about it by Canadians,” he told reporters, when the news leaked out that he was a dual citizen and he said he was going to renounce his U.S. citizenship. This from a man who criticized Michaëlle Jean when she was appointed as governor-general for being a dual French and Canadian citizen.

While actively promoting the idea of low taxes and small government, Scheer owed not just his career but his whole lifestyle to the taxpayer. His first job, at age 25 and with a freshly-minted BA degree, was as an MP earning $141,000 a year. He astutely managed his political career, becoming Speaker of the House of Commons at 32 and moving into nice government-owned digs in the Gatineau Hills, north of the capital. No need for Jill to take a job, unlike the vast majority of married Canadians who can’t afford a one-income household.

By 2017, Scheer was leader of the Conservative Party, and officially became a 1 per centre with a salary of $264,000 and even posher digs at Stornoway.

All the time, Scheer and the Conservative Party kept on with this idea that he was a man of the people, because his middle-class parents didn’t own a car when he was growing up in suburban Ottawa and he had to take the bus. “I know what it’s like when families feel anxious that they cannot make to the end of the month,” he stated, not a dry eye in the house. “Someone who’s never really had to worry about that cannot possibly relate to it on a personal level.”

When Scheer as opposition leader had trouble making ends meet after opting to send four of his five kids to private Catholic school in Ottawa, he knew what to do. He turned to the Conservative Party, which secretly began paying tuition from its fundraising arm, until he got found out, helping to precipitate his much-anticipated resignation.

The party’s executive director, Dustin van Vugt, told The Globe and Mail this week that the payments were “normal practice for political parties” and that Scheer needed the money to pay for higher school fees in Ottawa. Of course, nobody else in the party seemed to know.

You see where this is going. The Conservatives lost the election because they had the wrong message. But they also had the wrong messenger.

Image: Macleans

Understanding -- And Empathy

Everyone knows that Justin Trudeau is a child of privilege. Andrew Scheer plans to drive that message home by presenting himself in stark contrast to Trudeau. He claims that he "knows what it’s like when families feel anxious that they won’t make it to the end of the month. Someone who’s never had to worry about that can’t possibly relate to it on a personal level.”

Except, Paul Willcocks writes:

Scheer is paid $264,400 a year. He lives rent-free in a taxpayer-funded 34-room mansion with a chef, chauffeur and household manager.

He might remember his parents feeling anxious about making it to the end of the month when he was a child. They were solidly middle class — his mother a nurse, his father a unionized librarian and proofreader at the Ottawa Citizen. But they had three children, so money was likely tight at times.

But as a career politician, Scheer surely hasn’t worried about paying the bills for a long time. He had a history degree and limited work experience when he was elected as an MP in 2005. He’s done political staff jobs, part-time work as a server and briefly sold insurance in a friend’s agency.

Then at 25, Scheer hit the jackpot. He was elected MP for Regina-Qu’Appelle, and started collecting about $140,000 a year — about $195,000 in current dollars.

Less than two years later, Scheer was appointed assistant deputy chairman of committees of the whole and a deputy Speaker. The title has a vaguely Dwight Schrute quality, but the job brought a 10-per-cent pay increase over the base pay for an MP.

And after the Harper government was re-elected in 2011, Scheer was elected Speaker. That took his pay to $236,600 and gave him an apartment on Parliament Hill and taxpayer-paid housing in The Farm, a 5,000-square-foot residence on four acres.

Since he was elected as an MP at 25 in 2005, Scheer has collected about $3 million in salary. For the last eight years, he’s lived in housing paid for by taxpayers.

He isn’t doing anything wrong. Parliament approved the pay plan.

But it’s ridiculous for him to claim that “I know what it’s like when families feel anxious that they won’t make it to the end of the month.”

Franklin Roosevelt was also a child of privilege. That didn't preclude him from understanding what it was like to be poor and unemployed. However, he never claimed that he and his family had trouble paying the bills at the end of the month.

The issue is about understanding -- and empathy. One's background does not make either inevitable.

Image: The Tyee

Scheer's Problems

Justin Trudeau faces several issues which could doom his prime ministership. But so does Andrew Scheer. Penny Collenette writes that, with friends like Doug Ford and Jason Kenny, Scheer's quest for the brass ring could be doomed:

The Ontario premier has baggage already. He has unsurprisingly proven to be a political disaster. Voter’s remorse has set in. His polls are plummeting. Anonymous Conservatives are leaking their concerns to reporters and his caucus seems to be in a meltdown.

He and his team clearly did not learn a lesson from the Mike Harris government. When cuts hurt too deeply, people will scream in pain, especially when those cuts are aimed at the most vulnerable.

