University of Calgary professor emeritus Tom Flanagan says Pierre Poilievre can unite his party — and should know how..Poilievre has been a Conservative MP since 2004, and Flanagan says his 11 years under Stephen Harper can only help..“He was a member of that caucus all that time. So he should know the way that you can do this. It's not rocket science, really, but it takes a certain amount of discipline. You have to deliberately set out to unify the party. There are things even behind the scenes. For example, helping your opponents to pay … campaign debts,” Flanagan said.. Stephen Harper .“Harper showed this can be done. He did this twice, in fact, because first he was elected leader of the Canadian Alliance, and the Canadian Alliance was very badly divided. There was a group that that actually left the party and set up their own caucus. So, it was a much more difficult situation.”.In 2002, Harper won leadership of the Canadian Alliance with 55% of the vote, while Stockwell Day received 37%. In the leadership campaign, Harper called Day’s time at the helm “amateurish,” yet appointed him minister of Public Safety when the Conservatives formed government in 2006. .In the Conservative Party’s first leadership contest in 2004, Harper won 56% of the vote, while Belinda Stronach took almost 35%, and Tony Clement 9%. Harper made former Progressive Conservative leader Peter McKay as deputy leader..Poilievre, who was endorsed by Harper, dominated in his leadership election with 68.15% of the allocated points and 70.7% of the votes. He signed up a record 311,958 members to the party, which was more than the membership totals in the 2017 and 2020 races. When Justin Trudeau signed up 150,000 new Liberal Party members before becoming leader in 2013, the Toronto Star called it “staggering.”. Andrew ScheerAndrew Scheer .“It's certainly a good start. It's not like when Andrew Scheer barely beat Max Bernier. The two times Harper won the leadership, his margin wasn't that great as this is. So yeah, it's pretty overwhelming, but there's a lot of things he has to do as leader to keep going, to keep the unity of the party. The thing is Liberals and Conservatives are so evenly matched the Conservatives can't afford to drive away important groups of voters. They have to keep it all together and add to it," Flanagan said. .Early Conservative history and conventional wisdom says you can’t please everyone..“I remember Scott Brison left the party, wouldn't go through the merger. Belinda [Stronach] left after a while. Sometimes it doesn't work, but you don't want to be the one to be just pushing them out. You want to show that you've done everything, but you still couldn't do it.”.Charest was far behind Poilievre with 16% of the points and 11% of the votes. He was the top choice for six Quebec constituencies and two in Ontario, while Poilievre took the remaining 330. Charest congratulated Poilievre for his victory and urged unity in the party, though Flanagan says Charest couldn’t have led an exodus even if he’d tried.. Jean Charest .“Charest doesn't really lead a faction within the party. He was brought in from outside to be a candidate. So if he decides not to play ball well, OK, so he goes back to retirement. It's not like he would necessarily take a group of MPs with him because he doesn't have any place to take them,” Flanagan said..“Somebody who's been premier of Quebec doesn't usually want to go sit at the back benches in Ottawa, so he probably won't run.”.Poilievre sold 25,453 memberships in Quebec. By comparison Andrew Scheer sold less than 10,000 memberships across Canada before becoming leader in 2017.
University of Calgary professor emeritus Tom Flanagan says Pierre Poilievre can unite his party — and should know how..Poilievre has been a Conservative MP since 2004, and Flanagan says his 11 years under Stephen Harper can only help..“He was a member of that caucus all that time. So he should know the way that you can do this. It's not rocket science, really, but it takes a certain amount of discipline. You have to deliberately set out to unify the party. There are things even behind the scenes. For example, helping your opponents to pay … campaign debts,” Flanagan said.. Stephen Harper .“Harper showed this can be done. He did this twice, in fact, because first he was elected leader of the Canadian Alliance, and the Canadian Alliance was very badly divided. There was a group that that actually left the party and set up their own caucus. So, it was a much more difficult situation.”.In 2002, Harper won leadership of the Canadian Alliance with 55% of the vote, while Stockwell Day received 37%. In the leadership campaign, Harper called Day’s time at the helm “amateurish,” yet appointed him minister of Public Safety when the Conservatives formed government in 2006. .In the Conservative Party’s first leadership contest in 2004, Harper won 56% of the vote, while Belinda Stronach took almost 35%, and Tony Clement 9%. Harper made former Progressive Conservative leader Peter McKay as deputy leader..Poilievre, who was endorsed by Harper, dominated in his leadership election with 68.15% of the allocated points and 70.7% of the votes. He signed up a record 311,958 members to the party, which was more than the membership totals in the 2017 and 2020 races. When Justin Trudeau signed up 150,000 new Liberal Party members before becoming leader in 2013, the Toronto Star called it “staggering.”. Andrew ScheerAndrew Scheer .“It's certainly a good start. It's not like when Andrew Scheer barely beat Max Bernier. The two times Harper won the leadership, his margin wasn't that great as this is. So yeah, it's pretty overwhelming, but there's a lot of things he has to do as leader to keep going, to keep the unity of the party. The thing is Liberals and Conservatives are so evenly matched the Conservatives can't afford to drive away important groups of voters. They have to keep it all together and add to it," Flanagan said. .Early Conservative history and conventional wisdom says you can’t please everyone..“I remember Scott Brison left the party, wouldn't go through the merger. Belinda [Stronach] left after a while. Sometimes it doesn't work, but you don't want to be the one to be just pushing them out. You want to show that you've done everything, but you still couldn't do it.”.Charest was far behind Poilievre with 16% of the points and 11% of the votes. He was the top choice for six Quebec constituencies and two in Ontario, while Poilievre took the remaining 330. Charest congratulated Poilievre for his victory and urged unity in the party, though Flanagan says Charest couldn’t have led an exodus even if he’d tried.. Jean Charest .“Charest doesn't really lead a faction within the party. He was brought in from outside to be a candidate. So if he decides not to play ball well, OK, so he goes back to retirement. It's not like he would necessarily take a group of MPs with him because he doesn't have any place to take them,” Flanagan said..“Somebody who's been premier of Quebec doesn't usually want to go sit at the back benches in Ottawa, so he probably won't run.”.Poilievre sold 25,453 memberships in Quebec. By comparison Andrew Scheer sold less than 10,000 memberships across Canada before becoming leader in 2017.
