Yes, this is happening. Although not yet, technically. About two weeks ago Kevin live streamed on his Facebook page, posing a question to those watching: “Should I run for leader of the Conservative Party of Canada?” He explains that he has put a “terrific” group of people together to form his exploratory committee that will work to determine if he is the right candidate for the top job, and of course raise money. Check it out below.
As you listen to the video, you can’t help but find Trump nuances in how he presents himself and his new committee, and I think that’s strategic.
Right wing populism is a global trend. We’ve seen it with Brexit, with a recent regional election defeat of Angela’s Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union by the Alterative für Deutschland in Germany (doesn’t impact workings of the German government), and certainly the most obvious; we’ve seen it in Trump becoming the next US President.
The buzzy term likely conjures up images of extreme right wingers whose priorities include religion, shutting off borders to immigration, cutting social funding and taxes, and deregulation, among other things. This is somewhat fair, but it’s also a hard stereotype.
There are reasons that right wing politics are in favour right now, including a growing divide between those who are serviced by liberal policies (largely metropolitan dwellers), and those who are better served by conservative policies (often more rural dwellers), and what many consider to be the threat of immigration.
Liberal policies tend to favour globalism (immigration is part of this), whereas conservative policies tend to favour nationalism (less sharing is caring, more we’re in it for ourselves), and after a long haul of shooting for globalism with debatable results, it becomes understandable why a significant amount of voters would want the focus brought back home. We won’t get into the economic priorities of left (social support) vs. right (capitalism), we’ll leave this more macro level.
I would wager that Kevin has been planning his bid for leadership for the better part of 2016 and will come out swinging rather shortly. Not only does he have massive notoriety, but he is controversial and so just like Trump, he would very likely get the majority of election coverage. You can check out his election site here, and learn about his namesake fund and wine and personal appearances, here.
I’m interested in hearing about his proposed platform, but I’m going to have a really hard time taking him seriously if he keeps calling himself “Mr. Wonderful.” Seriously Kevin, stop it.
Here’s the conservative party leadership competition, and some fun facts:
Chris Alexander, former MP and former Minister of Immigration. A key theme in his campaign will be to in increase Canada’s annual intake of immigrants to 400,000, including 40,000 refugees.
Maxime Bernier, 53 years old and Quebec MP since 2006. Notably wants to mandate that government officials use Uber and other ride sharing services as part of his campaign to reduce the size of the federal government – he’s not a fan of all the casual taxi bills charged to taxpayers. Also supports a two-tier healthcare system meaning those who can pay for private care get better care…
Kellie Leitch, 46 years old and Ontario MP since 2011. A pediatric orthopedic surgeon before entering politics, she recently, and very controversially, launched a campaign to promote the screening of immigrants and refugees for “anti-Canadian values.”
Steven Blaney, 51 years old and Quebec MP since 2006. He supports banning the wearing of the niqab while doing governmental things like voting or working as a federal public servant. Similar to Kellie Leitch, Blaney supports testing potential citizens on “their understanding and appreciation of Canada’s core principles.”
Michael Chong, 44 years old and Ontario MP since 2004. Michael is known by conservatives as a maverick in politics with a history of publicly disagreeing with his own party over policy. It has also been noted that believes that leaders elected to federal government hold too much power.
Pierre Lemieux, 53 years old and Ontario MP since 2006. A social conservative, Lemieux opposes same-sex marriage and abortion. Kind of looks a bit like Tony Robbins at first twitter glance.
Deeprak Obhrai, 66 years old and Alberta MP since 1997 – currently the longest serving in parliament. Just twenty years prior, he and his family immigrated to Canada from Tanzania in 1977.
Erin O’Toole, 43 years old and Ontario MP since 2012. Before entering into politics O’Toole was a lawyer for Proctor & Gamble and was in the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Rick Peterson, 61 years old and a 2014 candidate for the leadership of the British Columbia Conservative Party. Involved in venture capital, Peterson is a principal at Peterson Capital. He also advocates for increasing terrorist surveillance and enhancing security screening for immigrants.
Lisa Raitt, 48 years old and Ontario MP since 2008. Formerly the President and CEO of the Toronto Port Authority, Raitt is not in favour of divisive politics and has launched a website to stop Kevin O’Leary: www.stopkevinoleary.com.
Andrew Saxton, 52 years old and British Columbia MP since 2008. Touts his financial experience both in government, as the parliamentary secretary to two finance ministers, and in the private sector as major winning points.
Andrew Scheer, 37 years old and a Saskatchewan MP since 2004. He served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 2011 – 2015, meaning he was just 32 when he took that position and the youngest ever Speaker in Canadian history.
Brad Trost, 42 years old and Saskatchewan MP since 2004. Touts himself as “100% conservative” and believes that marriage is only between a man and a woman…
The election for conservative party leadership takes place this May.
