I wouldn’t normally be thinking about the Conservative Party or Andrew Scheer this far in advance of the next federal election, but events to the south changed all that. So did the words of Marjory LeBreton, a Red Tory who was leader of the government in the Senate under Stephen Harper.
She is supportive of small government, while remaining progressive on social issues. She is worried about her party and that worries me. She said recently in a comment to John Ibbitson, “My fear is that Canadians … will be influenced by the excessive partisanship and deep divide we are witnessing in U.S. politics and come to the conclusion that Canadian Conservatives are the same.”
The retired senator’s further remarks to Ibbitson included this: “My fear is that getting caught up in the politics of conservatives south of the border will do irreparable harm to our good and decent party.”
On the Sunday of the horrible events in Charlotteville, Scheer condemned “these acts of racism, violence and hatred.” It was better than the U.S. President managed to do so kudos to Scheer for that. But – and it’s a big but – the party he leads puts out mixed messages with the thread of xenophobic nationalism that runs through the far right element of the present Conservative Party. Those who have led the party before him have sometimes chosen to suppress that populist view while at other times they’ve capitalized on it.
The horror in Charlottesville, which Donald Trump’s base-toadying condemnation of ‘both sides’ has further exacerbated, has no place in Canada. Trump’s defence of the ‘very fine people’ at the Charlottesville white nationalist march has former KKK leader David Duke gushing: “We are going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump. That’s what we believe in. That’s why we voted for Trump because he promised to take our country back.”
This is so reprehensible that all politicians should be calling him out…NAFTA negotiations be damned. Canadian Conservatives have an opportunity to try and span both sides of the divide or to denounce the intolerant faction within their own party and then kick them to the curb.
Scheer should also refrain from being interviewed again on Rebel Media. It is strongly pro-Trump and anti-immigrant and they gave American white-supremacist leader Richard Spencer the time of day. Mr. Scheer needs to distance himself completely and to firmly denounce the extreme right-wing platform in no uncertain terms. Mr. Scheer now says he won’t grant them any further interviews if they continue down this path, but he was slow to make a statement.
It’s easy to dismiss followers of Rebel as half-baked lunatics until you remember that Bannon and Breitbart’s disciples were once mocked too….until they got Trump into the White House.
If any Conservative thinks it’s a good idea to dance with the devil in the interest of adding to its base, it should remember that once attached to you they are tougher to get rid of than cockroaches.
A number of politicians across Canada have vowed to boycott the Rebel site but Andew Scheer remained silent for too long. Is it because he – a social conservative himself – owes his victory over Maxime Bernier to social conservatives in his party who keep pushing to re-open the debate on same-sex marriage and abortion?
Scheer has voted against every civil rights bill – gay rights, abortion rights and transgender rights. He has clearly indicated that he plans to move the Conservative Party of Canada to the right of the ‘relatively’ moderate positions it adopted under interim leader Rona Ambrose. Steven Harper was a committed conservative but he was also something of a pragmatist, whereas Scheer is far more theologically driven. And he owes a debt to social conservatives. Christian conservatives will be lined up to pressure Scheer and some of his right-wing Christian advisors how much they contributed to his win.
Canada does not have a definitive statement about church and state in the manner of the U.S. Although Harper said ‘God Bless Canada’ a few times many of us found it strange and too ‘American’. We are a liberal democracy that recognizes the separation of church and state as a good thing. Our democracy accepts that freedom of religion also means freedom from religion and that includes the personal religious beliefs – or lack thereof – of our leaders. Listen up Andrew Scheer.
When Justin Trudeau told new MPs that they can believe whatever they want, but they must vote with the party (including on issues like abortion) the Catholic Church denounced him as a ‘bad’ Catholic. Trudeau replied – rightly I believe – “I have a lot of respect for his eminence and for any leaders within the church, but I do want to highlight that he has a very different role than I do. My role is to stand up and defend all Canadians and my role in terms of that is separate from any personal religious views.”
