Andrew Scheer

Tuesday April 28, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday April 28, 2020

Conservatives are struggling to make their mark in the midst of a crisis

It’s been a rough six or seven weeks for most Canadians. Politically, it’s been especially tough time for the Conservative Party and its outgoing leader, Andrew Scheer.

Andrew Scheer Gallery

While the House of Commons has been shuttered for weeks due to the pandemic, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been holding daily press conferences, as have some of his most important cabinet ministers. While the House has resumed reduced operations — a once-weekly in-person sitting and two virtual sittings — the stage is not nearly as large as it was before.

That hasn’t kept Scheer from taking to the airwaves. Unlike most provincial opposition leaders across the country (Alberta’s Rachel Notley being one notable exception), the Conservative leader has been holding regular press conferences of his own.

While Scheer has tried to use that platform to lay out his criticisms of the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, he has at times been knocked off-message — for example, by questions about comments made by Derek Sloan, a Conservative MP and candidate for the leadership of the party, regarding the loyalty of Dr. Theresa Tam, the country’s chief public health officer.

Most provincial opposition leaders have kept relatively low profiles, with adjourned legislatures limiting them to press releases, email and social media to get their messages out.

Those efforts are unlikely to boost their popularity — particularly in the face of polling that suggests provincial governments have widespread support for their efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19.

But it doesn’t seem that Scheer’s more active approach is doing him or his party any favours, either. (CBC) 

March 27, 2020

Meanwhile, Ontario Premier Doug Ford called anti-lockdown protesters at Queen’s Park on Saturday “a bunch of yahoos” and said they were being “selfish” and “irresponsible” for demonstrating against provincial emergency orders in place to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Scores of people gathered on the Ontario legislative grounds on Saturday afternoon to call for an end to the shutdown of many services, businesses, activities and public spaces across the province amid the pandemic. At its peak, the protest drew about 200 people.

Ontario has been under a state of emergency for 40 days and much is closed as the number of COVID-19 deaths, hospitalizations and cases continues to rise. 

Ford, when asked by a reporter at a news conference about the protesters, blasted their actions. 

“These people that are absolutely irresponsible, it’s reckless to do what they’re doing. Personally, I think it’s selfish,” Ford said. (CBC) 

Meanwhile, Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre took aim at the Liberals’ coronavirus stimulus programs on Sunday, saying that while his party supports compensating Canadians amid the pandemic, the measures are not working as intended.

“These massive programs will be like a gigantic experiment in freakonomics because in many cases they are having the opposite of their intended effect,” he told reporters. (Global) https://globalnews.ca/news/6870332/coronavirus-freakonomics-conservative/

April 23, 2020

Meanwhile, President Trump’s public statements about using disinfectants to potentially treat the coronavirus have put him in the company of pseudoscientists and purveyors of phony elixirs who promote and sell industrial bleach as a “miracle cure” for autism, malaria and a long list of medical conditions.

The president’s comments, at a White House briefing last week, have already prompted widespread incredulity, warnings from health experts and a spike in calls to poison control centers around the country. The makers of Clorox and Lysol urged Americans not to inject or ingest their products. (New York Times) 

 

Tuesday January 28, 2020

January 28, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday January 28, 2020

Peter MacKay launches his campaign promising to unify and expand Conservative Party

Peter MacKay officially launched his leadership campaign on Saturday with a speech that emphasized his experience on the world stage, and promised to unify and expand the Conservative Party ahead of the next election.

Peter MacKay Cartoon Gallery

“Together we’ll expand outward that big blue tent, while strengthening its solid poles of conservative principle,” he said in a speech in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, the area which he represented in Parliament from 1997 to 2015.

“I stand here before you today with my heart on my sleeve for every Canadian, whoever you love, wherever you live,” he said.

The speech leaned heavily on MacKay’s experience in senior cabinet roles during Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, particularly his time as foreign affairs minister and defence minister. While pitching himself as a Prime Minister in waiting, he also took shots at Justin Trudeau.

He said Canada and the planet are facing “big challenges with big complicated questions,” but the current Liberal government is “shrugging and often doing more harm than good, virtue signalling without action.”

However, there were no specific policy proposals in the speech. Notably, the speech made no mention of climate change, instead discussing the general importance of protecting the environment.

“We’re stewards of the environment,” he said. “The greatest gift that we’ve received as Canadians, alongside our freedom and democracy, is our natural splendour of land and sea.”

May 2, 2019

MacKay is widely seen as the frontrunner in the Conservative leadership race, which will end June 27 in Toronto. His main competition, at least for the time being, is expected to be Ontario MP Erin O’Toole. O’Toole is launching is campaign Monday in Alberta.

Three high-profile potential contenders for the Conservative leadership race — Jean Charest, Rona Ambrose and Pierre Poilieve — all dropped out over the past week. However, candidates still have until Feb. 27 to enter the race, so others may come forward.

