Hamilton reacts to Scheer’s Conservative leadership

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New Conservative leader Andrew Scheer has become the second ever leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, narrowly defeating Quebec MP Maxime Bernier last night.

However, many in Hamilton don’t know very much about the man who could become Canada’s next Prime Minister in two years. Many are calling it a surprising win for Scheer. Political scientist Peter Graefe says the father of five from Regina played it safe throughout his campaign, and it paid off.

“He was a very centrist candidate in a race where we had extremes,” Graefe said. “We had Kellie Leitch bringing in a kind of racist character to the Conservative Party we hadn’t seen previously. We had Maxime Bernier running on a very string free enterprise platform.”

As the second leader of the Conservative Party, Scheer spoke very highly of the party’s first leader, Stephen Harper, during his speech yesterday in Toronto.

“His principal position allowed Canada to stand tall on the world stage with our allies,” Scheer said.

The new leader’s admiration of Stephen Harper is troubling for some.

“From what I understand he sounds basically like Stephen Harper again… I’m not terribly impressed.”

While 38-year-old Scheer is young, Graefe says he doesn’t have many fresh, new ideas.

“He’s certainly not reflecting the kinds of ideas milennials are talking about like ‘Where are we going to get jobs and stable jobs’, “How are we going to deal with climate change?”

Scheer’s focus is on the common ground that many Conservatives share: free speech, balanced budgets and lower taxes. He opposed motion M-103 which condemns Islamophobia and says he would ban federal funding to universities that limit free speech.

Of the majority of the people in downtown Hamilton who spoke with CHCH, most say they didn’t follow the Conservative election and many did not know who won.

Whether or not Scheer will be successful in overtaking the Trudeau government will have to wait until 2019.