Amen to that.
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Following a career in the hospitality sector and the acquisition of a law and justice degree in her 50s, Dale embarked on a writing career armed with the fanciful idea that a living could be made as a freelancer. To her own great surprise she was right. The proof lies in hundreds of published works on almost any topic but favourites include travel, humour & satire, feature writing, environment, politics and entrepreneurship. Having re-invented herself half a dozen times, Dale doesn’t rule anything out. Her time is divided equally between Muskoka and Tampa Bay with Jim, her husband of 8 years and partner of 32 years. Two grown ‘kids’ and their spouses receive double doses of love and attention when she’s at home.
Karen Wehrstein says
Personally, I think the Conservative Party moves rightward at its peril. They shouldn’t be thinking about how Donald Trump won election south of the border, but looking at who actually won the popular vote, Trump’s tanking approval ratings, and the size of counter-protests to his rallies and to white-supremacist/neoNazi events since he showed he’s soft on white supremacy and neoNazism. He is doing a terrific job of 1) giving everything right-wing a bad name and 2) engaging and energizing liberals and progressives.
There are other reasons why Trump’s campaign tactic of encouraging and exploiting hatred of the “other” won’t play as well in Canada, having to do with the very different histories of the two nations. Super-short version: we never had slavery as the basis of our economy in a large portion of our geography, nor an extremely-costly (in terms of lives lost) civil war over that issue. The residues remain in the American zeitgeist, available for Trump and, in a more subtle way, the Republican Party, to exploit. This is something Canadians tend not to understand unless they study the issues and/or know and listen to self-aware Americans. Tories who aren’t already aware should make themselves so.
Greg Reuvekamp says
Unfortunately I think Ms. Peacock’s warning to the Conservatives has come too late. Many senior Conservative leaders and MP’s not only support but routinely meet with hatemongers and advocates for political violence. Take for example, Conservative Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was photographed at an April 2017 meeting with Veluppillai Thangavelu, a senior member of the World Tamil Movement. This was surprising considering Trudeau’s own Conservative government renewed the WTM’s designation on Canada’s list of recognized terrorist groups just last November. The WTM’s military arm The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elaam invented the use of suicide belts and pioneered the use of women in suicide attacks back in their home country of Sri Lanka (citation FBI archives: https://www.fbi.gov/page2/jan08/tamil_tigers011008.html)
Current Conservative Premier Kathleen Wynne has also met with senior WTM leadership, for example her 2014 meeting with WTM former leader Nehru Gunaratnam.
Former Conservative Prime Minister Paul Martin has also been photographed attending WTM fundraising events.
Why would these Conservative politicians be so eager to meet with leaders of such extreme and violent organizations? Sadly the answer seems to be because there is too much political gain to be had in Conservative ridings where there are many Tamil voters. Unfortunately these Conservatives are only too happy to exchange electoral success for abandonment of their principles. Remarkably, this tactic is quite similar to that used by Donald Trump in his encouragement of white supremacists, as Ms. Peacock has aptly pointed out.
I echo Ms. Peacock’s appeal here. Will the Conservative party not commit to “kick to the curb” these violent extremists within its fold? They should endeavour instead to become more tolerant, diverse and open minded to peaceful resolution of differences…
….just like the Liberal Party is!
Jim Sinclair says
The Conservative Party is going through the old ways of installing a leader that doesn’t have the “Look”. Reminiscent of the days when they elected Stanfield, Diefenbaker and Flora MacDonald that never got into a comfortable mode with anyone. Dief was a great orator, but…….
Today’s leaders are visibly attractive, and today’s PM probably a bit too much so.
They will not lead this country in the next election with the present leader with the dimples, and the perpetual smile.
Remember this after the next election.
BJ Walker says
Andrew Scheer and the Conservatives are the only hope Canadians have for salvaging what is left of our country after Globalist Trudeau hopefully has his “leadership” terminated. Perhaps you missed a previous comment that I made in Doppler as your column totally ignores the damage that Justin Trudeau LIBERAL prime minister is inflicting on our country.
