On March 4, I had the chance to trade in my usual golf shirt for my suit and tie to attend one of those political events that happens now and again. This time, the man of the hour was Andrew Scheer, Member of Parliament for Regina Qu’Appelle and former speaker of the House of Commons.
He was one of 14 candidates for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada, a horribly muddled race if there ever was one. Scheer was also something of a frontrunner, as much as one can be in a race of 14. At the time, Kevin O’Leary was sucking most of the oxygen out of the metaphorical room in this leadership race, and Maxime Bernier of Quebec was also one of the top dogs. So even though he had the highest number of endorsements from sitting members of Parliament, Scheer was not exactly running away with this race.
Even so, I was somewhat astonished at the low turnout of the local Conservative crowd when Scheer to speak in Estevan. I’ve seen the Beefeater Plaza filled with at least 200 people, and possibly more, for similar events. I’m pretty sure Brad Wall packed the place a few years ago. Yet only 105 people attended on this day.
Let me be clear – the Estevan area is about as Conservative as you can get, both federally and provincially. (Anyone who thinks there’s much difference between the two needs to give their head a shake. All the same people attend the federal and provincial functions, be it Conservative or Sask. Party.) In the 2016 provincial election, Sask Party candidate Lori Carr took 78.9 per cent of the vote. Dr. Robert Kitchen, for the federal Conservatives in Souris-Moose Mountain in 2015, got 70.1 per cent.
Perhaps many thought the race was going to go to O’Leary or Bernier, and who was this guy from Regina, anyhow? What, truly, are the chances of a Saskatchewan candidate, anyhow? We haven’t had a hope in leadership of the Conservatives since Dief the Chief. Besides, he’s originally from Ottawa!
Maybe that’s why so many stayed home. But I’m betting a lot of them are kicking themselves now, as their chance to meet and speak to the new leader of the Conservative Party of Canada was squandered.
So what did they miss? Not a barnburner, that’s for sure. Scheer is a good speaker, but he’s not one to thunder from the pulpit. I didn’t detect anyone getting goosebumps on the back of their neck. The applause was not raucous by any means. It was a good speech, but I would not call it a great speech. He did not capture the crowd, like Wall typically does. Indeed, he often spoke very highly of Wall.
I’ve seen people come out of similar presentations by Roy Romanow, Lorne Calvert, Stockwell Day, and Brad Wall excited and invigorated, ready to take on the world, to follow their leader through thick and thin. “Hell ya!,” you could almost hear them thinking. They were pumped.
I don’t think I saw that on March 4, with Andrew Scheer. What does that say about the Conservatives’ new choice for leader? Is that why it took 13 ballots for him to win?
Maybe it’s because people get more fired up when they’re against something than when they’re for it. Scheer’s message is a positive one. He said in Estevan, “I believe it’s because we failed to deliver and articulate a positive message for what Conservative policies can do for this country. We spent a lot of time focusing on why people shouldn’t vote Liberal, but we didn’t do a good enough job encouraging people and convincing people that voting Conservative would actually mean a better four years for them than voting Liberal.
“The key to winning in 2019 is not to change who we are, sell things we don’t believe in or promise things that we know won’t work. We do need a leader that can articulate a positive vision for our country and reach a broader audience of Canadians.”
Andrew Scheer is now that leader, and now he has a few years to articulate that vision. Young, smart, affable and, most importantly, fluently bilingual, he’s got a lot of the qualities that helped catapult Justin Trudeau to power. And he’s even got good hair, too.
But that’s where the similarities end. Scheer wants Canada to live within its means. Too bad more people didn’t come out to hear that a few months ago.
Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at brian.zinchuk@sasktel.net.
