Conservative Party of Canada Leadership Race Megathread-May 27th 2017

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I can't decide if thinking/talking about people/voters primarily as 'consumers' is marginally better than thinking/talking about them primarily as 'taxpayers', or just as bad.

[Sumner 1868]

I can't decide if thinking/talking about people/voters primarily as 'consumers' is marginally better than thinking/talking about them primarily as 'taxpayers', or just as bad.

Worse. Much worse.

[RogueBeaver]

Sorry, but Canadian parties have been thinking that way since WW2. One of our most prominent political journalists wrote a book on it.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Sorry, but Canadian parties have been thinking that way since WW2. One of our most prominent political journalists wrote a book on it.

[136or142]

I don't think any of you fully understood my point (and it was so easy to understand, I thought).   I wasn't referring to voters as consumers in the same way that Susan Delacourt meant it.  

My point was simply that while the economic nationalists will likely never be pleased, that most voters will, because they will see:
1.Lower prices
2.More competition, more/better choices.

After all the fear mongering from the economic nationalists has subsided, these voters will realize that Canada's sovereignty wasn't eroded, but that a bunch of monopoly cartels who used nationalism to maintain their monopoly position had their economic positions eroded while Canadians no longer had to pay some of the highest prices in the world for airline fares, cell/smart phone usage, and dairy products.

In so far as this is all business (which is how the monopoly cartels regard it, their nonsense about nationalism aside) why shouldn't the voters react as market consumers?

[RogueBeaver]

Completely agreed.

[136or142]

Tony Clement dropped out.  I'm surprised this hasn't been posted already.  Maybe nobody here cares about him either.

I'd find a link, but I don't think there's a need.

I thought he would do better.  I'd say that his failure to catch on as a leadership candidate is a sign that Conservatives understand they can't elect a high profile member of the Harper cabinet as their next leader, but I think this is mostly about Tony Clement being a pathetic candidate and a pathetic person.

[Poirot]

There is a Forum poll that put Clement in second place behind Bernier so he could have had a chance.

Seeing there are no big names running maybe someone not in caucus will see an opportunity. (or oppositions parties are ineffective to stop one party state.)

[136or142]

North Vancouver M.P from 2008-2015 Andrew Saxton is going to run for leader.

[RogueBeaver]

Ivison: only Bernier, Chong, Leitch, Scheer and maybe O'Toole will be left by February.

[RogueBeaver]

Raitt will announce soon.

[136or142]

Defeated North Vancouver M.P from 2008-2015 Andrew Saxton and British Columbia investment firm owner Rick Peterson both officially entered the race yesterday (though neither has paid the unrefundable deposit yet.)

Saxton is the son of a prominent British Columbia businessman and was a Parliamentary Secretary.  He plans to run as a social moderate, fiscal conservative and focus on economic issues.  

I'm not too familiar with him.  The Conservatie M.P from West Vancouver with a similar last name, John Sexton, was higher profile and was a Red Tory who seemed to be a likable person.  He was also defeated in 2015.

Rick Peterson ran for the Provincial Conservative leadership in 2014 and lost 60-40% to Dan Brooks, who stepped down as leader and then ran for the position again (and narrowly won again.)  That should tell you all you need to know about both Peterson and Brooks.  (To be fair to Brooks, when he decided to run for his old job again, he said that his business situation had changed and that gave him more time to have this side job.)

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/10/18/former-mp-andrew-saxton-businessman-rick-peterson-join-conservative-leadership-race.html

[adma]

I'm not too familiar with him.  The Conservatie M.P from West Vancouver with a similar last name, John Sexton, was higher profile and was a Red Tory who seemed to be a likable person.  He was also defeated in 2015.

You mean John *Weston*, don't you?

[136or142]

I'm not too familiar with him.  The Conservatie M.P from West Vancouver with a similar last name, John Sexton, was higher profile and was a Red Tory who seemed to be a likable person.  He was also defeated in 2015.

You mean John *Weston*, don't you?

Oops. Yes, sorry.  Weston, Saxton, still quite similar I think.

[RogueBeaver]

O'Leary may endorse Bernier.

[DC Al Fine]

O'Leary may endorse Bernier.

Net positive for Bernier?

On the one hand it's O'Leary. OTOH, O'Leary's name recognition presumably way higher than Bernier's.

[136or142]

Steven Blaney officially entered today.

My suggested campaign slogan for him: Bold ideas.

[adma]

Steven Blaney officially entered today.

My suggested campaign slogan for him: Bold ideas.

Watch that get lampooned as "bald ideas".

[136or142]

Steven Blaney officially entered today.

My suggested campaign slogan for him: Bold ideas.

Watch that get lampooned as "bald ideas".

That was the idea.  I'm hoping we'll get some bold new ideas from him.

[136or142]

Did a couple additional candidates officially enter over the weekend as well?

Also, is Michael Chong still the only candidate who has signed all the papers and paid the $50,000 nonrefundable deposit?

[RogueBeaver]

I AM SICK OF THIS sh**t. /rant

[DC Al Fine]

I AM SICK OF THIS sh**t. /rant

I feel like a broken record here, but the generational divide among socons in this issue is quite interesting. The older folks see it as protecting rights and/or Western culture while the younger ones are thinking "that will be us in a generation or two"

[RogueBeaver]

Blaney calls Chong a "model of integration."

[RogueBeaver]

Dias is a Leitch donor.

[Hatman 🍁]

Dias is a Leitch donor.

Leitch being the Trump candidate confirmed.