Roy Green: The Conservative Party of Canada and self-inflicted stumbling

You might think the Conservative Party of Canada would have learned by simple observation to not set its political house ablaze. Yet today the CPC is attempting to appear headed for the same objective and with some level of cohesion.

To the party hierarchy as currently constituted, knock it off. You’re fooling no one and harming only the very opportunity to capitalize on your — what shall we call it — “moral victory” at the polls last month.

2:14 B.C. MP declines position in Scheer’s shadow cabinet

Even to the casual observer, it has been increasingly evident since well before the Oct. 21 vote that the Conservative Party of Canada was experiencing difficulty grasping the fundamental concept that winners take advantage of opportunity. And for the CPC, opportunity wouldn’t stop knocking.

READ MORE: Scheer names floor-crossing Liberal as his second-in-command amid Tory infighting

Justin Trudeau had been splashing about on the national stage in a manner unlike any prime minister in recent memory.

The morbid stew surrounding the SNC-Lavalin developments alone should have provided sufficient fodder to assure a 2019 inglorious return for the Liberals to the parliamentary gulag from whence they emerged under Trudeau four years earlier.

The case had everything a political opponent might ordinarily only pray for: a prime minister accused of blatant interference with a sitting First Nations attorney general in the discharge of her sworn duties; a parliamentary ethics commissioner concluding that Trudeau and ethical behaviour weren’t very well acquainted; public hearings during which the Liberals managed by purely partisan parliamentary voting to shield the Canadian populace from the truth Jody Wilson-Raybould was all too willing to share.

On and on it went, with Trudeau inanely nattering in the margins.

2:20 Growing calls for Scheer to quit as Conservative leader

If that wasn’t enough political election ammo, Trudeau was only too willing to provide more. The photos emerged of him in blackface and brownface, at least in triplicate and perhaps more.

There was also the cruel abuse to which former Canadian Vice-Admiral Mark Norman was exposed. A trumped-up criminal charge by a vindictive prime minister and cabinet against the vice-admiral would ultimately sink into the abyss as a federal prosecutor, surprised by the government, was left no option but to engage in a courtroom version of Roberto Duran pleading “no mas” vs. Sugar Ray Leonard.

Trudeau, as well, had on two occasions publicly speculated the vice-admiral may see the inside of a courtroom and this long before the unsustainable charge was laid. Talk about compromising the fundamental concept of innocence until guilt is proven and perhaps additionally, an indirect attempt to intimidate career-aware federal prosecutors.

There’s more, but you get the idea, eh?

ANALYSIS: Scheer’s silence on a question of ‘sin’ a barrier to Conservative election hopes

The Conservative Party of Canada under the stewardship of Andrew Scheer appeared less focused than the proverbial drunken sailor. And having been a drunken sailor, I can personally testify this is so.

Repeatedly, the Conservatives managed to mangle opportunities by ignoring the obvious and Scheer was almost completely derailed by something as simple to dispatch as the question about his citizenship duality.

Canadians are fully aware their prime minister is not the most skilled at extemporaneous speaking. Think cardboard, plastic drinking bottles kind of stuff. Another missed opportunity.

Look, I’m not jumping ahead to the Ides of March and playing Brutus to Scheer’s Julius Caesar. Personally, Scheer seems like a nice enough guy. The Conservative Party is well aware I’m small-c conservative and was more than likely going to vote CPC. Yet when I quizzed him, I seldom had the sense Scheer was comfortable as leader of the party and poised to hand Trudeau nationally the same message Alberta and Saskatchewan delivered.

What has Scheer’s response been to the election failure? The firing of several staffers. That won’t fly — not with Canadians and not with Conservative Party members.

1:40 Andrew Scheer fires two top aides one month after election loss

The Liberal Party of Canada retained minority government power not because of a left-wing mainstream media, but largely because of the underachieving performance of their Conservative opposites.

Scheer should spare the CPC the upheaval of a leadership review and announce he will step aside as leader.

There’s a footnote here. The Liberals may face an even greater dilemma with Trudeau on the bridge. When their minority is voted out as government, and it will be, do the Liberals really want to return to the electorate led by Trudeau? I asked a long-time Liberal that question recently. There was no spoken reply — just an eye roll.

Roy Green is the host of the Roy Green Show on the Global News Radio network.

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