Juno News - Will Andrew Scheer resign as CPC Leader？

00:00:00.000 I'm here at the Delta Regina, day after the election, the day after Justin Trudeau was

00:00:13.320 brought down to a minority and the Conservatives increased their vote share by about 20%.

00:00:18.060 One of the big questions that I've been asking people, that people have been asking me,

00:00:22.220 will Andrew Scheer resign as leader? He made it official the day after the election. He's

00:00:27.540 not going anywhere. He's remaining as the leader of the Conservatives and he says there's a lot of

00:00:31.720 work to do, not just to hold Justin Trudeau to account, but to make sure that the Conservative

00:00:35.920 Party is ready to take him on in the next election. And Andrew Scheer says he's planning to be the

00:00:40.940 leader when that happens. Now the interesting thing is that the Conservatives no doubt had

00:00:46.260 success in many parts of the country. They increased their vote share in the West, they increased their

00:00:51.540 vote share in all regions in fact, and Justin Trudeau decreased his in all regions. But still

00:00:57.120 the question that a lot of people on the right are asking is, did this campaign do the best job at

00:01:01.840 selling its message, and did it have the best message for Canadians? And this is the one thing

00:01:07.440 that I was asking people at the election night party for the Conservatives. Where does Andrew Scheer

00:01:12.520 go from here? Now obviously this is in his home turf, the party was held in his riding of Regina

00:01:18.180 Capel, but there was a lot of enthusiasm, not just for the Conservatives showing, but specifically

00:01:23.280 for Andrew Scheer's role in it. And I want to show you some of those responses that people gave when I

00:01:29.600 asked about whether Andrew Scheer should stay on. You know what, he won the, I think he won the popular

00:01:36.000 vote, right? So that speaks volumes. I think that, you know, everyone just has to take a look at the

00:01:44.000 data. You know, it's obviously his decision. I would support him if he wants to stay on, of course.

00:01:50.620 Andrew is absolutely the best leader that's ever been around for some time, and for sure he should

00:01:58.280 absolutely stay on, there's no doubt about it. I would really encourage Andrew to stay where he's at,

00:02:03.860 because I feel as a Canadian, us and our children and our grandchildren, we need to stand on people

00:02:10.660 that have moral compass. I think it's time for him to stay on as leader, but I sincerely think he

00:02:16.620 needs to have some, a new reinvigoration. He's, you know, always smiling, he's always so happy,

00:02:23.800 we know that, and that's one of the things I love about him. But on the grand scale of all things,

00:02:28.720 in the world stage, this man needs to be a little bit more forceful, I think, to be taken seriously.

00:02:35.860 And right now, Andrew Scheer's politics, his values, and his path forward is what's right for me,

00:02:41.320 my family, and personally, I think what's right for Canada. Now, obviously, these people were very

00:02:46.040 pleased, or will be, with what Andrew Scheer had to say himself when he was asked by reporters the

00:02:51.220 following morning. Here's what Andrew Scheer said.

00:02:53.320 Yes, I am staying as leader of the party. We obviously are very happy with the many aspects

00:02:59.280 of the campaign. We obviously wish we had better results, but we point to the fact that we won the

00:03:05.120 popular vote, a million more votes for our party last night than ever before, and we have the

00:03:11.040 strongest opposition in Canadian history. So this was the first step in a process to replace Justin

00:03:16.680 Trudeau's government with a Conservative government that will put people first, make life more affordable,

00:03:21.320 and help create economic prosperity for all of Canada. Now, obviously, the Regina enthusiasm is not

00:03:26.900 necessarily representative of the country, but we see the pitch that Andrew Scheer is making. More

00:03:31.560 people in Canada voted for the Conservatives than any other party, and while the national popular

00:03:36.340 vote doesn't really get you all that much in Canada, it does show that the Conservative movement

00:03:40.780 is, in Andrew Scheer's eyes anyway, alive and well, and the rebuilding begins. He made a pitch for national

00:03:47.060 unity. He said, you know what, the Conservatives have a mandate to hold Justin Trudeau to account.

00:03:52.900 That's what he's saying here, trumpeting this not as a victory, but certainly not as a loss either.

00:03:58.060 Now, not everyone I spoke to was on board that Scheer is the guy who should stay around

00:04:02.940 for the next mandate. There was one person I spoke to, and only one, who said he should

00:04:07.700 probably go. Here's what this gentleman told me.

00:04:10.360 I mean, I think the reality is that he probably will go. I think that the Conservatives felt that

00:04:17.960 this was an election where they could make a lot of gains, and I think there was a lot of

00:04:21.680 surprising results. I think their support in Ontario really didn't materialize anywhere near as they had

00:04:27.100 hoped. I think they had a net seat gain of two, which was, I think, a lot less than we had hoped

00:04:31.760 for. So I think there'll be a lot of pressure to find someone who can garner more support,

00:04:36.640 particularly in Ontario.

00:04:37.700 Now, as you can hear, he's not against Andrew Scheer. He's not ready to ditch Andrew Scheer.

00:04:42.100 He's more relenting to the fact that, you know what, probably with the showing, this is what's likely

00:04:48.160 to happen, specifically looking at some of the performance that the Conservatives had

00:04:51.940 in the Greater Toronto area. Now, this is an important region in Canada, the 905, areas in

00:04:57.520 the suburbs around Toronto that Stephen Harper carried in 2011, that Doug Ford carried in the

00:05:02.840 2018 election in Ontario, and ones where the Conservative Party of Canada really didn't have

00:05:08.120 any breakthroughs. And I asked Andrew Scheer about that. Why couldn't he and why couldn't his

00:05:12.580 Conservative campaign do what was needed to be done there? This is what Andrew Scheer told me.

00:05:18.340 Obviously, we were hoping that we would gain significantly in those areas that you mentioned.

00:05:25.340 But I will point out that we made incredible steps last night. A million more votes than ever

00:05:31.520 before for our party. More votes for our party. More Canadians supported my platform and our team

00:05:38.100 last night than any other party. So there's a lot of reasons to be encouraged. And we're going

00:05:42.740 to go through the results and analyze the campaign and address what didn't work and do more of what

00:05:48.140 did work. So as you can hear, really not accepting a loss, accepting disappointment, but saying the

00:05:53.180 Conservatives are well positioned for the next fight. That's the message we're getting from

00:05:57.540 Andrew Scheer and the Conservative Party of Canada. From Regina for True North, I'm Andrew Lutton.

Juno News - October 23, 2019

Will Andrew Scheer resign as CPC Leader？

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