OTTAWA – The last time the Federal Conservatives elected a leader, their race was transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
More than two years later, they are back in it. But this time the race takes place during what appears to be the end of Canadians living by government pandemic rules.
The events of the last 25 months, since the health crisis first erupted so far, have shaped the race for who will lead the Conservative Party after September 10th.
“The whole concept of talking about freedom is definitely a direct result of the pandemic,” said Chris Chapin, managing director of the Upstream Strategy Group, which has worked on previous leadership campaigns for progressive conservative candidates in Ontario.
Longtime party lawmaker Pierre Poalier is campaigning to make Canada “the freest nation on earth.” Opposing the mandates for masks and vaccines is a big part of his message, which he conveys to crowds that sometimes swell to thousands.
Last week, he addressed an almost unmasked crowd of more than 250 people who gathered in a conference room at a hotel in western Quebec, where the mask mandate was still in force.
Chapen said Poilievre had clearly touched on the anxiety people had experienced living in the pandemic, including those in large platforms that climbed into Ottawa in the winter and refused to leave the city’s streets for weeks, insisting termination of all COVID-19 rules.
Leslin Lewis, who finished third in the 2020 race, is also campaigning against the mandates.
She also publicly opposed the signing of a treaty with Canada by the World Health Organization, which she suggested to supporters in a recent email that it would threaten the “national health sovereignty of the country”.
The WHO Governing Body has launched a process to draft and negotiate an international agreement to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
In another statement, Lewis said he refused to disclose his vaccination status “in principle” and promised to introduce legislation to protect those who choose to remain unvaccinated from “discrimination” if it wins power.
Chapin added that defending the religious freedom of Brampton, Ont., Mayor Patrick Brown also likely resonates with those who have spent months unable to attend church under pandemic rules.
For both Chapen and longtime conservative strategist Melanie Paradis, who remains neutral in the race, much of the importance behind messages against the candidates’ mandate boils down to selling membership.
The deadline for candidates to enroll supporters as party members is June 3rd.
Paradis said focusing on mandates is an effective way to gain strength in the leadership race. But the party risks wasting too much energy on pandemic policies that are no longer in force and from which wider Canadian society has moved away at a time when the party needs to expand its electoral coalition, she said.
“We place so much emphasis on these issues that will not matter at all until we reach a general election,” she said.
“It’s actually completely non-strategic.”
In addition to selling membership, some candidates are also campaigning against COVID-19 for money.
One example is Roman Baber, a non-Ontario MP who rose to prominence after being expelled from Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative group for speaking out against blocking COVID-19.
Without much recognition of the names, Baber, who was first elected to provincial politics in 2018, successfully raised $ 300,000 and collected the 500 nomination signatures the party needed to be in the final vote.
“My detractors say I’m fighting COVID and that’s the end of it,” Baber wrote on Twitter recently. “Really? Millions of Canadians are still subject to unprecedented discrimination.”
Another outsider whose name may appear in the last ballot is Joseph Burgo, a Saskatchewan businessman. He traveled to Ottawa as part of the Freedom Convoy and recently appeared in a photo with Chris Barber, one of the organizers, who is now facing charges for his role in the protest.
Former NHL player Theo Florey, whose social media posts are full of anti-vaccination statements, is campaigning for Burgo. The applicant advertised medically rebuttable alternative treatments for COVID-19, such as ivermectin and zinc hydroxychloroquine.
“These are the messages I receive and resonate with Canadians,” Burgo said earlier this week.
The Conservatives are electing a new leader because Erin O’Toole was removed from office in early February by a majority of party lawmakers, not after the convoy arrived.
O’Toole’s confused response to the protest was for some of the group – and for broader party membership – the last straw in what they saw as his apparent unwillingness to take a strong enough stance against vaccine mandates.
O’Toole’s struggle with the problem emerged during the federal election last fall, which he entered after spending most of his term leading the party in practice due to the blocking of COVID-19.
Even after the campaign began, he decided to give up much of the traditional handshakes and personal events for virtual performances from the hotel’s ballroom, which turned the party into a state-of-the-art broadcasting studio.
For John Aladdin, a 22-year-old Haitian immigrant living in Quebec, it was Poilievre’s consistent message as a conservative that attracted him, which he found important after what he called O’Toole’s “gentle” stance on the pandemic.
“If (Poalievr) was the leader at the time, it would be clearer where the party stood.
Aladdin was among those queuing to talk to Poalievre at his event in western Quebec last week.
After doing so, he decided to withdraw his membership and offer his name to volunteer.
This Canadian Press report was first published on May 1, 2022.
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