Did the Conservatives pick a Dud?

[HorganIsMyHero]

Don't speech pathologists generally help with speech disorders like if someone can't seem to change a monotone voice or can't enunciate properly? Is Trudeau doing something I'm missing? Just wondering.

[Omnitheo]

It could be a second language thing as well. He doesn’t do it as much when he is speaking French. Mulcair on the other hand was very proficient with both. I haven’t heard Jagmeet speak French but apparently some who have claim they’ve been impressed by it (I don’t know what their expectations were though.) did anyone catch Scheer in French debates? I remember O’Leary passed up on them. I wasn’t really paying attention to Scheer at the time though.

[Ka-El]

Don't speech pathologists generally help with speech disorders like if someone can't seem to change a monotone voice or can't enunciate properly? Is Trudeau doing something I'm missing? Just wondering.

I don't know. Maybe just a coach of some kind? Maybe Toastmasters? and the pundits go crazy!

[HorganIsMyHero]

I don't know. Maybe just a coach of some kind? Maybe Toastmasters? and the pundits go crazy!

Maybe he just needs to hire some guy to put marbles in his mouth like someone did for George VI.

[The Green Barbarian]

The liberals picked a winner,

OK. So then by these standards, and these standards alone, Harper was a winner too, right?

[The Green Barbarian]

Hard to say the libs picked a dud when he won a majority.

So then it's just as it's hard to say the Conservatives picked a dud, when their new leader hasn't even had a chance to face the brainless Liberal dud in an election.

We all get it - the people calling Scheer a dud, and going to the disgusting lengths of inventing lies about him, were never going to vote for him anyway. If the only criteria is winning an election, then how about we wait to see what actually happens in the next election.

I do predict that JT will win the next election, but like his evil horrible dad achieved in his second try, it will be a minority. That's my call right now.

[Omnitheo]

*removed*

You’re correct. Harper was a winner, of successive minority governments (under elections with he lowest ever voter turnout, and thus the lowest ever level of support for a prime minister in Canadian history) and then a one time majority. Harper was a smart politician. That’s an accolade I’ll give him which Scheer has yet to live up to. I didn’t like what he did, but damn did I admire his craftiness. In the end though it backfired on him.

My favourite was when he straight faced lied to Canadians about how they were not predicting an election, and that any election would just be the opposition playing political games (all the while spending millions of dollars on attack style campaign ads on tv for some reason...). Then he forced the oppositions hand with a bill not even his own party could support without significant strongarming forcing a vote of no-confidence and triggering an “unexpected” election. Damn did that man know how to play the system. He’s definitely a part of what got me so interested in political science, even if I hated nearly everything he did.

[jimmy4321]

OK. So then by these standards, and these standards alone, Harper was a winner too, right?

Correct, Harper "was" a winner (Thanks to Mckay) at the end of the Chretien reign when the Liberals imploded, certainly a winner against a desperate Martin, Dion and Ignatieff.
I voted for Harper then.
Towards the end the Con clan wore out their welcome with all the shenanigans and arrogance , Canadians remember the behavior.
Then Harper and the Con party were losers.

Their day will come again but not with Scheer

[The Green Barbarian]

My favourite was when he straight faced lied to Canadians about how they were not predicting an election, and that any election would just be the opposition playing political games (all the while spending millions of dollars on attack style campaign ads on tv for some reason...). Then he forced the oppositions hand with a bill not even his own party could support without significant strongarming forcing a vote of no-confidence and triggering an “unexpected” election. Damn did that man know how to play the system. He’s definitely a part of what got me so interested in political science, even if I hated nearly everything he did.

You probably should have studied Justin's evil and disgusting dad too. He did so many strong-arming tactics. Pure evil, but he was a winner all right. Ask the people of Alberta how happy they are with everything that guy did.

[The Green Barbarian]

Correct, Harper "was" a winner .

Awesome - some common ground!

