Also said social issues hurt Scheer’s campaign.
While Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer seeks to tamp down growing murmurs and criticism (increasingly from some former Conservative MPs and Senators) about his performance in the 2019 election, possible leadership contender Peter MacKay has added his voice to the criticism.
Speaking at an event in Washington D.C., MacKay didn’t hold back on describing his view of the Conservative campaign:
“Yeah, to use a good Canadian analogy, it was like having a breakaway on an open net and missing the net,” said MacKay.
MacKay also discussed his view on the impacts of social issues (same-sex marriage and abortion) in the campaign:
“That was thrust on the agenda and [it] hung around Andrew Scheer’s neck like a stinking albatross, quite frankly. And he wasn’t able to deftly deal with those issues when the opportunities arose.”
According to reports (by CBC so take it with a grain of salt), MacKay’s people are putting together a campaign infrastructure, in case Scheer can’t remain as party leader.
Conservative MP John Barlow pushed back on MacKay’s comments:
“Peter MacKay is able to have his own opinion, but he wasn’t a candidate. He wasn’t campaigning. I think we did everything we possibly could. Absolutely, we have to learn from the results from this election, we have to own the results and there will be a strong post-mortem over what occurred, but let’s not lose focus on the results. We have a million more votes than we had before. We won the popular vote. We reduced a very strong majority to a minority government.”
Some past Conservative MPs and Senators have also criticized Scheer and said he needs to go. Notably however, no current MP has called for Scheer’s removal or resignation.
That said, with Scheer facing a leadership review at the upcoming Conservative convention, he can ill afford for the voices of criticism to become louder and louder.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube
