EDITORIAL: Conservative regicide is nothing new

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Ever since the Justin Trudeau Liberals won the 2015 election, the Conservative Party has been electing new leaders and, after one election, dumping them.

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The subtext of this ongoing regicide is the age-old battle between red and blue Tories and movement Conservatives versus those who believe ideological purity doesn’t matter unless you win.

This ongoing fight burst into the open again last week when Postmedia’s Brian Lilley, one of the most influential conservative columnists in the country, wrote a column titled “Does Pierre Poilievre actually want to be prime minister?”

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Lilley criticized Poilievre for picking fights with Conservatives — including Premier Doug Ford and his chief political strategist Kory Teneycke — that Lilley argued he needs to form alliances with if he’s going to defeat Mark Carney and the Liberals.

Poilievre had used his introduction of newly-elected B.C. Conservative Party Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay at a Calgary Stampede barbecue to take a shot at Ford and his team, congratulating her on “a big win against Liberal lobbyists from out east”, a reference to the fact that Findlay had narrowly defeated Caroline Elliott, whose campaign was managed by Teneycke.

Teneycke had accused Poilievre of “campaign malpractice” during last year’s election for blowing a massive lead in the polls by failing to pivot to meet the new challenge posed by Mark Carney as opposed to Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader.

The reality is that these internal fights are nothing new in the Conservative Party.

Teneycke was instrumental in deposing Andrew Scheer as Conservative leader following his 2019 election loss, co-founding a group called “Conservative Victory” with the goal of dumping him.

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The next Conservative leader — Erin O’Toole — was dumped by the Conservative caucus by a vote of 73 to 45 after losing the 2021 election.

Thus, it’s hardly a surprise some within the Conservative Party now want to dump Poilievre for losing last year’s election, despite the fact 87.4% of delegates to a post-election leadership review held in Calgary earlier this year supported him..

The Conservatives, who, to the delight of the Liberals, continue to publicly squabble among themselves, are ignoring the reality that the only way to victory is through unity.

The last Conservative leader who understood that and achieved it was Stephen Harper. He won three consecutive elections.

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