[hobbyguy]

None of that solves the problems that Sheer faces, in that in order to unseat an incumbent you need to be able show a strong position that is different, matches voter sentiment, and is backed by a leader and team that inspires.

Sheer just isn't inspiring. The team, lead by Skippy Poilievre, isn't either. There are no signs of better ideas or policies. Just "we ain't them" and good peanut chucking abilities. Yup, they will pick up a few votes from chucking peanuts, but come election time, that won't cut it.

How is Sheer going to solve the Conservative party problem in Quebec? Yes, the Conservatives have some small gains in Ontario, but not enough. Same in Atlantic Canada.

The only hope for Sheer in Quebec appears to be that Jagmeet pulls off a miracle there, and the Conservatives scoot up the middle. Wouldn't hold my breath for that one.

But who knows? A long time until the election.

[Jflem1983]

None of that solves the problems that Sheer faces, in that in order to unseat an incumbent you need to be able show a strong position that is different, matches voter sentiment, and is backed by a leader and team that inspires.

Sheer just isn't inspiring. The team, lead by Skippy Poilievre, isn't either. There are no signs of better ideas or policies. Just "we ain't them" and good peanut chucking abilities. Yup, they will pick up a few votes from chucking peanuts, but come election time, that won't cut it.

How is Sheer going to solve the Conservative party problem in Quebec? Yes, the Conservatives have some small gains in Ontario, but not enough. Same in Atlantic Canada.

The only hope for Sheer in Quebec appears to be that Jagmeet pulls off a miracle there, and the Conservatives scoot up the middle. Wouldn't hold my breath for that one.

But who knows? A long time until the election.

This is why its so stunning they did not choose Bernier

[Omnitheo]

Bernier may have been a smart choice. Maybe they thought a québécois wouldn’t appeal to western conservatives. Or they thought that youth and looks are why Trudeau was elected and that’s what they’re running with by choosing Scheer.

In regards to GB, I’ll respond to your post again because I already engaged with you once here:

You’re correct that Alberta faced some tough times under PET. The NEP is partly responsible for that. I say partly because this also came at the time of a global recession and Saudi Arabia dumping cheap oil in the market, similar to what happened in recent years.

In terms of the NEP, you may wish to pin the blame squarely on PET, however it was mostly the energy minister of the time, Marc Lalonde who proposed the plan. And Conservative Alberta premiere Peter Lougheed who agreed to it. This was because at the time it was believed that this would be in the best interest of Canada as a whole. Perhaps it was. Canada as a country is stronger as a whole internationally when we all work together for the benefit of the nation, and not just our corner of it. Think the US if it did not have the power houses of New York, California, Texas. Or currently Spain without Catalonia. I understand the separatist sentiment. Not wanting to subsidize maritimes etc, however AB joined Canada because it is better for AB as a whole to be part of Canada than to go it alone. I’m sorry if you were personally affected during the recession of the time, or under the NEP which was later revoked under Mulroney, however most Canadians now aren’t living in the 80’s. It’s been nearly 40 years. Things change (and indeed the cons are out of power in AB). Trudeau is most certainly not his father.

Does Scheer have a policy that may benefit Alberta in any way? How might this be accomplished?

[bob vernon]

Of course Bernier was the smart choice for Albertans. And for every western Conservative who believes in stripping government down and letting the free-enterprise system do what it does. But he was French (actually he isn't French....... he's from Quebec), but in the minds of western conservatives, he's another of those guys with an accent. He fit far better with the free-enterprisers, but they chose some guy from out west who doesn't stand for anything. Or a least he's afraid to reveal those loonie-tune fundamentalist values that he does stand for. The Conscription crisis, the metric system, and bilingualism being shoved down our throats live on.

[Glacier]

Bernier was too far to the economic right, even for most conservatives. Imagine a guy unapologically campaigning to do away with the dairy boards!

Alberta didn't get a lot of say even though they hold a disproportionately high number of members because it's based on the number of ridings you win.

PS. Bernier destroyed Sheer in Alberta, winning twice as many ridings as Sheer.