OTTAWA â Stephen Harperâs former director of communications has joined the outspoken criticism of Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, telling CTVâs Question Period that Scheerâs position on same-sex marriage âcould be fatalâ to his future as leader because not supporting same-sex marriage is âviewed increasingly as bigotry.â
âI think it could be a fatal issue. Maybe not in terms of a leadership vote within the Conservative Party but I think in terms of actually being successful in being elected to be the prime minister of the country, I think itâs a deal-stopper,â said Kory Teneycke, who was also a campaign manager to Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
In an interview that airs on Sunday, Teneycke said that Scheer is going to have to âcome aroundâ on the issue of same-sex marriage or heâs going to have big problemsâ keeping the job he has now. Teneycke compared the evolution in Canadian society on same-sex marriage to the civil rights movement in the United States.
âOverwhelmingly Canadians do not accept that you can hold the position that âI am not in favour of equal rights for gays and that I have a moral, a personal moral problem with gay marriage, I think that is viewed increasingly as bigotry,â Teneycke said. He said itâs not about marching in parades, itâs about whether Scheer, as a practising Catholic still views homosexuality as a sin.
âTo view it as a sin means that you think that being gay is a choice and I think most people would say itâs not,â said Teneycke, adding that he thinks there has been a sea of change in Canada on the issue since same-sex marriage was legalized in 2005 and, unlike abortion, he doesnât think itâs acceptable to be personally opposed to same-sex marriage and lead the country contrary to Scheerâs assertion.
This stands in since the election loss. Just days after the vote Scheer said he has no plans to march in Pride parades in the future and that social conservatives who do not personally support same-sex marriage among other issues, can still become prime minster.
Not marching is something that Conservative strategist Jason Lietaer called a âmistake.â He said heâs been hearing from Conservatives âall over Canada,â who are questioning Scheerâs assertion that a social conservative can lead the country in this day and age.
âThe question here, what he has to show, is that⌠thereâs lots of different ways you can show support for the gay community and heâs got to find a way between now and April to show that, because that is the key, or one of the keys... to winning the next election,â Lietaer said.
These perspectives follow on the heels of former Conservative cabinet minister Peter MacKay saying earlier this week that he thought the social conservative issues âhung around Andrew Scheerâs neck like stinking albatross,â and made female voters nervous.
Both Teneycke and Lietaer said that MacKay is not being disloyal by doing what is supposed to be done after an election loss, namely âa full and frank discussionâ about what went wrong.
âI think he was sharing his views, I think they are shared by others,â he said.
In an interview on CTVâs Power Play Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, who was also a longtime federal Conservative cabinet minister, said he doesnât think that Scheerâs position on same-sex marriage will be âfatal,â adding that he didnât think that it was a âlive issueâ in the 2019 election campaign.
âHis position is the same as Stephen Harperâs was and won three elections,â Kenney said. âThey won every urban seat in Alberta and nobody was talking about issues that were debated and resolved 15 or 20 years ago in Canadian politics. Itâs time to move on, the Conservative Party has.â
CTVNews.ca has asked Scheerâs office for comment and to further clarify his personal view. While he has said he remains personally pro-life but would uphold the law, when asked during the election if the same delineation applies to his views on same-sex marriage, Scheer
Scheer's record on LGBTQ rights to date
Throughout the campaign Scheer faced questions about his position on same-sex marriage, in part because, prior to the election, the Liberals recirculated a 2005 video of then-backbench MP Scheer speaking against it. In the 14-year-old 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 to being like calling a dogâs tail a leg.
He has not, and has no plans to march in pride parades, a position other federal leaders have chided him for, and as recently as the last Parliament he joined some of his caucus colleagues in voting against a bill that enshrined protections for trans people by adding gender identity and expression as prohibited grounds for discrimination under Canadian law.
Scheer and his office have sought to defend his stance, saying that his views have evolved, that Scheer considers the matter settled, and he would not reopen the issue if he was prime minister. He voted in favour of the Conservative party scrapping their internal policy definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman in 2016, and supporters have pointed to the partyâs past record for fighting for the rights of LGBTQ people in other countries.
"I find the notion that one's race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation would make anyone in any way superior or inferior to anybody else absolutely repugnant. And if there's anyone who disagrees with that, there's the door,â Scheer declared in a pre-campaign policy speech. During the race he did say that a Conservative government would âsupport and introduceâ legislation that âprotects LGBTQ Canadians,â though the Criminal Code and Human Rights Act already prohibit discrimination or hate on the basis of sexual orientation.
Leadership hurdles ahead
Because of the election loss, a leadership review will be triggered at the partyâs convention in Toronto in April, but itâs possible, if there are enough unsatisfied MPs who got elected under Scheerâs banner, that they unite and oust their leader sooner.
Under the Reform Act â a contentious legislative initiative led by once-Conservative leadership hopeful Michael Chong and passed in 2015 â MPs in a caucus have the ability to trigger a leadership review and vote within their caucus, when they meet in Ottawa on Nov. 6.
Should the Conservative caucus agree to the parameters of the Actâ something they did not do at the start of the last Parliament â it would take just 20 per cent of the caucus to sign on in agreement of a review. The actual secret ballot vote requires a majority to vote to replace the leader.
Both Teneycke and Lietaer said that they think Scheer will need to come out of his April review â viewing the early caucus mutiny as unlikely â with a very strong mandate, citing the 80 per cent threshold Harper set for himself during his tenure.
Whether he will? âThe jury is out on thatâ Teneycke said.
âTo beat Justin Trudeau, who has proven to be a strong brand who has weathered a lot of storms and the Liberal brand is very resilient, I think you need a party that is behind the leader, as much as possible,â said Lietaer.
âWeâve got to be together⌠Heâs got to bring everyone together and that requires a very strong mandate.â
CTVâs Question Period airs on ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝â Facebook page, ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝ Channel and CTV on Sunday at 11 a.m. EDT.