There’s no shortage of big issues we could be talking about, but so far the candidates have been playing small ball, writes Kory Teneycke.
This column is an opinion by Kory Teneycke. A former director of communications for prime minister Stephen Harper, he managed the recent Ontario PC Party Campaign and is currently a partner at Rubicon Strategy. Teneycke has declared he will remain neutral in the federal Conservative leadership campaign and has recused himself from work Rubicon is providing for the Peter MacKay campaign. For more information about CBC’s Opinion section, please see the FAQ.
Other than a general election, a leadership race is the best opportunity a political party has to broaden its appeal outside of its traditional voter coalition. And that is an opportunity the Conservative Party can’t afford to squander.
The very fact there is a leadership race is an indication that a political party needs to change. After all, these races usually come on the heels of an electoral defeat, when the appeal of the party has not been sufficient to attract the plurality of votes required to form the government.
Sometimes it’s related to the appeal of the previous leader – too angry, too ideological, too weak – the reasons vary. However, the performance of the person at the helm is often only a partial explanation for a poor showing at the polls.
More often, the party as a whole has failed to evolve in its policies at a rate sufficient to keep pace with enough of the electorate to win.
So if we accept that policy renewal is an essential part of how a party rebuilds, where are the new ideas in this Conservative Party leadership race?
The Conservative leadership race, paused by the COVID-19 outbreak, is now back on with a plan to choose a new leader in August entirely by mail-in ballot. 10:20
So far, the candidates have been playing small ball – narrow-casting to niche groups within the existing Conservative Party base, and ankle-biting one another over things like minor campaign gaffes and their relative ability to raise funds. Focusing on an eight-year-old bill on transgender rights may help attract a sub-set of social conservatives, but it makes ordinary Canadians think the Party is out-to-lunch at best and bigoted at worst.
While there are legitimate tactical reasons to seek support from well established groups of conservatives, it leaves the task of broadening the party’s appeal outside the small confines of the Conservative Party membership undone.
It’s not