August 2020 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election

[DL]

I know you aren't a Tory, so this doesn't quite apply to you, but you'd be amazed at how few pundits and Red Tory types realise how precarious the Tory coalition is (and come to think of it, how unpopular fiscon-soclib is). Half the pro life vote leaving, would pretty much ensure the right can't form government.

Where else can they go? The Christian Heritage Party?

[DL]

Note that 60% of of CONSERVATIVE VOTERS think Doug Ford would be a "terrible" choice for leader and only 4% think he would be an "excellent" choice - so much for that!

[DL]

The whole notion of Jean Charest as fefderal Tory leader is ludicrous. First of all, to Tory members he is seen as a Liberal and second of all, he was the most unpopular premier in the history of Quebec so its not as if Quebec Tories will want to collectively commit suicide either

[DL]

The whole notion of Jean Charest as fefderal Tory leader is ludicrous. First of all, to Tory members he is seen as a Liberal and second of all, he was the most unpopular premier in the history of Quebec so its not as if Quebec Tories will want to collectively commit suicide either

Is the trend of terribly unsuitable candidates wanting to run and being feted by the media a uniquely Tory tradition, or do the Liberals and NDP also have this problem?

In the case of the Liberals they found a terribly unsuitable candidate who wanted to run for their leadership who was feted by the media - and he became leader with predictable results. Remember Michael Ignatieff?

[DL]

I presume that the ridiculously long leadership contests in Canada is a vestige of the days when the geographic size of Canada was more of a "thing". Remember that ever since Mackenzie King became Liberal leader in 1919 - Canada has had delegated leadership contests (and more recently mostly one member, one vote) - and back in the day organizing delegated contests was a long process involving delegate selection meetings and lots of crisscrossing the country. Nowadays there is really no reason to wait so long and all it does is reduce the amount of time the party has to introduice its new leader to the public.

Also, parties cling to this myth that by waiting years to pick a new leader, they we undergo some sort of renewal and will find answers to all these existential questions - none of which ever happens.

To this day it mystifies me why the NDP thought it was a good idea to wait 18 months before picking a successor to Mulcair. There was zero party renewal during that period - it was just 18 months or demoralizing drift - and the outcome was likely exactly the same as it would have been if a new leader had been picked a year earlier     

[DL]

Its interesting that in the last CPC leadership contest there were several social conservatives in the mix such as Scheer, Trost and Lemieux (at the time Bernier was supposedly more of a libertarian but he has since revealed himself to be a social conservative too). So far in this year's contest its not clear if there will be ANYONE who is an unabashed SoCon even running.

[DL]

I have a hunch Scheer is one of those guys who will remain an MP until he either does or is defeated. His whole life is politics and nothing else. He has no profession (not even as an insurance adjuster) so there is nothing for him to do other than to be an MP

[DL]

Yeah, if the Conservative strategy is to wait until Justin Trudeau gets to be as unpopular as Kathleen Wynne was in 2018 - they will be in opposition forever

[DL]

https://twitter.com/candicebergenmp/status/1222692571203493891

How much of her profile in Canadian politics is related to people immediately recognizing her name because she shares it with a '90s sitcom star?

Not much actually. She was Candace Hoeppner for most of her political career only became Bergen a couple of years ago when she married

[DL]

There are also all kinds of rumours and allegations that Baird sexually assaulted young men in his office and in his foreign travels. If he were to run all of that would come out...

[DL]

https://twitter.com/Baird/status/1228092570695278592

Translation: He knew that if he ran he would be exposed as a serial abuser of young men...apparently the reason he quite abruptly as Foreign Affairs minister was some video of him with Palestinian boys at a brothel in Israel

[DL]

Scheer has no choice but to remain an MP. The guy has no profession to fall back on. What’s he going to do? Go back to being a junior assistance to an insurance adjuster?

[DL]

https://twitter.com/btaplatt/status/1305854419859386368

The same riding we predicted. She's a good fit for the riding (except for the fact it's less than .5% Black, which I don't think is that relevant).

Does she have any personal connection whatsoever to the riding or would she be a total "parachute" - not that voters would necessarily punish her for that