Newfoundlander

Yes, he was right.

You're an idiot.

Well Harper did the same thing and Scheer says he plans to do the exact same thing.

I prefer my leader's to believe it equal rights and not be afraid of allowing caucus members to speak up because you're afraid of showing how out of touch you are.

I'd agree with you if the Conservatives had a sensible leader as an alternative to Trudeau.

hahahaha

Yet, he booted Harper from office and will prevent Scheer from ever getting to power.

At least Trudeau worked outside the walls of parliament. Scheer is a light weight and will be destroyed by Trudeau. Hopefully, the CPC will smarten up so the religious right doesn't win the leadership again.

I guess the party wasn't willing to move on from Stephen Harper. What an awful result. Trudeau might be all style and no substance but Scheer seems to be no style nor substance. After all the criticizing Conservatives did of Trudeau's resume they managed to elect someone with an even weaker one.

How is he not. Polling shows the Liberals over 40%. I'm not a fan of Trudeau and I think there are many people who supported him who have been somewhat disappointed. I disagree that he's out of his league. Maybe I just had low expectations but I think he has performed okay. Although many of his policy decisions - which don't seem unpopular - I disagree with. I think his cabinet is one of the reasons he's done well. I think he has many competent people there. Wilson-Raybould, Freeland and Philpott have all been strong, especially considering their lack of experience in politics. McKenna has also been a competent minister. Carr is considered to be doing very well as is Goodale. Morneau has been a real disappointment as has Chaggar, and Monsef. LeBlanc was awful as House Leader. Nobody else stands out as glaringly bad. Harper's cabinet definitely wasn't very strong. Although that's partly due to his leadership style, those who stayed did as he wanted.

Amazing how he manages to poll higher now than when he was elected then.

How is Trudeau damaging his brand?

While do you think it should be Alexander? And how do you see Maxime Bernier as Stephen Harper reincarnated? In my opinion, they represent two different brands of conservativism, have different personalities, and while Harper opted for incremental changes with regard to policy Bernier has shown he'd like to be more bold. Maxime Bernier and Michael Chong - and more so Bernier - are the two candidates I see as representing the biggest change in direction for the party.

Bernier looks well positioned but it's quite possible for O'Toole or Scheer to overtake him. If Chong, Raitt and Lemieux supporters largely choose O'Toole and Scheer as their second and third choice it could be enough for one of them to overtake Bernier.

I don't think his libertarian stances are too out of line - though they're are usually positions I hold anyway - I just think he wants to do too much too fast. I think there's a lack of pragmatism with regard to how much he would be able to implement in a four year period. His position regarding health transfers is something I don't think he should have been advocating at this time, especially seeing we just had federal/provincial negotiations. As well, by running on so many policies - especially fairly bold policies - your message regarding them kind of gets lost. I've heard people say he plans to privatize CBC, when he actually plans to change their mandate and reduce their spending. I've followed this race very closely and I don't necessarily understand his positions that well because he has put out so many policies and hasn't explained them that clearly.

+1

So you think he can beat Trudeau by advocating for a 30% reduction in the size of government? The west will probably vote Conservative as usual but I don't see how Bernier's current platform will resonate with the people who decide elections. He'll be like the NDP.

I don't see how he could ever win an election.

Their campaign said 35,000, but some may have joined through the party website to support him.

O'Leary is dropping out this evening to endorse Bernier.

259,000 people are eligible to vote.

I think many Bernier and Chong supporters could easily support Scheer or O'Toole. Not so sure about O'Leary's, particularly his new supporters. I think they'd go for more of an outsider candidate, if they choose anyone.

Just my opinion. I think they have similar economic messages to an extent and are in-line on social issues. Although the three candidates are quite different, I've seen a bit of overlap in support for Bernier and Chong and to a lesser extent O'Leary. Many of their supporters are looking for a candidate who's bolder on policy and different than Harper. Scheer and O'Toole could be well positioned for a final two spot but would O'Leary go to them?

Imagine trying to build roads and other infrastructure. Andrew Scheer brought up enshrining property rights in the constitution and I saw someone bring up that you'd never get pipelines built if they were.

That would mean Alexander would have to finish ahead of O'Leary. How would he ever finish ahead of O'Leary? Yes, it's all about second, third choice etc. But you still need to have enough first ballot support in order to pick up other candidates second or third choice votes. Alexander is polling at ~2%. It seems unlikely at this point that O'Leary won't make it into at least the top three. If he doesn't make it into the top two I'd say his supporters would likely go to Bernier.