What is going on with Canadian Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer?
In the summer of 2017, Scheer, then newly minted as the party leader after a very close victory over runner-up Maxime Bernier, visited 91原创 on the summer barbecue fundraising circuit.
鈥淭he Conservative Party of Canada is the most inclusive and welcoming party that鈥檚 ever had the good fortune to govern,鈥� Scheer told the crowd.
He emphasized the diversity of the party鈥檚 existing MPs, and talked about reaching out to new Canadians.
It was clearly an attempt to course correct from the disastrous burst of borderline xenophobia that infected the Tories during the last stages of their election loss to Justin Trudeau鈥檚 Liberals.
The Conservatives now largely hold rural and exurban ridings, ones mostly populated by white, native-born Canadians. In a country where 20 per cent of all citizens were born elsewhere, it鈥檚 impossible to win a mandate that way. Scheer knows 鈥� or knew 鈥� that his party needs a diverse group of voters, donors, and candidates to win.
But this month, Scheer steered hard towards the populist, conspiracy-minded fringe when he raised 鈥渃oncerns鈥� about the UN鈥檚 new migration compact.
Like any UN document, the compact is mostly a bunch of good wishes and best practices, and completely unenforceable.
Yet Scheer popped up to say it could 鈥渙pen the door to foreign bureaucrats telling Canada how to manage our borders.鈥�
Scheer is either badly misinformed, or he鈥檚 lying to shore up the anti-immigration wing of the Conservative base.
As for why he鈥檚 swung from diversity to paranoia in a year, the answer may lie in Maxime Bernier鈥檚 split with the Tories and his creation of a new People鈥檚 Party of Canada.
Scheer is clearly terrified to being outflanked on his right. Bernier鈥檚 PPC is more libertarian on the economy and more suspicious of immigration and multi-culturalism.
Yet Scheer鈥檚 plan seems short sighted. Perhaps he can hammer the PPC into irrelevance in the 2019 election.
But at what cost? Alienating a good chunk of the voters he鈥檒l need in less than 10 months?
The NDP, poor disorganized folks, don鈥檛 even have a leader in Parliament. Trudeau鈥檚 term has been a mixed bag, at best. But Scheer looks to be squandering his opportunity to win power by moving to the paranoid right.