Other candidates who have declared their intention to run include Ontario MPs Marilyn Gladu and Derek Sloan, Alberta businessman Rick Peterson, and former Conservative staffer Richard Decarie. (National Post) 

 

Friday December 13, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday December 13, 2019

Conservatives face an awkward question: What if Scheer wasn’t the problem?

On the simplest level, Andrew Scheer was merely a political leader who failed — a politician who made too many mistakes and suffered self-inflicted wounds that cut too deep.

Andrew Scheer Gallery

The larger legacy of his time as Conservative leader may end up being that of a politician who saw the times pass him by  — yesterday’s man, his ideas and positions out of step with a significant majority of voters.

But that depends on where his party and Canadian politics go next.

Scheer’s sudden (but not entirely surprising) exit on Thursday was quickly accompanied by reports that the Conservative Party had somehow been covering part of the cost of his children’s education at a private school. That might not seem like a problem in and of itself, at least not a significant one.

But Scheer had just spent an election campaign pitching himself as a middle-class everyman, a stark contrast to an affluent and privileged Liberal leader — a prime minister Scheer and other Conservatives had ridiculed  for using the budget of his official residence to hire nannies.

The matter of financial assistance also fits a pattern.

Late in this fall’s campaign, Scheer had to admit that he was a dual citizen of Canada and the United States — despite having previously questioned the dual citizenship of former governor general Michaëlle Jean.

That revelation came shortly after Scheer was compelled to admit that he had not been licensed as an insurance broker, despite having claimed to have worked as a broker before entering politics (he also had only worked in an insurance office for six or seven months).

While all of this was going on, the Conservatives were still loudly insisting that Justin Trudeau was “not as advertised.”

Scheer’s struggles were not limited to contradictions. He wouldn’t — or couldn’t — account for his previously stated views on same-sex marriage. He never found a way to explain why he wouldn’t march in a Pride parade. And during the first televised leaders’ debate, he was noticeably reluctant to acknowledge to that he was personally opposed to abortion.

Scheer’s campaign became a personal identity crisis. And then he failed to defeat a vulnerable opponent. (Continued: CBC) 

 

Andrew Scheer Gallery

Andrew Scheer resigned as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada today. Here is a gallery of cartoons:

May 30, 2017
December 13, 2017
August 17, 2018
August 24, 2018
November 20, 2018
Howdy Doodie Andy Scheer
March 5, 2019
April 13, 2019
May 2, 2019
May 7, 2019
June 8, 2019
June 11, 2019
June 20, 2019
July 13, 2019
July 17, 2019
August 27, 2019
September 26, 2019
October 2, 2019
October 24, 2019
October 31, 2019
November 7, 2019
December 13, 2019
April 28, 2020
January 28, 2020

Wednesday November 20, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday November 20, 2019

Why affordability is (was) dominating Canada’s election campaign

(Article published 6 weeks before editorial cartoon was printed)

September 19, 2019

Canada’s political party leaders are making affordability the central talking point of their election campaigns, rolling out targeted measures to alleviate the financial strain besetting voters.

Though broad economic data show the nation’s economy is humming along, Canadians are still feeling tight on cash. The worsening global outlook and unprecedented policy uncertainty are adding to the apprehension.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, along with the leaders of smaller parties are seeking to parlay that stress into votes as the clock winds down on the Oct. 21 election, by promising a slew of tax cuts and other measures to make life more affordable.

“Politicians are putting their finger on something, some form of financial anxiety about rising costs, or concerns about future rising costs, or future standard of living,” said Jennifer Robson, associate professor of political management at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Here’s why consumers are feeling pinched.

It’s old news that owning a home in Canada’s biggest cities has become an almost impossible goal for much of the middle class. Skyrocketing prices in recent years pushed potential buyers to the sidelines. New mortgage lending rules, so-called stress tests introduced by federal regulators in 2017, put ownership even further out of reach for many.

September 12, 2019

Toronto and Vancouver are easily Canada’s two main cities where residents are struggling to find an affordable place to live. The average selling price for a single-family home in Vancouver was $1.51 million in September, and $1.1 million in Toronto. Renting in those cities is no easy feat, either, as low vacancy rates have pushed up prices for accommodation.

Elevated real estate prices are the main driver of the country’s record household debt ratios, now the highest in the Group of Seven. Buyers took out larger and larger mortgages as the housing market heated up, even as incomes failed to keep pace. As a result, household savings rates are hovering near the lowest in decades, and the debt service ratio — which measures the share of disposable income paid toward principal and interest — climbed to a record in the second quarter.

While overall price inflation in Canada has been relatively benign, shoppers have experienced sticker shock on many basics. Prices for fruits and vegetables jumped as much as 60 per cent in the past decade, according to Statistics Canada. Child-care and tuition costs rose upwards of 35 per cent, and public transit prices ballooned by 50 per cent.

To top it all off, wages after accounting for inflation have remained relatively flat, even as costs for rent and basic goods increased. A puzzle for many economists and policy-makers is why unemployment is hovering near record lows, yet incomes are struggling to pick up. (Hamilton Spectator)