If we did not have Canadian Conservatives, we would have to import some from the U.S.A. Admittedly these are not the best of times for Canada’s Conservatives. This coming week we will watch their federal leadership contestants mangle the French language trying to measure up to Maxime Bernier and Steven Blaney in a French language debate. Then on Friday, their Republican cousins in the U.S. will inaugurate President Donald Trump. These events combined should set back Canadian Conservatism at least a generation.
As far as the debate goes, it is not a debate. It is a yawn. It would be just as boring if it was in any language. If there are the same 14 people on that stage next week as we saw in Moncton, there had better be a place on the ballot in May for ‘None of the above.’
The American presidential inauguration is, in itself, not a big deal. It is the ceremonial handing over the reins of power from one President to the next. Most people go out and freeze their behinds at the ceremony so they can have an excuse to drink to excess and boogie at the parties later.
The event for Canadian Conservatives a few days before will lack the public coverage of the after parties. The winners will be Bernier and Blaney as they will be boring but understood. The dozen non-Quebeckers (including Franco-Ontarian Pierre Lemieux) will be measured and mostly found wanting. And all that Dennis O’Leary will get for not being there will be ridicule for not speaking French.
Pierre Lemieux (not to be confused with the economist) and Chris Alexander’s problem is that both lost their seats in the 2015 election. They are still a leg up on those competitors who have never been elected.
Squaring off against each other will be MPs Lisa Raitt and Kellie Leitch from Ontario. Raitt has taken a combative stance in the contest and is zeroing in on Leitch’s demand for immigrants being asked about their Canadian values. She also has been leading the attacks on Kevin O’Leary in case he ever gets around to throwing his hat into the race.
We are still expecting to produce our Morning Line on the race in March, once we find out all the real entries. Frankly we are going to have to look carefully at all their workouts and other stats. There are too many of these people who have no performance stats with which to measure them. We might have misjudged Donald Trump in the U.S. race but there is no potential Trump in this collection of Canadian Conservatives.
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Copyright 2017 © Peter Lowry
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