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What's the future for the Conservative Party?

I was following a discussion on Twitter about her and a good point was brought up. One of the people said that she likely doesn't believe most of what she says and is just parroting talking points from Nick Kouvalis.

J.J. McCullough ‏@JJ_McCullough 2h2 hours ago
Here’s the thing about Kellie Leitch. She says a lot of good things, but every insider-type I know says it’s 90% her handlers, not her.
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I don't always agree with him, but in this case, he is correct.
 
That part is conservative bias for sure, but her not being sincere is a valid point. When it comes to the CBC proposal, Kouvalis was just copying Bernier's idea and making it more extreme.
 
Kirk Heuser @TheKirkHeuser
Alexander encourages chant of "lock her up" and "vote her out" Praises Kenney. Says "unite Alberta". Another fed deciding what's best 4 AB.
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Scott Gilmore
@Scott_Gilmore
This is federal CPC leadership candidate Chris Alexander chanting "lock her up" about Premier Notley. Boot licking never looked so ugly.
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What a creep...
 
I am having a hard time figuring out Chris Alexander's "strategy" here. This past weekend he was in Alberta again, at another rally organized by Ezra, this time chanting "Vote Her Out" against Notley.

Why, in a leadership race where there are already a high number of candidates chasing after the right-wing populist faction of the party, does Alexander seem determined to go after that same vote? Leitch has a much better puppet master than Alexander and has a much higher profile, O'Leary (who also has a much higher profile) is reportedly about to toss his hat in the ring to go after the populist vote, and Trost and Lemieux are going after the so-cons (over the weekend, Trost was busy denying climate change, and Lemieux was busy telling people about how we need to reopen the abortion debate). A crowded field is going after the wing-nut vote, and I can only imagine that Alexander is going to get squeezed out. Maybe he thinks he will get squeezed out going after other party factions.

Second, in a leadership race where the votes are calculated so that every riding has the same weight, why is Alexander spending so much of his time in Alberta (one of the most contested battlegrounds in the country in this race) getting his only real headlines complaining about provincial politics? Will getting some time in Ezra's YouTube videos really help Alexander? Is focusing on Alberta provincial politics going to win Alexander votes in Ontario and Quebec?

Third, given how much work Alexander just put into distancing himself from the whole "Lock Her Up" debacle, is it really wise to spend the next weekend chanting "Vote Her Out" with another group of bused-in Ezra fans? Maybe, despite the mainstream criticism, the red-meat, Ezra-loving faction of the party loved the "Lock Her Up" nonsense, but are they really going to vote for him?

I would have thought Alexander would position himself as a Harperite, focus on bread-and-butter Tory issues like finances (why are so few of the Conservative leadership candidates seemingly talking so little about the deficits?), and use his past career as a diplomat to establish his national security credentials. He might not win the race, but he could be setting himself up as a senior cabinet minister in the next Conservative government.

Instead, he seems intent on dragging himself through the mud. Maybe (sadly) this is the new style of politics where policy, skill, gravitas, reasonableness and experience matter less than empty rhetoric. But I seem him harming his chances of even getting elected again in his Ajax riding.
 
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