The problem Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has in sharing the same debate stage with People’s Party of Canada (PPC) Leader Maxime Bernier is one of contrast.
Anything that heightens Bernier’s profile could hurt the Conservative Party of Canada when the CPC needs every vote possible to win. But Bernier may even be making Conservatives uncomfortable in places like Saskatchewan, where the 14 PPC candidates are really no threat, but his policy positions rub against some right-wing views.
It was announced Monday that Bernier would participate in both the English (Oct. 7) and French (Oct. 10) TV debates — news that didn’t go over well with Conservatives.
“It’s no big surprise that Justin Trudeau’s hand-picked debate panel used a Liberal-friendly pollster who attacks Andrew Scheer to ultimately justify Mr. Bernier’s attendance at the debate,” said Scheer’s press secretary, Daniel Schow.
But blaming Trudeau for all this wasn’t even the most bizarre thing emerging from Conservative ranks on Monday.
Scheer and other Conservatives were quick to seize on innuendo in a tweet from white-supremacist sympathizer/attention-seeker Faith Goldy, who coyly suggested Trudeau (gasp) once bought her a drink a decade ago. Presumably, Conservative strategists thought this to be an effective response to similarly tacky Liberal tweets that Goldy (who appeared on a pro-white-supremacist podcast during the deadly Charlottesville event while reporting for Rebel News Media) was besties with Conservative Kanata-Carleton candidate Justina McCaffrey.
Instead, it may have only reminded Canadians that Scheer appeared on Goldy’s show on Rebel Media and that the Conservatives’ campaign manager, Hamish Marshall, was a Rebel Media director. The ease (or uneasiness — depending on your perspective) some Conservatives have with playing footsies with the far right leads us to the problem with Bernier.
Let us be clear the CPC remain a big-tent party and Conservatives — notwithstanding the disappearance of “progressive” in the name of the federal and most provincial parties — do hold a wide array of opinion on social and economic issues.
This would seem evident in the comfort with which Scheer’s Conservatives are now courting middle, lower-middle- and even lower-class voters with Tuesday’s promise to increase government contributions to Registered Education Savings Plans to 30 per cent from 20 per cent and Sunday’s campaign announcement that a Conservative government would cut the income rate for those earning less than $47,630 to 13.75 per cent from 15 per cent.
But given that middle-class moderation is clearly a theme Conservatives want to emerge from their campaign, one might think Scheer would be champing at the bit to contrast his views with Bernier’s on a national stage — something the two haven’t shared since the 2017 federal Conservative leadership race that saw Bernier lead on the first 12 ballots before being edged out by Scheer on the 13th ballot.
By bolting the CPCs a year ago and founding the further right-wing PPC with far more strident views opposing more immigration and refugees, denying man-made global warming and opposing supply management, one might argue the contrast Bernier provides is a favourable one for Scheer. Alas, politics is never that simple, especially at election time.
For starters, there’s always the lingering Quebec question in any federal election. Scheer and the Conservatives have reason to fear that Bernier’s presence in the French debate affords him a platform to not only appeal to Quebec voters but also potentially drain off right-wing votes in close Quebec and Ontario ridings.
Simply put, Bernier’s debate presence leaves Scheer caught between coming across as too left for the right or too right for the centre.
This would seem less of a problem here, where conservatives understand the benefit of having a single, right-of-centre party (See: creation of the Saskatchewan Party) and where the PPC votes (with the remote possibility of Ralph Goodale’s Regina Wascana riding) can’t realistically affect results.
But if one follows the anti-climate change, anti-immigration social media postings of conservative movers and shakers, including former Stephen Harper cabinet ministers, you may wonder why they support Scheer and not Bernier.
As such, Bernier poses a two-fold problem for Scheer.
Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post.
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019
