Consevative Party leadership contest
- Thread starter Walter
- Start date
I don't want to live that long if I have to spend another sixteen years of my life under another Trudeau. After sixteen years, Justin is going to look like Dorian Gray with the soul of Dr. Faustus.
“Harper lite” or "Harper with a Smile”?
Countless columns have described newly minted Conservative Party of Canada leader Andrew Scheer as a kinder, gentler Stephen Harper, a "safe" choice for a party and conservative movement in Canada being pushed further to policy extremes by a growing social conservative base.
Yet, to a large extent the views of the 38-year-old MP for Regina-Qu’Appelle in Saskatchewan are more conservative than Harper's. Scheer has signaled he plans to move the CPC from the relatively moderate positions it often adopted under interim leader Rona Ambrose, who recently announced she is leaving politics.
Harper may have been a committed conservative but he was also a pragmatist; Scheer is far more theologically driven and is now heavily in electoral debt to social conservatives.
While raised in Ottawa, Scheer's politics have been shaped politically in western Canada and, in particular, by the pro-privatization and populist views of Brad Wall, the province's premier.
Scheer’s religious faith is especially significant. He is a traditional Roman Catholic, the son of a deacon. He is an opponent of abortion, equal marriage, trans rights and euthanasia. He voted against Bill C-16, which adds "gender expression or identity" as a protected ground to the Canadian Human Rights Act.
While Scheer has insisted that he will not open up most of these issues for debate, he has also talked on the campaign trail about a "friendlier more welcoming Parliament for individual members to introduce legislation protecting pre-born human rights” His orthodox interpretation of his faith doesn’t provide very much wiggle room. It’s considered a profound sin, for example, for a Catholic in public life to do nothing when confronted with abortion.
A policy Scheer did mention explicitly in his acceptance speech Saturday night, May 27, his intention to remove public funding from universities that fail "to defend freedom of speech." This is shorthand for universities where radical anti-abortion groups and opponents of the trans community feel under siege.
He’s especially committed to home-schooling and independent schools, both very much part of the conservative Christian community. He has proposed a $1000 tax credit for home-schooled children and to make up to $4000 of independent school tuition tax deductible. That may put Scheer in a similar position as John Tory when the latter was leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative party and proposed funding for religious schools, a policy that made him very popular with the religious right but cost him the election.
While the Christian right has far more influence within the CPC than the country as a whole, the support of pro-lifers Brad Trost and Pierre Lemieux was vital to Scheer's win. Social conservatives were jubilant after Scheer was elected.
The influential anti-abortion and anti-euthanasia group Right Now wrote on its Facebook page on Sunday: “Still celebrating the victory of Andrew Scheer becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party of Canada! Thank-you to all our volunteers who worked tirelessly selling memberships and getting out to vote! You made the difference!”
Rest assured that Christian conservatives will remind Scheer and his people – many of them right-wing Christians themselves – how much they “made the difference” at every opportunity.
One of Scheer’s central supporters, campaign manager Hamish Marshall, a long-time conservative organizer and former Harper aide, is also a director of The Rebel News Network, the website run by Ezra Levant and that Maclean’s recently described as one of the “world’s top purveyors of conspiracy and far-right bombast.” Marshall appeared as an analyst on the Rebel's election night coverage in 2015, the website's first foray into live broadcast.
Marshall's ties to Levant go further back. His agency, Torch Inc., in its previous incarnation as Go Nuclear Productions, has done work for EthicalOil.org., the pro-oil sands website founded by another Harper aide, Alykhan Velshi, and inspired by Levant's book, Ethical Oil: The Case for Canada's Oil Sands, published in 2011. (Marshall's wife also worked for a time as spokesperson for the Ethical Oil Institute). Scheer is also fiercely opposed to carbon pricing, has shown little interest in climate change, and is no fan of the public sector.
How much influence the Rebel gang will have with the new Conservative leader remains to be seen.
This is all pretty harsh stuff, to the right of Harper and arguably even Preston Manning and Stockwell Day......
more
https://nowtoronto.com/news/andrew-scheer-trouble-conservative-party/
Countless columns have described newly minted Conservative Party of Canada leader Andrew Scheer as a kinder, gentler Stephen Harper, a "safe" choice for a party and conservative movement in Canada being pushed further to policy extremes by a growing social conservative base.
