Toronto
Andrew Scheer, leader of Canada’s Conservative Party, should have been celebrating. His party gained 26 seats in the Oct. 21 federal election, won a plurality of the nationwide popular vote, and reduced Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals to a minority government.
Yet 52 days later, Mr. Scheer announced he would step down as party leader. He decided to put “my party first and my family first,” according to his Thursday statement in Parliament, and wanted to ensure the next Conservative leader would be able to give 100% to the job ahead.
Mr. Scheer’s fiercest political rival turned out not to be the Liberal Party but his fellow Conservatives. For weeks, they had fumed about a missed opportunity to regain power. Mr. Trudeau’s reputation had collapsed thanks to several controversies, including a corruption scandal known as the SNC-Lavalin affair and three incidents of wearing blackface or other dark makeup. The prime minister was vulnerable, and voters seemed to need only a solid alternative. Instead, Conservatives watched Mr. Scheer fumble questions about his own background, including his work in the insurance industry and his dual Canadian-U.S. citizenship, and get dragged down by the media and political opponents for his social conservative values.
Mr. Scheer is Catholic and supports religious freedom, family values and the rights of the unborn. These views are well within the mainstream of American conservatism, but Mr. Scheer tends to be less aggressive than his U.S. counterparts. He makes a point of separating his private views from his political ambitions, and he emphasizes his respect for Conservatives and other Canadians who disagree with him on abortion, same-sex marriage and other such issues.
Even so, he’s had a hard time easing the minds of skeptics, in part because his comments on social issues have tended to be ambiguous. Consider the following sequence: Shortly before the election, a video surfaced of Mr. Scheer speaking about marriage in 2005. He said then that gay couples “have many of the collateral features of marriage, but they do not have its inherent feature, as they cannot commit to the natural procreation of children. They cannot, therefore, be married.” After the media furor, Mr. Scheer said he now accepts gay marriage, but he declined to apologize.
When it was revealed that several Conservative candidates had previously made controversial remarks on social issues, Mr. Scheer accepted their apologies and didn’t remove them. When the media hounded him about his current positions, he didn’t respond directly. His typical answer was that the issues were “closed” in Canada and would stay that way if he became prime minister. Three days after the vote, he was asked if he’d reconsider his decision not to participate in gay-pride marches. “I won’t march in parades,” he answered, “but I will ensure that our party is as inclusive and open and that we fight for equality rights of all Canadians.”
Such equivocation on social issues was typical of Canada’s Conservatives. They’re not as ideologically cohesive as the Liberals and other parties of the left. The party includes Red Tories, who are liberal on social issues and the welfare state, and Blue Tories, who favor free markets and social conservatism. Party members often engage in divisive debate, including over what can be debated. Last year Mr. Scheer urged delegates to the party convention to keep a resolution stating: “A Conservative government will not support any legislation to regulate abortion.” He prevailed, but only 53% to 47%.
Mr. Scheer was unable to survive a political assault from the two Tory wings. He was too conservative for the Red Tories, yet some social conservative organizations turned against him in frustration that he hadn’t gone far enough on certain issues or was watering down his message.
Now that Mr. Scheer has stepped down, could a Red Tory emerge as the Conservative leader? That would turn off Blue Tories and other right-leaning factions, and could lead to a massive split. It would also push Canadian conservatism into the political wilderness, which is what Mr. Trudeau is banking on.
Mr. Taube, a Troy Media syndicated columnist and political commentator, was a speechwriter for former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
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December 13, 2019 at 06:52AM
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The Canadian Conservative Crack-Up - The Wall Street Journal
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