There are a lot of gambles in politics: the timing of elections, decisions about which issues are key for your party, the selection of candidates, and the list goes on.
Conservative Party of Canada Leader Erin O’Toole made a gamble on Friday — and it should have been not only the right one, but a fairly safe one.
Addressing a virtual policy convention of Conservatives, O’Toole made the clear argument that Conservative policies have to be broader and more attractive to a wider range of Canadians if the party wants to win the next federal election.
“We must present new ideas, not make the same arguments hoping that maybe this time more Canadians will come around to our position,” he said in his speech.
O’Toole envisioned a “grand Conservative coalition” that could reach out as a palatable alternative to disaffected members of other parties. That sort of big tent idea should be familiar to Canadians, because it was the strategy that enabled Stephen Harper to harness the support of a range of people in the Conservative and Conservative-leaning spectrum to win almost a decade as prime minister.
Conservative Party of Canada Leader Erin O’Toole made a gamble on Friday — and it should have been not only the right one, but a fairly safe one.
The difference, of course, is that Harper had clear control over his big tent’s disparate elements. Holding power in the country gave Harper the ability to maintain power over various players in the Conservative pantheon — keeping the Tory juggernaut intact was the best way for each of its different elements to have their voices heard.
But while O’Toole’s vision is clearly the most likely route to political power, it seems you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t start that pony on the road to broadening the political base.
In his speech, O’Toole didn’t present a specific climate plan, but did stress the clear need to have one.
“I will not allow 338 candidates to defend against the lie from the Liberals that we are a party of climate-change deniers. We will have a plan to address climate change. It will be comprehensive. And it will be serious.”
At this point, a broad range of scientists, businesses, governments and individuals have seen the effects of climate change. Even oil companies — which have arguably the most to lose when it comes to addressing the climate issue — recognize that the problem exists, even if they differ on what action should be taken, and how quickly.
But the Tories at the policy convention had a different view — voting down a motion that both recognized climate change as real and pledged to have the party address it.
It shows weakness in O’Toole’s leadership, to a degree, but it also shows that the current residents of the big tent aren’t willing to move the walls to make room for more people.
And that’s a risk for the party in the next election.