Scheer must find a way to distance himself from Ford while simultaneously retaining Ford Nation support. 

And then there is Jason Kenney:

Meanwhile, Jason Kenney is a strategic lightning rod. Formerly a federal Conservative minister under Stephen Harper, the premier of Alberta is also causing trouble. Unlike Ford, Kenney and Scheer seemed joined at the hip on policies. However, speculation is mounting that Kenney is the federal “leader in waiting” which has to be slightly awkward for the two of them.

Scheer will also have to carefully monitor the Alberta premier’s actions. Kenney, Ford and four other premiers recently joined forces in an “urgent” letter to challenge Trudeau on two recent pieces of environmental legislation. They warned of a “unity crisis” if they did not get their way.

If there is any threat that makes Liberal hearts beat faster, it is a threat to “national unity.” The prime minister realized quickly the political gift. He immediately countered with an allegation that the premiers were being irresponsible to suggest a national unity crisis.

It's early days. And campaigns do make a difference. But, at this point, I wouldn't make any predictions about who will win the next election.

Image: The Toronto Star

Scheer Incompetence

Michael Harris doesn't see much of a future for Andrew Scheer:

After a year and a half in office, people can be forgiven if they think Scheer is still Speaker of the House of Commons. Leaders lead, and by doing that, gain recognition.

Scheer merely lurks with that silly smile on his face, a political non-entity who acts like he’s gunning for the doorman’s job at Walmart.

He's particularly inept. Consider his encounter with The Assembly of First Nations:

Is it any wonder that chiefs from the Assembly of First Nations booed the Conservative leader lustily at a special meeting in Ottawa last December? They had a simple question, and it could hardly have caught the Tory leader by surprise. If he became prime minister, how would Scheer be different from Stephen Harper?

Yes, First Nations had a big beef with Scheer’s former boss, and for good reason. The only thing Harper didn’t do to Indigenous peoples was bring back Indian Agents. He humiliated leaders like Chief Theresa Spence of Attawapiskat First Nation, cut national funding, ignored problems and tried to run a federal bulldozer over native constitutional rights.

Scheer’s answer? The one thing you can’t say to people who have been waiting for decades for social justice — you’ll have to be patient.

If First Nations wanted to see how he would be different from Harper, Scheer said, they would just have to stand by until the Conservative leader announced his platform for the 2019 election.

Then there was the Clement Affair:

While Clement was busily cyber-sharing his private parts hither and yon, eventually ensnaring himself in a web of extortion, Scheer acted like a coach whose player had missed practice.

His reaction was to have a heart-to-heart with Sexting Man. The leader told his MP that it was a “poor decision” to send his body parts to the digital devices of strangers. Now there’s breaking news.

Remarkably, Scheer’s first instinct was not to fire Clement, but to relieve him of a few perks — some committee work and his role as shadow justice critic. And to take Clement at his word that he showed his junk to someone yearning to see it. And that, why no, he’d never done that before.

Scheer actually thought he could keep the former cabinet minister in caucus as the MP for Parry Sound-Muskoka. So much for Conservative party family values. And this from a man who refuses to march in Pride parades.

Perhaps Scheer is hoping that Doug Ford will put him over the top. It's true that Ford has some insight into Ontarian stupidity. But stupidity has its own way of coming back to bite you.

And Sheer looks like he's biteable.

Image: National Observer

Scheer Won't Make It

Conservatives in Alberta and Ontario are poised for a come back. In Ottawa, they're hoping that Andrew Scheer will bring them back from the wilderness. But, Michael Harris writes, there are several reasons why Scheer and the Conservatives will continue to wander in the desert:

Reason number one, Harper deja vu. Canadians got a bellyful of Northern Republicanism with the former prime minister, so Scheer’s attempt to create a GOP-style political base in Canada built on the same values is doomed. It will just remind voters why they dumped these guys the last time.

Reason number two: Mother Earth. Justin Trudeau will eat Scheer alive on the environment. Though the Liberals have broken key promises on this file, and will pay a price in British Columbia for doing it, they have at least recognized there is a problem.

Trudeau and Co. have broken several promises on the environment. But the Conservatives still have trouble recognizing the environment's existence:

As failed CPC leadership candidate Brad Trost declared, he doesn’t believe man-made factors are causing global warming. Of course, Brad. It’s all those farting cattle.

Scheer doesn’t quite go as far as his delusional colleague, but he is a de facto climate denier all the same. Which is why he has promised to repeal mandatory carbon-pricing, approve the defunct Energy East pipeline and retain the $3.3 billion in subsidies and tax breaks for oil and gas companies.

