OTTAWA -- The co-chair of the Conservative Party of Canadaâs leadership campaign thinks that all of the partyâs 2019 candidates should be able to see the findings of former Tory cabinet minister John Bairdâs external review of the campaign.
ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝ political analyst Lisa Raitt said that she thinks the findings of the internal reportâwhich the Conservatives say they have no intention of making public or sharing beyond outgoing Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer and his successorâshould be made available to every candidate who ran for the party in the last federal election.
âFailed candidates took part and were interviewed. The results should be shared with them,â Raitt, who was an unsuccessful 2019 election candidate and former deputy leader of the party, said in an email noting that it wouldnât necessarily mean disclosing the entire report.
And, responding to Raittâs comments, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner agreed that âthis needs to happen.â
âThere are clear structural deficiencies that have been identified in this report which need to have a plan developed to rectify,â she said questioning how the party could evaluate the plan going forward if they canât see what the identified issues are.
Bairdâs report is based on feedback he gathered through meetings with riding-level staff, volunteers, and those who worked in the partyâs campaign war room.
âI need to be able to go to my constituents, my donors, my members, my stakeholders and my staff and tell them what we feel went wrong and how we're going to fix it. I also need to know that the hours I spent giving feedback means something,â Rempel Garner said.
The findings have landed in Scheerâs hands one day after the formal leadership race process opened up, and comes as prominent party members are beginning to throw their hats into the ring to replace him.
Rempel Garner said that she thinks the leadership contestants need to be able to say what their plan would be for fixing the issues identified and the membership able to evaluate whether their plans would be sufficient.
Report: discomfort with same-sex marriage âan electoral liabilityâ
At least one of the takeaways from the postmortem on the Conservative partyâs federal election campaign was that Scheerâs unsuccessful bid to be prime minister indicates that a political leader who appears uncomfortable with same-sex marriage is âan electoral liability no party can afford.â
That is according to a single line from Bairdâs report provided to ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝ by a source on the partyâs national council.
âOne positive result of the otherwise dispiriting federal election is that it confirmed large majority support for LGBTQ rights. A political leader who considers gay families less worthy of respect or is visibly uncomfortable with marriage equality is now an electoral liability no party can afford,â reads the portion of the report.
Scheer was asked repeatedly during the campaign to clarify his current personal views and political position on same-sex marriage and LGBTQ rights more broadly in the lead-up to, and throughout the 40-day federal election campaign.
These questions were prompted after the Liberals resurfaced a 2005 video of then-backbench MP Scheer speaking against marriage equality. In the House of Commons speech, Scheer said that âhomosexual unions are by nature contradictoryâ to the inherent qualities of marriage and compared the idea of granting same-sex couples the legal right to marry with calling a dogâs tail a leg.
Scheer â who has not participated in Pride parades â sought to defend his views, saying that his stance had evolved, he considers the matter settled, would find other ways to support the community, and he would not reopen the issue of same-sex marriage if he was prime minister.
After the campaign concluded several prominent Conservative voices spoke out about Scheerâs position and messaging on the matter, saying his stance could ultimately cost him his job.
Facing continued criticism on this aspect of the race and others, as well as questions about his ability to defeat Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, on Dec. 12 Scheer announced heâd be resigning as leader as soon as his replacement is named.
Report lands as race heats up
Itâs expected that each candidate will be questioned on their positons on social issues including same-sex marriage and abortion in the course of the partyâs months-long leadership election process.
So far, ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝ has confirmed Conservative MPs Pierre Poilievre and Erin OâToole both plan to enter the race, and Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu has already announced her plan to run. Former NDP leader and ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝ political analyst Tom Mulcair has said former Quebec premier Jean Charest is also considering a bid.
On Wednesday, Peter MacKay, who was federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada leader pre-merger, said heâs âin.â After the election he said that social issues hung around Scheerâs neck like a âstinking albatross.â
The victor is scheduled to be declared in Toronto on June 27, at a convention that coincides with the cityâs Pride festivities. The Conservative party has said the timing wasnât a factor in the decision-making process around when the vote would be held.
With files from ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝â Michel Boyer and Sarah Turnbull