Yet, to a large extent the views of the 38-year-old MP for Regina-Qu’Appelle in Saskatchewan are more conservative than Harper's. Scheer has signaled he plans to move the CPC from the relatively moderate positions it often adopted under interim leader Rona Ambrose, who recently announced she is leaving politics.
Harper may have been a committed conservative but he was also a pragmatist; Scheer is far more theologically driven and is now heavily in electoral debt to social conservatives.
While raised in Ottawa, Scheer's politics have been shaped politically in western Canada and, in particular, by the pro-privatization and populist views of Brad Wall, the province's premier.
Scheer’s religious faith is especially significant. He is a traditional Roman Catholic, the son of a deacon. He is an opponent of abortion, equal marriage, trans rights and euthanasia. He voted against Bill C-16, which adds "gender expression or identity" as a protected ground to the Canadian Human Rights Act.
While Scheer has insisted that he will not open up most of these issues for debate, he has also talked on the campaign trail about a "friendlier more welcoming Parliament for individual members to introduce legislation protecting pre-born human rights” His orthodox interpretation of his faith doesn’t provide very much wiggle room. It’s considered a profound sin, for example, for a Catholic in public life to do nothing when confronted with abortion.
A policy Scheer did mention explicitly in his acceptance speech Saturday night, May 27, his intention to remove public funding from universities that fail "to defend freedom of speech." This is shorthand for universities where radical anti-abortion groups and opponents of the trans community feel under siege.
He’s especially committed to home-schooling and independent schools, both very much part of the conservative Christian community. He has proposed a $1000 tax credit for home-schooled children and to make up to $4000 of independent school tuition tax deductible. That may put Scheer in a similar position as John Tory when the latter was leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative party and proposed funding for religious schools, a policy that made him very popular with the religious right but cost him the election.
While the Christian right has far more influence within the CPC than the country as a whole, the support of pro-lifers Brad Trost and Pierre Lemieux was vital to Scheer's win. Social conservatives were jubilant after Scheer was elected.
The influential anti-abortion and anti-euthanasia group Right Now wrote on its Facebook page on Sunday: “Still celebrating the victory of Andrew Scheer becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party of Canada! Thank-you to all our volunteers who worked tirelessly selling memberships and getting out to vote! You made the difference!”
Rest assured that Christian conservatives will remind Scheer and his people – many of them right-wing Christians themselves – how much they “made the difference” at every opportunity.
One of Scheer’s central supporters, campaign manager Hamish Marshall, a long-time conservative organizer and former Harper aide, is also a director of The Rebel News Network, the website run by Ezra Levant and that Maclean’s recently described as one of the “world’s top purveyors of conspiracy and far-right bombast.” Marshall appeared as an analyst on the Rebel's election night coverage in 2015, the website's first foray into live broadcast.
Marshall's ties to Levant go further back. His agency, Torch Inc., in its previous incarnation as Go Nuclear Productions, has done work for EthicalOil.org., the pro-oil sands website founded by another Harper aide, Alykhan Velshi, and inspired by Levant's book, Ethical Oil: The Case for Canada's Oil Sands, published in 2011. (Marshall's wife also worked for a time as spokesperson for the Ethical Oil Institute). Scheer is also fiercely opposed to carbon pricing, has shown little interest in climate change, and is no fan of the public sector.
How much influence the Rebel gang will have with the new Conservative leader remains to be seen.
This is all pretty harsh stuff, to the right of Harper and arguably even Preston Manning and Stockwell Day......
more
https://nowtoronto.com/news/andrew-scheer-trouble-conservative-party/
I'm really old. But really - do you actually think this Steven Harper lite can lead the Cons to victory? Trudeau with an easy win in 2019.
Bernier didn't lose the leadership, it was stolen by dairy-lobby fake Conservatives
Again, in places where nobody knew his name, Andrew Scheer won the ballot contests.
Bernier didn’t lose the leadership vote; it was stolen from him by a concerted campaign organized by members of Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA) and farmers in Ontario. Via Facebook, Quebec farmers and others were urged to join the Conservative party and vote for Andrew Scheer.
