Who is Andrew Scheer? It has been two plus years since he became leader of the opposition and Canadians are still waiting for Andrew Scheer to show us who he really is, or why he deserves our vote. I do not oppose him because he isn’t Justin Trudeau, I oppose him because he sounds too much like every other conservative leader in Canada. I oppose him because he refuses to show Canadians what an Andrew Scheer led government would stand for.
Small taxes? Yawn. Law and order? It has been promised before. Smaller government? We have heard this all before from better politicians. Integrity and accountability? The previous government that Mr. Scheer belonged to failed miserably in that regard. He promises morality in a time of scandal, when there is no real scandal to be found, and his campaign for morality has more to do with ideology than transparency. In the place of concrete plans, he offers banal platitudes and recycled Conservative slogans. Mr. Scheer has yet to make the case of why he deserves to be the Prime Minister of Canada.
Andrew Scheer is a politician who is unable to define himself. On Social Media he spends more time attacking the current Liberal government than illustrating his own new ideas and policy initiatives. He talks about a positive conservative vision while engaging in a level of negative campaigning that we haven’t seen since the early Stephen Harper years. Like Doug Ford and Donald Trump he spends more time talking about what he will repeal, rather than what he will build. Other than boutique tax cuts that disportionately benefit the rich, what bold policy economic initiatives has he proposed? Cutting corporate taxes has been done before and trickle down economics is a failed theory.
Like Andrew Scheer himself, the Conservative climate plan is poorly defined. The large emitter pricing system is unclear on how it would work, which provinces would be impacted, what the standards might be or how much it would actually reduce emissions. As with anything proposed by the Conservative Party of Canada; it contains no original thinking and caters almost exclusively to the wishes of the oil and gas industry. There are too many similarities between the Scheer plan and “Oil and Natural Gas Priorities: Putting Canada On The World Stage”, a report released by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. This is the defining issue of our time. Original and bold thinking is required. Where is Andrew Scheer’s leadership on climate change?
This week, the Conservative Party of Canada was caught saying one thing in Québec about reopening the abortion debate and saying something entirely different in the rest of Canada. Andrew Scheer refused to acknowledge this in any meaningful way. A week after his past comments on same-sex marriage became an issue, he did not offer support for marriage equality beyond the law itself. Andrew Scheer has said again and again that he would have negotiated a better NAFTA deal for Canada with no details on how, and this past week he was rebuked by the former leader of his own party regarding NAFTA.
Andrew Scheer appears to be a leader scared of his own shadow, afraid to step out on his own and demonstrate leadership to all Canadians. It isn’t enough to say that he isn’t Justin Trudeau. Canadians want to see a plan, not recycled policies from the past. Canadians want details, not memes on Twitter. Voting against another party brought Ontarians Doug Ford, they will not be fooled by the same game plan this time. It is not the fault of the Liberal Party that Andrew Scheer has not been able to connect with Canadians, that is his own fault.
There is too much at stake for Canadians in the 2019 election to bet on a leader who has consistently shown an inability to lead when it matters.
