Although a handful of Andrew Scheer loyalists pretended otherwise, there was a sense of inevitability about his sudden departure as leader of the Conservative Party.
The sting of Scheer’s defeat last October was magnified by high expectations.
Every candidate thinks they’re going to win, but in Scheer’s case, amid the swirling controversies surrounding Justin Trudeau’s government, there was not just hope but an expectation that Scheer would supplant Trudeau as prime minister.
With expectations so high among Conservative supporters and the party hierarchy, the failure of the Conservatives to grab the reins of power on election night sent party members looking for reasons to explain the unexpected defeat — in other words, something or someone to blame.
Story continues below advertisement
It was at that point that Scheer became a political dead man walking within his own party.
Unpacking the politics: will Andrew Scheer be able to stay on as interim Conservative leader?
The same thing happened to the NDP’s Tom Mulcair in the 2015 election.
Canadian voters had grown tired of the Harper government. Few, if any, pundits gave the third-place Liberals with a rookie leader much of a chance to win, so it seemed that Opposition leader Mulcair was poised to become the first NDP prime minister in Canadian history.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the polls.
The surging Liberals formed a majority government, and Mulcair and the NDP were left wondering what could have been.
It wasn’t too long after that disappointing result that the NDP sprung the trap door on their leader.
There were a few faint cries from the Conservative caucus to give Scheer another chance, but politics is not like a friendly weekend golf game where mulligans and gimmes are allowed: it’s a vicious blood sport, and when your political detractors smell blood, the attacks can be relentless and fatal to your political career.
Story continues below advertisement
Scheer’s demise underscores a harsh reality; in politics, there are only two places — first place and no place.
Increasing your percentage of the popular vote or gaining a few more seats for your party are consolation prizes at best. They’re meaningless if you don’t win the grand prize.
It may be cold comfort for Scheer to realize he’s not the first politician to come face to face with that jarring reality, and he most certainly will not be the last.
OTTAWA – Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet and MPs from several other parties were on Parliament Hill Thursday to call for the Senate to pass a Bloc bill on supply management.
The private member’s bill seeks to protect Canada’s supply management system during international trade negotiations.
The dairy, egg and poultry sectors are all supply managed, a system that regulates production levels, wholesale prices and trade.
Flanked by a large group of people representing supply-managed sectors, Blanchet commended the cross-party support at a time when he said federal institutions are at their most divided.
The Bloc has given the Liberals until Oct. 29 to pass two of its bills — the supply management bill and one that would boost old age security — or it will begin talks with other opposition parties to bring down the minority government.
The Liberals have already signalled they don’t plan to support the Bloc pension legislation, but Liberal ministers have spoken in support of supply management.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 10, 2024.
OTTAWA – Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he’s in favour of mandatory, involuntary drug and psychiatric treatment for kids and prisoners who are found to be incapable of making decisions for themselves.
He said earlier this summer he was open to the idea, but needed to study the issue more closely.
His new position on the issue comes after the parents of a 13-year-old girl from B.C. testified at a parliamentary committee about her mental health struggles before her overdose death in an encampment of homeless people in Abbotsford, B.C.
They said their daughter was discharged from care despite their repeated attempts to keep her in treatment.
Poilievre says he’s still researching how mandatory treatment would work in the case of adults.
Compulsory mental health and addictions care is being contemplated or expanded in several provinces as communities struggle to cope with a countrywide overdose crisis.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 10, 2024.