Three Quebec ridings tell the story. One is Beauce, Bernier’s home riding. Right off the bat, in the opening round of the ranked ballot, Scheer collected 46.63 per cent of the points against 47.5 per cent for Bernier. By the end of the final round, Scheer was at 51 per cent versus 48 for Bernier — in a riding where Bernier is a local hero among Conservatives and hardly anyone would even know Scheer’s name.
Or take Saint-Hyacinthe–Bagot, a riding just south of Montreal. Scheer led from the first ballot with 61.4 per cent. Scheer ended the final ballot at almost 76 per cent. Is it a coincidence that Saint-Hyacinthe, Que. is home to a branch of the Institut de technologie agroalimentaire, a provincial agri-food training centre where professors and students would be heavily behind supply management? Also in the riding is an Agriculture Canada research centre, where supply management is embedded policy
In another farm riding — Lévis-Lotbinière — Scheer took 47 per cent on the first ballot against 32 per cent for Bernier. Scheer moved up to 54 per cent in the final ballot.
Bernier was defeated by fake Conservatives. Real conservatives with free-market objectives can take heart in knowing that they won the Conservative party’s ideological battle.
Terence Corcoran: Bernier didn
Again, in places where nobody knew his name, Andrew Scheer won the ballot contests.
Bernier didn’t lose the leadership vote; it was stolen from him by a concerted campaign organized by members of Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA) and farmers in Ontario. Via Facebook, Quebec farmers and others were urged to join the Conservative party and vote for Andrew Scheer.
Three Quebec ridings tell the story. One is Beauce, Bernier’s home riding. Right off the bat, in the opening round of the ranked ballot, Scheer collected 46.63 per cent of the points against 47.5 per cent for Bernier. By the end of the final round, Scheer was at 51 per cent versus 48 for Bernier — in a riding where Bernier is a local hero among Conservatives and hardly anyone would even know Scheer’s name.
Or take Saint-Hyacinthe–Bagot, a riding just south of Montreal. Scheer led from the first ballot with 61.4 per cent. Scheer ended the final ballot at almost 76 per cent. Is it a coincidence that Saint-Hyacinthe, Que. is home to a branch of the Institut de technologie agroalimentaire, a provincial agri-food training centre where professors and students would be heavily behind supply management? Also in the riding is an Agriculture Canada research centre, where supply management is embedded policy
In another farm riding — Lévis-Lotbinière — Scheer took 47 per cent on the first ballot against 32 per cent for Bernier. Scheer moved up to 54 per cent in the final ballot.
Bernier was defeated by fake Conservatives. Real conservatives with free-market objectives can take heart in knowing that they won the Conservative party’s ideological battle.
Terence Corcoran: Bernier didn
The 'fake' Conservatives are the Free Market Economic Liberals, who wanted to dismantle the economic nationalism of John A. MacDonald and the structural safeguards for agricultural and industrial producers, such as marketing boards or manufacturing quotas.
These order the economy, ensuring affordable basic commodities, a vibrant physical economic infrastructure and an equitable sharing of wealth. Mulroney and Harper deformed the (Progressive) Conservative Party into an unrecognizable NeoConservative bastion. Bernier would have been of the same ilk.
These order the economy, ensuring affordable basic commodities, a vibrant physical economic infrastructure and an equitable sharing of wealth. Mulroney and Harper deformed the (Progressive) Conservative Party into an unrecognizable NeoConservative bastion. Bernier would have been of the same ilk.
John A. MacDonald? I believe the National Policy was very old news more than a century ago. And the last nail in its coffin was the Free Trade Agreement negotiated by PC Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.
Nothing like investigating yourself and saying, Nothing to see here, move along......
Conservative Party puts Trost campaign 'on notice' over leaked membership list
Brad Trost's campaign says it is has been put "on notice" by the Conservative Party for illicitly leaking a party membership list to a gun owners' rights group, CBC News has learned.
However Trost's campaign manager said he can find no proof the leak came from the Saskatchewan MP's camp.
"What we have is an allegation. We've seen no evidence," said campaign manager Joseph Ben-Ami.
When the party handed out copies of the membership list to the leadership campaigns, it engaged in a process called "salting," meaning each campaign received a slightly different copy to allow the party to trace potential leaks.
