Andrew Scheer might have seemed more like Moonlight to Maxime Bernier's La La Land in the race for the Conservative Party leader Saturday night. For the first 12 ballots, Bernier, the front-runner, led the race but couldn't get past 50% in the vote. Finally, on the 13th ballot, Scheer, not Bernier, came up as the winner with 50.95% of the vote.
So many people outside the hall in Toronto had to ask: who is Andrew Scheer?
Scheer is a former Speaker of the House in the federal parliament. He is younger than Justin Trudeau by about 7 years. Scheer's brother-in-law is Jon Ryan, punter for the NFL Seattle Seahawks.
Canadian influence guides Seattle Seahawks to Super Bowl XLIX
Scheer was born and grew up in Ontario but has made Saskatchewan his home. He has been in Parliament since 2004.
Bernier offered a more libertarian path to being the Conservative Party leader and a leader from Quebec. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and current NDP leader Tom Mulcair also represent Quebec ridings in Parliament.
Bernier was best known as the minister of foreign affairs in 2008 who resigned from that post after it was found that he inadvertently left behind a secretive briefing book at his girlfriend's home.
Bernier has a different girlfriend now. Scheer, by contrast, is married with 5 kids.
The top 3 names that we heard about in the party battle were Bernier, Kevin O'Leary, and Kellie Leitch. O'Leary entered late and withdrew early but too late to be lifted from the ballot. O'Leary got 1.07% from the first ballot. He actually spent Saturday night at the CBC news desk along with Peter MacKay, who earlier in his then political life, was the final leader of the Progressive Conservative Party. When the Progressive Conservative party merged with the Canadian Alliance, Stephen Harper, the Canadian Alliance leader, became the leader of the united party.
Leitch had recognition early in the campaign for her insistence on screening immigrants for "Canadian values" and her stalwart comments in scrapping the CBC.
For his part, Scheer said back in December that he wants to eliminate the CBC’s news division.
"I think taxpayers are very frustrated by how much the CBC costs," said Scheer in an interview. "I don't know why this government is in the news business in this day and age with so many platforms with so many ways to disseminate information."
In what little we have read about Scheer, he seems similar to Harper in that he holds positions to the right of most Canadians, but says he won't open doors on those potential topics, including abortion. Finding Scheer's positions online became rather difficult shortly after his election win Saturday night.
BC elects Liberal minority government for the moment
2017 British Columbia provincial election preview
Christy Clark is still the premier and will have the first chance to form government, but the NDP and Green Party has formed a 4-year working agreement that may represent the new power structure in British Columbia.
NDP leader Andrew Horgan and Green Party leader Andrew Weaver worked out the details over the weekend. The deal is not described as a coalition. The parties combine to have 44 seats for the smallest of majorities. The Liberals have 43 seats in the new parliament.
This is uncharted territory in many respects. The Green Party has a chance to make a meaningful impact of a government in North America. If this grouping ends up running the British Columbia government, we will keep our eye on the progress.
2017 Canadian politics preview
CanadianCrossing.com Canadian politics coverage
As we mentioned, Tom Mulcair is the NDP leader. The party has its own race to replace Mulcair this fall. The NDP debate in Sudbury, ON Sunday had a pair of new contenders. Former federal veterans ombudsman Pat Stogran and Ontario MPP Jagmeet Singh joined previous established candidates Manitoba MP Niki Ashton, Ontario MP Charlie Angus, Quebec MP Guy Caron, and BC MP Peter Julian.
The new leader will be decided by the party in October. The next federal election is scheduled for 2019.
2017 Nova Scotia provincial election preview
The Nova Scotia provincial election is today. Polls close at 8 pm Atlantic time. So we should know in the early evening in most of North America as to the winner. This race won't be as dramatic as the British Columbia election.
photos credit: CBC News Network
Comments