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What's the future for the Conservative Party?

ttk77 said:
I used to think that a strong majority government was necessary to get things done, but now I'm tending to think that if we want to maintain the semblance of true democracy, we need to break up these mega-parties and give more groups the chance to have their voices heard, even if I don't like what some of those voices are saying.
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We can do it. We have a mature enough of a democratic tradition that proportional representation would result in parties based on ideas, rather than petty regionalism.
 
King of Kensington said:
As much as I disliked Harper, I don't really think of him as a social conservative. In the 2oo2 Canadian Alliance race when he ran against Stockwell Day, he was the "anti" so-con candidate. Scheer in contrast very much owes his leadership to them.
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I think that's relative. He used same-sex marriage as a wedge issue. Throughout his career he voted against human rights protection for LGBT. At one point he said that it was "vile and disgusting" to treat gay rights as a human rights issue. The fact that he was slightly less fixated on these issues than Stockwell Day (which is not hard to do), and the fact that as PM he saw little political advantage to pursuing any anti-LGBT/anti-choice course, does not mean he wasn't a social conservative.
 
Skeezix said:
I think that's relative. He used same-sex marriage as a wedge issue. Throughout his career he voted against human rights protection for LGBT. At one point he said that it was "vile and disgusting" to treat gay rights as a human rights issue. The fact that he was slightly less fixated on these issues than Stockwell Day (which is not hard to do), and the fact that as PM he saw little political advantage to pursuing any anti-LGBT/anti-choice course, does not mean he wasn't a social conservative.
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He could still be a social conservative, and choose to govern from the perspective of a fiscal conservative. These things are not mutually exclusive, and if there is one thing that conservative minded people are good at, it is compartimentalizing.

We've had Harper in power for 9 years, often with majority government, and the record stands for itself. We did not regress under a social conservative agenda.
 
Committed social conservative or not, the CPC was probably wiser to pick Scheer than Bernier. There are fewer libertarians than social conservatives in Canada and Bernier had a lot of other issues as well.

Scheer probably keeps the 32% core vote.

This was basically the "B" listers and below. All the heavy hitters - Rona Ambrose, Jason Kenney, Peter MacKay, John Baird - stayed out.
 
WislaHD said:
He could still be a social conservative, and choose to govern from the perspective of a fiscal conservative. These things are not mutually exclusive, and if there is one thing that conservative minded people are good at, it is compartimentalizing.

We've had Harper in power for 9 years, often with majority government, and the record stands for itself. We did not regress under a social conservative agenda.
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Never said that they were mutually exclusive, or that we regressed. In fact, I said the opposite.
 
WislaHD said:
He could still be a social conservative, and choose to govern from the perspective of a fiscal conservative. These things are not mutually exclusive, and if there is one thing that conservative minded people are good at, it is compartimentalizing.

We've had Harper in power for 9 years, often with majority government, and the record stands for itself. We did not regress under a social conservative agenda.
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Indeed. Harper is a SoCon, but he knows full well he couldn't govern as one and hope to remain in power.

AoD
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
Indeed. Harper is a SoCon, but he knows full well he couldn't govern as one and hope to remain in power.

AoD
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Yes, although he did not reach that position right away. In his first election as leader (2004), the Conservatives happily attacked LGBT rights, and targeted suburban and urban ridings with large "ethnic" populations with anti-ssm messaging. It wasn't until the 2006 election that he refined his stance, and fully developed his strategy to supplant the Liberals as the natural governing party. But, yes, as PM he generally avoided social conservative issues.
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
Indeed. Harper is a SoCon, but he knows full well he couldn't govern as one and hope to remain in power.

AoD
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Hahaha,

His hidden agenda was so hidden it never materialized. Still hasn't said anything remotely controversial a year out of politics.
 
BurlOak said:
Hahaha,

His hidden agenda was so hidden it never materialized. Still hasn't said anything remotely controversial a year out of politics.
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His agenda was to replace the Liberals as the so called natural governing party. It's not about his "hidden" agenda - it is about what Canadians at large will be willing to tolerate, independent of his personal convictions and beliefs.

AoD
 
King of Kensington said:
You can often count on Terence Corcoran for a laugh. He blames dairy lobby "fake Conservatives" for Bernier's loss:

http://business.financialpost.com/f...-was-stolen-by-dairy-lobby-fake-conservatives
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No use crying over sour milk.

Like Scheer or not, he has a wild card in his hand on 'Political Correctness Backlash', ironically from the man who had to temper an ill-tempered Parliament as Speaker.

A lot of publications I can understand as to their stance on 'Correctness'....but the Globe has really set itself up for a smack-down, and Robyn Doolittle should know better than to participate in that gratuitous display she did last week. For someone who climbed the cred index so fast (and jumped from the Star to the Globe) (a whole story in itself I won't go near in this string), this faux pax correctness (as distinct from enshrining equality and rights for all) is *feeding* Scheer's platform on this.

I'm the messenger on this, don't hate me for saying it (irony fully intended), but one only has to look at the reader response to any number of articles in the media to realize how hot-button this is.

I leave it at that for now...
 
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You gotta wonder if ranked ballots did them in. Scheer wasn't leading at any point. Wins on the last round.

Ranking 10 people is too many and I think that is what led to this milquetoast outcome.

And I do think there's something to this dairy farmer story. Didn't Bernier lose his home riding and province?

Ultimately though, the Conservatives shot themselves in the foot with this process. They'll dump Scheer after he loses to Trudeau at the next election.
 
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