While Erin O’Toole makes a direct appeal for support – and donations – from social conservatives, Peter Mackay has left at least some of them feeling disrespected.
The two leading contenders for the Conservative leadership both swear they see social conservatives as an important part of their party’s base. But while Erin O’Toole is explicitly courting their votes, Peter MacKay seems to have ticked off at least some of them.
“He basically said, ‘Come on in and donate and give me your votes but then shut up,'” said Jack Fonseca, director of political operations for the anti-abortion group Campaign Life Coalition.
“That’s a total turnoff. It does make us angry, of course.”
The candidates’ differing approaches to the party’s social conservative wing could have big implications for the outcome of the leadership race, since social conservative advocacy groups claim they’re well-organized enough to sway the final results.
On the other hand, the questions and attacks on hot-button issues like abortion and LGBTQ rights that dogged outgoing leader Andrew Scheer through the fall showed how the issues can be a liability in a general election campaign.
It’s more than just that ‘albatross’ remark
MacKay is still struggling to move past comments he made before the leadership race even started.
Back in October, MacKay told an audience that the questions about abortion and same-sex marriage that followed Scheer on the campaign trail were like a “stinking albatross” hanging around the party leader’s neck.
Around the same time, several prominent Conservatives argued that for the party to appeal to more Canadians, it had to leave divisive debates over social issues behind.
There is polling to back up that argument. A January web survey conducted by L