Several key factors are driving the success of this relative newcomer to Conservative Party, 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.
I’ll give you a sneak preview of “How I spent my summer” – in Saskatchewan. It has been a great opportunity, spending time reconnecting with my roots and with opinions not born in the Ottawa bubble. Anecdotal observations may not be scientific, but they have inspired me to make a few predictions going into the final weeks of the Conservative leadership campaign.
The first is that Leslyn Lewis is going to do very well.
I believe she will finish in second place overall and will win more votes in Saskatchewan than any other leadership candidate.
I say that because you find Lewis supporters everywhere here, and most of them are not particularly socially conservative. Without betraying confidences, many of them are very well established in the ruling provincial Saskatchewan Party – which is by far the most potent political organization in the province.
There is also a surge of unlikely urban support for Lewis outside the province.
Similar to Saskatchewan, much of it comes from party members who are often quite hostile to traditional social conservatives. I have spoken with urban, professional women and LGBTQ friends in the Conservative Party – all in the Greater Toronto Area – who are comfortable with Lewis’s brand of conservatism, even if their first ballot support rests with another candidate.
Money has been surging as well.
Macleans magazine recently reported that fundraising for the Lewis campaign had crossed $1.2 million. A few short we