Supporters of the Conservative Party of Canada have picked Regina MP Andrew Scheer to be their new leader.
In some ways, he seems to represent a change for the Tories. At age 38, he was the youngest candidate in the field. His most notable role during the time when the Tories were in power came when he was the speaker of the House of Commons. He was never a cabinet minister, although it could be argued the speaker is often a more high-profile gig than a cabinet minister.
He鈥檚 young, he鈥檚 affable, and frankly, he had the best chance among the 13 Tory leadership hopefuls to knock off Justin Trudeau鈥檚 Liberals. Whether he鈥檚 able to dethrone the Liberals has yet to be seen. Don鈥檛 expect it to happen in 2019, but Scheer doesn鈥檛 strike us as being a one-and-done leader.
But Scheer seems to bring a similar mindset to former Tory prime minister Stephen Harper. And that might be what the doctor ordered for the Tories.
It wasn鈥檛 necessarily Harper鈥檚 policies and platforms that led to his ouster in the 2015 federal election, although he certainly had his fair share of detractors. Rather, it was his cold, controlling and calculating demeanour, his unrelenting need for power and his overall attitude to just about everybody.
Among Harper鈥檚 slogans in the last election was 鈥淪erious Leadership for a Serious Job,鈥� which summed him up perfectly.
It created quite a contrast to the affable and outgoing Trudeau.
Scheer鈥檚 policies and philosophies should be enough to appeal to the Tory voters, and his disposition should help woo voters from outside the party who might have been turned off by a decade of Harper.
The leadership campaign and convention did seem to expose a number of issues Scheer will have to address, not the least of which is his support within the party.
He won with less than 51 per cent support on the final ballot. Not only that, but he trailed Quebec MP Maxime Bernier until the final ballot, when Scheer received a late injection of support, thanks to the leadership convention鈥檚 preferential ballot system.
He also won a leadership race long on quality candidates but short on outstanding contenders. There wasn鈥檛 a Jason Kenney, a Peter MacKay or a John Baird in the field.
Bernier was cast as the front-runner throughout the campaign, and for most of the convention, it appeared those projections would materialize. Also, the leadership race was starving for attention until reality TV star and business leader Kevin O鈥橪eary entered the fray. (Thankfully, O鈥橪eary later dropped out).
Finally, Scheer has to deal with the strong social conservative element that remains in the party. It was troubling to see Brad Trost, with his outdated views on a number of issues, finish fourth. He should have been one of the first people dropped from the ballot, but the social conservatives seemed to latch onto Trost鈥檚 message.
But Scheer can worry about those issues later. In the meantime, his focus needs to be on selecting a shadow cabinet, establishing himself as a credible opposition leader, and plotting out the burdensome task of building up support in the east so the Tories can challenge Trudeau鈥檚 Liberals in the 2019 federal election.
The latter will be most difficult job of all.