Ben-Ami said the party reached out to the Trost campaign last Saturday to say it believed it was their version of the list that was given to the National Firearms Association, an Edmonton-based organization that advocates for gun owner and property rights.
Since then, Ben-Ami said all six members of the Trost campaign who had access to the data have been interviewed and the campaign's data logs and security arrangements have been checked. Those checks turned up nothing, he said.
"It would be wrong to say we pushed back [against the party]. We simply wrote back to the party and said there's no indication that any list originated with us. So we've asked them to provide us with whatever information or evidence in their possession to indicate that the list was in fact our list," he said.
Ben-Ami noted that Trost, who ran a campaign based on social conservative values and came in fourth, did not personally have access to the list. However, he said others beyond the Trost campaign did have access to the very same copy.
Conservative Party puts Trost campaign 'on notice' over leaked membership list - Politics - CBC News
Conservative Party puts Trost campaign 'on notice' over leaked membership list
Brad Trost's campaign says it is has been put "on notice" by the Conservative Party for illicitly leaking a party membership list to a gun owners' rights group, CBC News has learned.
However Trost's campaign manager said he can find no proof the leak came from the Saskatchewan MP's camp.
"What we have is an allegation. We've seen no evidence," said campaign manager Joseph Ben-Ami.
When the party handed out copies of the membership list to the leadership campaigns, it engaged in a process called "salting," meaning each campaign received a slightly different copy to allow the party to trace potential leaks.
Ben-Ami said the party reached out to the Trost campaign last Saturday to say it believed it was their version of the list that was given to the National Firearms Association, an Edmonton-based organization that advocates for gun owner and property rights.
Since then, Ben-Ami said all six members of the Trost campaign who had access to the data have been interviewed and the campaign's data logs and security arrangements have been checked. Those checks turned up nothing, he said.
"It would be wrong to say we pushed back [against the party]. We simply wrote back to the party and said there's no indication that any list originated with us. So we've asked them to provide us with whatever information or evidence in their possession to indicate that the list was in fact our list," he said.
Ben-Ami noted that Trost, who ran a campaign based on social conservative values and came in fourth, did not personally have access to the list. However, he said others beyond the Trost campaign did have access to the very same copy.
Conservative Party puts Trost campaign 'on notice' over leaked membership list - Politics - CBC News
Salty Trostys.........
How the investigation likely led to Trost's campaign was thanks to a practice known as "salting."
Brad Trost's Conservative leadership campaign said Monday it's been hit with a $50,000 fine over unauthorized use of the party's membership list.
But Trost's campaign manager still disputes that one of his team broke party rules by giving the list to the National Firearms Association and said the party hasn't dug deep enough on the issue.
"There's a frame job going on here and our campaign is being framed," Joseph Ben-Ami said in an interview.
"There's no evidence in support of the allegation that the Brad Trost campaign leaked any information to anyone."
Brad Trost leadership campaign fined $50K over leaked Conservative membership list - Politics - CBC News
How the investigation likely led to Trost's campaign was thanks to a practice known as "salting."
Brad Trost's Conservative leadership campaign said Monday it's been hit with a $50,000 fine over unauthorized use of the party's membership list.
But Trost's campaign manager still disputes that one of his team broke party rules by giving the list to the National Firearms Association and said the party hasn't dug deep enough on the issue.
"There's a frame job going on here and our campaign is being framed," Joseph Ben-Ami said in an interview.
"There's no evidence in support of the allegation that the Brad Trost campaign leaked any information to anyone."
Brad Trost leadership campaign fined $50K over leaked Conservative membership list - Politics - CBC News
In a recent interview, new CPC leader Andrew Scheer talks about how to appeal to younger voters. Basically, he's trying to sell Harper's tax policies: opposition to CPP expansion, smaller government via tax cuts and balanced budgets, boutique tax credits like the public-transit-pass tax credit. It's probably worth reviewing why these are all bad policy, from an economic point of view.
Andrew Scheer on free speech, Canada's cities and how to appeal to millennials | Metro Ottawa
(1) Smaller government: under Harper, federal spending was cut back to Diefenbaker-era levels. Stephen Gordon.
We have an aging population, which means that we can expect health-care spending to rise. Taxation and spending as a percentage of GDP probably needs to rise instead of declining. Otherwise other needs, like public education, will get crushed by the pressure of health-care spending.
