"As he climbed the stage to give his concession speech at the International Trade Centre in suburban Regina on election night last Oct. 21, Andrew Scheer was a dead man walking. He just didn’t know it."
'But the knives were already being sharpened. Scheer’s performance during the 40-day election campaign was viewed by many in the CPC as a calamity. “He didn’t just lose the election, he was so incompetent that he left the party in horrible, horrible infrastructure shape."'
'“Frankly, I’m sick and tired of my party being run by people that have values that don’t reflect mine,” she told me. “It was in (2004) when gay marriage became legal and it should be celebrated. And I’m pissed off the leadership of my party wouldn’t celebrate that.”'
'Scheer's social conservatisim alienated urban voters. MacIntyre is an urbanite who feels Scheer’s positions on same-sex marriage and abortion (both of which he opposes) hurt the party in Toronto, Montreal+Vancouver, which have a huge swath of seats, seats needed to win power.'
'Scheer’s very public execution had Stephen Harper’s fingerprints all over it. He was on the board of the Conservative Fund. “It’s very clear that this story came out of the Conservative Fund. It was intentionally shot right at Andrew Scheer’s head+it was meant to take him out"'
'“Even five years after his defeat, the presence of Stephen Harper still defines the CPC... Harper doesn't need to campaign for or against anyone in the party leadership race. There is no path to victory running against Harper’s legacy.”'
'Right now, for the second time in three years, the party is looking for a new leader. And so far, it’s not going well. What the race has revealed is a strong streak of bigotry and homophobia within the party.'
Meanwhile MacKay+O’Toole have embraced Harper-Scheer platforms that lost the Tories two straight elections — cutting taxes, developing the oilsands, weakening environmental rules to build more pipelines, opposing carbon taxes, noncommittal on climate change+eschewing gun control.
'“The Conservatives are in trouble,” says Duane Bratt. “While they still have got money and volunteers and electoral support, there are cleavages in that party — regionally especially, as well as ideologically. And they are just flummoxed on how to deal with Trudeau.”'
"what Harper left them with is a very ideologically narrow party… It’s rural, it’s white, it’s old but more importantly its policy positions are locked in… So Harper really has put them in an ideological box which they can’t get out of"
In 2002, Harper returned to politics, as leader of the Cdn Alliance, and soon struck a deal with Peter MacKay to form the CPC. “The current party is really the old base of Reform. There is really very little of the old Progressive Conservative party left.” https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/06/25/analysis/how-stephen-harper-destroying-conservative-party?mc_cid=d65d06b11a&mc_eid=6562ce252a
“Harper never cared about getting the majority to like him. He figured out that if you suppress the vote for other parties and get your own group highly motivated to vote...you could get a majority without ever getting the majority of the voting populace to vote for you.”
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