CPC Leadership Election
Well, the experiment is over, and the Conservatives have chosen Andrew Scheer as their new leader. Here’s my thoughts on the election:
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I received 23 emails from Scheer’s campaign until I got sick of them and unsubscribed in March. His messaging was pretty typical conservative fair: cutting taxes, balance budgets, defeat the Liberals and Justin Trudeau. Also, a weird emphasis on adding Property Rights to the Charter. There were a couple of themes that were somewhat anti-Islam but nothing too onerous.
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He’s been compared to (including by himself in two of his emails) to Stephen Harper. I sure as hell hope he can do better than that. If he sticks to his platform points then he just might be.
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Bernier got Hillaried. He was ahead of everyone by a reasonable amount for nearly every round… but he didn’t pick up as much in the later rounds as everyone else (particularly Scheer in the 13th round). What this means: he had a pretty loyal following off the start, but a lot of people didn’t like him, and so voted for everyone else but him.
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Michael Chong, my first pick, didn’t do horribly (getting to Round 10), but never picked up steam.
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Chong did better than Leitch, who did pretty poorly; she started with 7% and only gained 1% after 9 rounds. So that’s a bit of bright news: the rabid anti-immigrant faction is present but not powerful.
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On the other hand, Erin O’Toole’s email campaign had a strong anti-immigration and militaristic vibe, and he came in 3rd place… and his supporters are the ones who won it for Scheer. Be on the lookout for an equivalent shift in messaging from Scheer once the election starts.