Why do we have public programs like health insurance, funded through taxation, in the first place? Because we get huge efficiency gains from risk-pooling. Joseph Heath explains.
Basically, public programs funded by taxes are a form of collective shopping. With certain goods and services, you get big efficiency gains from purchasing them collectively. A more libertarian society with less taxes and less spending would thus be far poorer, because trying to pay for these services on an individual basis would be much less efficient.
(2) Balanced budgets: Harper sought to weaken the federal government by putting it into a fiscal straightjacket, in particular by cutting the GST from 7% to 5%. (Stephen Gordon explains why the GST is particularly efficient.) The Liberals escaped this straightjacket by using a different fiscal anchor: keeping debt as a percentage of GDP stable or declining. Federal debt since 1961. Stephen Tapp has the details.
(3) Opposition to CPP expansion: Retirement income is based on a "three-legged stool", consisting of the CPP, employer pension plans, and personal savings. Unfortunately employer pension plans have been phased out, or converted from defined-benefit plans (which pay you a fixed amount until you die) to RRSP-style plans, which are basically just personal savings, and where the individual bears all the risk.
For most people, the CPP is the main way to pool the risk of outliving your savings. Thus it makes perfect sense to expand the CPP, which the federal and provincial governments have agreed to do. Joseph Heath.
(4) Boutique tax credits: Kevin Milligan explains why these are a bad idea.
Scheer hasn't yet talked reviving income-splitting and doubling TFSA limits (Harper introduced both of these, and Trudeau killed them), but if he does, Jonathan Rhys Kesselman explains why they're bad ideas. Income-splitting. Expanding TFSA limits.
One other thing Trudeau did was make the income tax more progressive, by raising taxes on income over $200,000 (basically the top 1%) and lowering the middle-income tax rate. In combination with the Canada Child Benefit, nearly all families are better off. MoneySense magazine.
Andrew Scheer on free speech, Canada's cities and how to appeal to millennials | Metro Ottawa
(1) Smaller government: under Harper, federal spending was cut back to Diefenbaker-era levels. Stephen Gordon.
We have an aging population, which means that we can expect health-care spending to rise. Taxation and spending as a percentage of GDP probably needs to rise instead of declining. Otherwise other needs, like public education, will get crushed by the pressure of health-care spending.
Why do we have public programs like health insurance, funded through taxation, in the first place? Because we get huge efficiency gains from risk-pooling. Joseph Heath explains.
Basically, public programs funded by taxes are a form of collective shopping. With certain goods and services, you get big efficiency gains from purchasing them collectively. A more libertarian society with less taxes and less spending would thus be far poorer, because trying to pay for these services on an individual basis would be much less efficient.
(2) Balanced budgets: Harper sought to weaken the federal government by putting it into a fiscal straightjacket, in particular by cutting the GST from 7% to 5%. (Stephen Gordon explains why the GST is particularly efficient.) The Liberals escaped this straightjacket by using a different fiscal anchor: keeping debt as a percentage of GDP stable or declining. Federal debt since 1961. Stephen Tapp has the details.
(3) Opposition to CPP expansion: Retirement income is based on a "three-legged stool", consisting of the CPP, employer pension plans, and personal savings. Unfortunately employer pension plans have been phased out, or converted from defined-benefit plans (which pay you a fixed amount until you die) to RRSP-style plans, which are basically just personal savings, and where the individual bears all the risk.
For most people, the CPP is the main way to pool the risk of outliving your savings. Thus it makes perfect sense to expand the CPP, which the federal and provincial governments have agreed to do. Joseph Heath.
(4) Boutique tax credits: Kevin Milligan explains why these are a bad idea.
Scheer hasn't yet talked reviving income-splitting and doubling TFSA limits (Harper introduced both of these, and Trudeau killed them), but if he does, Jonathan Rhys Kesselman explains why they're bad ideas. Income-splitting. Expanding TFSA limits.
One other thing Trudeau did was make the income tax more progressive, by raising taxes on income over $200,000 (basically the top 1%) and lowering the middle-income tax rate. In combination with the Canada Child Benefit, nearly all families are better off. MoneySense magazine.