At least Trudeau is taxing carbon -- and instituting some kind of gun control:

Reason three: Scheer’s gun policy, which will play a part in the next election, is based on the NRA fantasy that the government is somehow coming for everyone’s rifle. There is also a little Davy Crockett riff thrown in for good measure.

The crowning absurdity of Scheer’s gun policy is his plan to create a firearms ombudsman, a permanent federal employee who would act as the champion of gun owners across the land. That’s right, Scheer wants a system that protects gun owners, not society.

That may be why he also says that the RCMP should be stripped of its power to reclassify guns. It may be why he wants to review the Criminal Code and scrub all federal regulations touching the acquisition, usage and transportation of firearms.

Most critically, like Harper, Scheer seeks to appeal to a narrow base. There simply are not enough votes there to catapult him into office:

A pro-lifer in the abortion debate, Scheer nominated Conservative MP Rachel Harder to chair the committee on the status of women. Harder, an anti-abortionist, was ousted by pressure from the Liberals and the NDP.

It was a stupid but revealing appointment. The pro-life movement was instrumental in getting Scheer the leader’s job. Perhaps that’s why he is in favour of having Ottawa fund anti-abortion groups.

Scheer also voted against same-sex marriage in 2005.

He is not where most Canadians are. It's true that Jason Kenny and Doug Ford are also not where most Canadians are. But Kenny and Ford only have to win enough votes in one province. Winning a majority of votes in the federation is an entirely different proposition.

That's why Scheer won't make it to the prime minister's office.

Image: Macleans

Getting Mugged By The Future

When the Conservatives went shopping for a new leader, they chose the wrong guy. Alan Freeman writes:

With each passing day, it’s becoming clearer that Canada’s Official Opposition is led by a man who might have what it takes to rock a high school model Parliament, but little else. In federal politics, Scheer is a catastrophe — a gift to Trudeau and the Liberal Party of Canada and the most hapless and inept major party leader since Stéphane Dion vanished from the scene.

I’m sure Scheer is a nice fellow and a great dad — but he’s living in the wrong country. His socially conservative beliefs might work for him if he were running for governor of Indiana, or to replace Ted Cruz as the Tea Party flag-bearer, but he’s never going to be elected prime minister of Canada in the second decade of the 21st century.

Stephen Harper understood the rabid right wing of his party. He had a tacit agreement with them. If they kept their mouths shut, he would incorporate some of their ideas into policy:

The old Stephen Harper tactic [was to keep] the rabid right-wingers inside the tent while trying to conceal from voters the extent of their influence in the party. But Harper was an opportunist — a smart, driven, Machiavellian leader who instilled fear in both his supporters and opponents. Scheer is a weak man; his opportunism smacks not of calculation, but of desperation.

Consider how long it took Scheer to deal with Senator Lynn Beyak:

Scheer waited far too long to deal with Beyak. He has yet to demonstrate that he has the temperament and nerve to keep the politically-incorrect, angry base of the Conservatives in check, as Harper did. Scheer’s confrontation with Beyak made him look weak — and he’ll look weaker still every time the scenario repeats itself. And it will.

Modern conservatives continue to live in the past. And they keep getting mugged by the future.

Image: Huffington Post

Mr Positive?

When Andrew Scheer was elected leader of the Conservative Party, he promised that he would promote a "positive message." Andrew Coyne writes that, so far, he hasn't been very positive:

As Parliament resumes, we’ve yet to see much of that vaunted positivity from Scheer. He has let it be known his party will be focused on three things in the fall sitting: the settlement of Omar Khadr’s lawsuit against the government, at a cost of $10.5 million; the recent influx of asylum-seekers from the United States, primarily in Quebec; and proposed changes to the taxation of private corporations, the subject of so much recent vitriol.

On each of these issues, Scheer is howling in pure Conservative boilerplate:

It is the easiest thing in the world to oppose the Khadr payment — polls show it is wildly unpopular — but is that really the most crucial issue facing the nation, two months later? And can the Conservatives say with any certainty that fighting the case to the bitter end would have saved any money?

The asylum-seeker issue, likewise, appears already to be fading: the rate of inflow has fallen from nearly 300 a day to fewer than 100. And while it’s certainly possible it could flare again, we have yet to hear a plausible solution from the opposition.

As for the tax ruckus, there are any number of valid conservative critiques that could be offered: the government’s proposals are too complex, too intrusive, too costly and so on.

If the party were feeling extra adventurous, it might even offer, you know, positive alternatives: perhaps reducing the incentive to incorporate, by closing the gap between the small business rate and the top personal rate, or a more broad-based reform of the tax system that would address a number of distortions and inequities at one go, rather than picking just one.

The faces change. But they offer the same regurgitated policies. That's not positive.

Image: The National Post