MASS-IMMIGRATION is the fuel of change. We are told to accommodate and tolerate. Justin Trudeau is a globalist of the highest caliber who doesn’t believe in the nation state. He sees Canada as a post-nation state and doesn’t really think there’s such a thing as a Canadian identity any more. Trudeau disceptively presents a moderate image when in reality he has a radical agenda. He truly believes the idea of nation-states is outdated and must be replaced. He truly believes he should serve an international agenda rather than the Canadian people. Trudeau refuses to listen to Canadians ‘ legitimate concerns about extremism, the growing threat of terrorism and instead is trying to silence them through legislation . While globalism gets sold to us as being about “inclusion,” it’s really about destroying national sovereignty, weakening the nation state, and concentrating all power in the hands of a small elite. That’s why Canadian citizenship is being systematically stripped of it’s meaning by the Trudeau government, as we lose rights and freedoms, while those who break our laws get rewarded. Justin Trudeau is not loyal to Canada. He has acted in ways that damage and weaken our national strength and national sovereignty.
Since his election-
He has given Canadian citizenship back to convicted terrorists.
He has focused his time on admiring basic dictatorships like China, fondly recalling ruthless dictators like Fidel Castro, and even cozying up with communist government-connected billionaires.
He has been selling access to government to anyone that donates enough money to the Liberal Party,
He has been stacking the Senate with people involved in the Trudeau Foundation.
He has completely eliminated Conservative tax cuts and tax breaks that benefitted hard-working Canadian families.
He has raised taxes on everything from alcohol to Uber to bus passes, and will soon be forcing a massive carbon tax onto the entire country which will drive up the cost of everything.
He has nickel and dimed Canadians so much, we’re now projected to have forty years of deficits which will pile $1.5 trillion of debt onto our children, and their children.
Trudeau makes any criticism of Islam – even justified criticism – get labelled as “Islamophobia.” He never acknowledges the legitimate fears of extremism that millions of Canadians have. . He never acknowledges that the threat of terrorism is growing. Instead, he plays political games, seeking electoral advantage by dividing Canadians against one another.
The evidence is far too numerous for anyone to deny. From cash-for-access fundraisers with foreign billionaires,
ignoring the advice of security experts to let China buy militarily-sensitive ITF Technologies,
tweeting a message that has caused a flood of migrants (including many with criminal records), weakening our military,
abandoning our Veterans, giving billions to foreign countries while neglecting issues at home,
gutting accountability,
restricting opposition,
eroding freedom of expression, and much more – Trudeau has shown beyond any doubt that he has zero loyalty to Canada.
Meanwhile the media continues to fall for what seems to be a constant stream of PR stunts by Trudeau. This man has an endless appetite for media attention and is successful in suckering them into turning a staged photo op into a story. A picture from the prime minister’s personal photographer is not a coincidence, and not news. Cleverly, all this overshadows the critical questions that should be asked of his governing ineptitude.
And regarding Charlottesville, the reality is there was a large presence of MILITANT LEFTIST
organizations, ANTIFA, a Democrat Terror group -a group of anti-American communists who use terror, intimidation, and beatdowns to enforce their will., Black Lives Matter, and other FAR-LEFT GROUPS with a propensity to violence. These were the groups responsible for the violence.
As the day unfolded, it was clear that orders had been given to the local police to ensure that a serious fracas occurred. The police did nothing to disperse the armed groups on each side, on several occasions herded them toward each other to encourage combat, and then withdrew at times to facilitate the violence. It must be assumed that orders for an insufficient law enforcement and ineffectual rules of engagement emanated ultimately from the governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, the ne plus ultra of Clintonian zeal and cynicism, and former Democratic Party chairman.
Karen Wehrstein says
The above comment would be a good example of what Dale is concerned about: hatred masquerading as opinion, American-style, on this side of the border.
BJ Walker says
It was a factual report.