Former Reform Party leader Preston Manning has called on Conservative leaders to end their personal attacks on each other, saying they risk damaging the party’s image among voters.
In a letter to leadership campaigns received from CBC News, Manning, a senior statesman in conservative circles, said he feared such attacks would “deepen divisions in the Federal Conservative Camp” – the rifts he said were Achilles’ heels. the party’s fifth for some time. “
He said a particularly nasty campaign could pit Eastern Conservatives against their Western counterparts, “old PC-oriented conservatives against reform-oriented conservatives”, “secular” conservatives against “religious conservatives” and fiscal and economic conservatives against social conservatives.
Manning said the race for leadership should instead focus on political differences to avoid splitting the party and give liberals and NDP operatives the gift of pre-written lines of attack that can be used against anyone. who won the leadership.
“As I’m sure you know, both the Liberals and the NDP have researchers whose only job is to record every humiliating statement made by one conservative candidate for leadership against another, or made by overzealous followers,” Manning said.
“Then, when the leader is finally elected, the Liberal / NDP spokesmen will throw that back at that leader, especially in the House of Representatives.” the leader for him / her. ‘
Stay away from personal attacks, which only poison the party well and strengthen the public’s negative perception of party policy.
Manning led the Reform Party from the late 1980s to 2000, during an era when the Conservative movement was divided into two rival parties, the Reform / Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives. The broken conservative vote helped the Liberal Party secure governments with a large majority in the 1990s.
To avoid a repeat of this kind of split, Manning said he and a number of other “seniors” in the party are ready to help “cure any divisions” that may arise as a result of this leadership race.
Manning said it was important for the party to remain united so that the new leader would be well-positioned “to defeat the Liberal / NDP coalition in the next federal election” – a reference to the trust and supply agreement the two parties signed earlier this year. year year.
Manning said he would not support any candidate in this leadership race. He said he would send “useful ideas” to campaign leaders during the competition to “represent the interests of the party and the country”.
Manning did not name any contenders by name – but like almost all leadership campaigns, this one has seen a lot of personal sniping.
For example, Brampton, Ontario’s candidate Patrick Brown has accused host Pierre Poalievre of pushing for a “discriminatory policy” and opposing immigrants because of his support in the past for banning the niqab from citizenship ceremonies.
This prompted Poilievre to return fire, calling Brown a liar who distorted the truth for political gain.
Conservative nominee Conservative Pierre Poliver is exchanging insults with his rivals. (Evan Mitsui / CBC)
Leadership candidate and former Quebec prime minister Jean-Charest has accused Poalievre of seeking the approval of “law-breakers” by supporting trucks and others that were part of a protest convoy of the Ottawa Freedom Convoy.
“You cannot be the party leader and the country’s chief legislator as prime minister and support people who break the law. That disqualifies you,” Sharest told Poalievre in an interview with CTV News earlier this month.
Poilievre’s camp, in turn, dismissed Charest as a man who was not a “true” conservative, while mocking the smaller crowds his campaign drew to his events.
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