Federal Conservatives gather in Halifax this week for their first policy convention since Andrew Scheer became leader of the party.
All eyes will be on Scheer, not so much for his handling of policy, but for his handling of an ongoing, sticky personnel issue by the name of Maxime Bernier.
Scheer, of course, edged out Bernier for the party leadership last year by the narrowest of margins and Bernier has not taken the defeat well.
He accused Scheer of trotting out “fake conservatives” to sway the vote at the convention in a less than complimentary chapter in his book and his recent comments on multiculturalism run contrary to long-standing Conservative policy on the issue.
WATCH: Scheer won’t say whether he’s planning to take action against Maxime Bernier
Bernier may appear to be just a loose cannon, but he still carries a lot of weight within the party and that’s fueled speculation that Bernier may be echoing the sentiments of others in the Tory caucus about Scheer’s leadership ability.
Scheer can’t boot Bernier out of caucus, but he needs to convince Conservative delegates that he’s the guy in charge and he can handle this problem.
Anything short of that will raise serious concerns with his caucus and with Canadian voters about his leadership skills and that’s not the message they want to send with an election on the horizon.
Bill Kelly is the host of the Bill Kelly Show on Global News Radio 900 CHML.