A professor of political science at StFX says Peter MacKay would be considered the front-runner for the federal Conservative leadership if the current leader is replaced.
There have been rumblings MacKay is organizing a run for the party leadership following current leader Andrew Scheer’s performance in October’s federal election, something MacKay himself has publicly denied.
The former Central Nova MP, who was first elected in 1997, helped lead a merger of the Progressive Conservative and Reform parties while he was the federal Tory leader, and held several high-profile cabinet positions in Stephen Harper’s government; he didn’t re-offer in the 2015 federal election.
Jim Bickerton, a StFX political science professor, says he’s not surprised by the unhappiness of some party members after Scheer’s recent performance.
Bickerton tells The Hawk the Conservatives are traditionally strong in the west, but MacKay has the ability to grow that support.
“They win or lose elections in Ontario, frankly- that was true even during the Harper years,” he says. “(MacKay) will be better positioned to do that, certainly than Andrew Scheer has shown himself to be.”
Bickerton says the only hope for the Conservatives to win power is to move from the political right to the centre, and gain some support from people who might otherwise vote Liberal.
He says MacKay is better suited to reach beyond the Conservative base, and that would make him the frontrunner for the party leadership should he decide to run.
“He’s a very experienced politician, by and large- he had a long career already without being mired in scandal,” he says. “He served the government very well in high-profile posts.”
Bickerton says timing is everything in politics, and the timing works in MacKay’s favour in this case.
He says we wouldn’t be having this conversation if Scheer and the Conservatives had been able to take advantage of Liberal missteps and scandals, and form a new government following October’s election.
Conservative MPs voted against giving themselves the power to remove Scheer as party leader during a caucus meeting in Ottawa Wednesday, which means his leadership will be in the hands of grassroots members when they meet for their bi-annual convention in April.
