Dr. Kellie Leitch wants to be leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.  She’s been part of the party for a long time, and was part of the team that supported the Mike Harris Tories in the late 1990s.  Her pedigree being pretty solid, one of her major problems is the fact that most Canadians will know her for her major policy announcement during the 2015 election on the so called snitch line for those who engage in ‘barbaric cultural practices.’  Now, in a recent interview with the CBC’s Rosie Barton, she takes full responsibility for making the announcement, sort of.

On the snitch line, she says “we weren’t talking about race, we were talking about kids.” Really?  She goes on: “but that message was completely overtaken” then adding her regret that it occurred.  I honestly can’t imagine why anybody might try to overtake that message.

Here are some of the major problems that I see with this entire positioning:

Problem 1: The policy was most clearly appealing to racial/religious bias.  Anybody with an ounce of political acumen could see it.  Clearly, voters with only a faint interest in politics could see it.  Nobody should pretend it wasn’t. If we are too scared to address it publicly, then the party won’t come to understand how necessary it is for every conservative thinking individual to not only want to vote for the party, but also act on that desire.  I mean, seriously, the party’s massive multicultural outreach program was squandered as a result of this stupid policy – an outreach strategy that was premised on the principle that people who believe in conservative values should actually vote Conservative.  In the end, the conservative multi-cultural community sacrificed those conservative ideas for not wanting to be a political scapegoat.  I don’t blame them.

Problem 2: If, after reflecting for many months about the campaign, you still feel this was about the kids, then I have serious questions about your judgement. How could you still be championing a comms line that clearly has not worked? I get that message people want you to stick to the lines during a campaign, but now there actually is a moment of reflection where you can search for purpose.  To make matters worse, it appears in the CBC clip (linked above) that she looks at her notes before delivering the mea culpa.  There is a complete lack of sincerity and disconnect which makes the tearing up moment lacking in authenticity.

Problem 3: Good grief, the easiest way to deal with that stupid policy is to say some variation of the following: “the voters passed judgement on that policy in 2015, and their impression was clear. We won’t be doing that again.  What we will be doing is…”  And hopefully what you will be doing is something that actually speaks to why you want to be Prime Minister.

Problem 4: If a journalist leads back to 2015, why not avoid musing about barbaric cultural practices?  Why not muse about how terrible it was for a party that spent nearly a decade in power to not have any other compelling reason for voters to take a look other than Justin not being ready and you get some really sour anti-freedom policies too?  The fact that we weren’t prepared to read the change message well enough is the big problem.  No major tax reform proposals. No major changes to economic development policies.  No measurable promises for freer trade. Nothing at all on property rights.  Those last 4 sentences are precisely why I thought 2015 was lacking.

You see, if we spend the long year before the new Conservative Party leader is selected talking about what we didn’t like about 2015, we won’t know who is going to do what differently in 2019.  That’s where the conversation needs to be, and unless that happens, party members will be robbed of the opportunity to engage in a process of renewal.

Truthfully, the 2015 campaign was an exercise in contrasts.  The Conservatives wanted to run a substantive campaign without substance.  They campaigned because Justin wasn’t ready, but they gave him nearly 3 months to prove that he was.  Harper spent the second half of his last term being vehemently hated by a majority of Canadians, yet he runs a campaign on his strong ‘proven leadership.’  It’s amazing that there is even time to talk about barbaric cultural practices given all of these other things that actually should be talked about.  We’ll see if it ever does.

Disclaimer: I am not involved in the Conservative Party leadership race nor have I pledged support for any particular candidate.  I’m simply articulating an independent perspective.