After becoming Conservative leader, he’s flip-flopped on policy. But when you try to be all things to all people, you end up satisfying nobody
The best way to win the Republican presidential nomination in the United States, someone once said, is to run as far as possible to the right. Then, when one wins the nomination? Start running back to the centre. Conservative Party of Canada Leader Erin O’Toole heeded that advice. His leadership campaign was brimming with the…
O'Toole crafted a message that resonated with his audience. MacKay didn’t
The federal Conservatives have a new leader. Erin O’Toole is the right choice. A former Veteran Affairs minister, O’Toole defeated another former Tory cabinet minister, Peter MacKay, on the third ballot by 57.02 per cent to 42.98 per cent. It was an impressive win by O’Toole. The hard-working members of his team – including campaign…
In a pandemic, the fundamentals of electioneering and voting can get some of us sick – and make some of us die
There isn’t going to be a federal election in Canada. Not anytime soon, anyway. Blame COVID-19. For a while, it looked like there could be. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s minority Liberals had surged ahead of the leaderless Conservatives in the polls. His lead was big – big enough to suggest a parliamentary majority was likely.…
If the Conservative Party of Canada truly wanted to turn its party-of-angry-old-white-men image on its head, to herald a new era or principled conservatism, and to reach out to voters who have not considered them in the past, then members would choose Leslyn Lewis as their new leader. But they should not do that. This…
His plan is the most intelligent, detailed and realistic approach to beating the Liberals in the next federal election
The Conservative Party of Canada will choose a new leader next month. It’s been a difficult leadership campaign. A slew of potential candidates, including Rona Ambrose, Jean Charest and Pierre Poilievre, declined to run. Meanwhile, COVID-19 temporarily suspended campaigning and fundraising – and led to the cancellation of the June 27 party convention. Delegates will…
The WE mess shows sunny ways have been replaced with dark days of the same old cronyism in the halls of power
Just when you think our prime minister may actually be growing into his job, he does something so ill-considered, so tone-deaf and so contrary to generally accepted political convention that all the confidence he has earned in the past few weeks evaporates in a flash. Such was Justin Trudeau’s foolish and inexplicable attachment to the…
There are people behind the scenes working hard to provide answers to hard questions, even if they’re hard to unravel
There’s been a lot of chatter over what was behind Justin Trudeau’s pregnant pause during a news briefing on June 2. Now, stopping to think before answering is not something politicians are known for. But in this case, it wasn’t a bad idea. After all, the prime minister had just been asked a very tricky…
Back in September 2012, I wrote a column suggesting that Jean Charest’s recent political retirement wasn’t the end of the story. A man in his mid-50s who’d spent almost his entire adult life in politics would find it difficult to irrevocably wash his hands of the whole business. Now, on the brink of his apparently…
The first month of a new year was named January after the Roman god Janus, who was always depicted as having two faces: one looking backward and the other looking forward. This suggests the first month is a good time to take stock of the year just ended and to look to the future. I…
A Conservative leader must be intelligent, confident, experienced, have miles of backbone, and the ability to build and maintain political bridges
Andrew Scheer announced on Dec. 12 that he would be stepping down as federal Conservative leader. Whoever succeeds him faces a tall task. Most political analysts knew that Scheer would have a real tussle on his hands to survive next April’s planned leadership review. He’d been attacked by the left and right flanks of his…
The best way to win the Republican presidential nomination in the United States, someone once said, is to run as far as possible to the right. Then, when one wins the nomination? Start running back to the centre. Conservative Party of Canada Leader Erin O’Toole heeded that advice. His leadership campaign was brimming with the…
