The Ben Mulroney Show - Just how much of a reset should Conservatives do before the next Election?

Episode Date: May 6, 2025

Guests and Topics: -Conservatives need ‘fine tuning,’ not overhaul after election loss with Guest: Peter MacKay, Former Minister in Stephen Harper’s Government. Former Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! https://globalnews.ca/national/program/the-ben-mulroney-show Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show and thank you so much for joining us on the Tuesday edition of the show. A lot to get to as we know parties that lose elections have to do a lot of introspection. We know that the NDP are trying to figure out how they're going to navigate a world where they have lost official party status and the Tories themselves have to figure out what they're going to do because they were, they were in a position to win the election, they didn't win the election, and their leader lost his seat. Pierre Poliev is now gunning for a seat in Alberta. And but that doesn't mean that his leadership is in any way assured. And joining me to talk about this is a very good friend. Oh, should we, yes. Well, let's introduce our good friend, Peter McKay.

He's the, he was a former minister in Stephen Harper's government, former deputy leader of the, former leader of the conservative party, a progressive conservative party, and a great friend of mine. His father stepped aside in his riding in central Nova so that my dad could run and get a seat in the House of Commons and then Peter

Peter welcome to the show Then it's great to be with you and it's it's kind of ironic that we're talking about Opportunities to step aside to get a leader into the house It's history really coming full circle, but just wonderful to be on with you and our families have been close for many many years Oh gosh I mean listen I spent that summer in Central Nova as Dad was running and getting to know the riding,

and it's still one of those memories that sticks with me forever. But Peter, let's talk about the lay of the land for Pierre. And before we do, he broke his silence. It's been about a week, and he made a video which he posted to Twitter. Let's listen. Well, it's been about a week since the election and it didn't go how we wanted. But when you get knocked down, you get up and get going.

And we've got a lot to be thankful for. I'm thankful for you. The countless people who packed out our rally halls, our 2.3 million extra votes, the 25 extra seats, the breakthroughs in Ontario and BC, the expanded coalition of young people, union workers, entrepreneurs, soldiers, and countless others who had never voted before and are now supporting our conservative cause. Now it wasn't enough. We didn't get over the finish line, which means that I need to learn and grow, and our

team needs to expand. That will be my mission. Okay, so what did you make of the video, Peter? Well, first of all, you know, Pierre has shown a much more open and I would call it a sunny disposition than some people associate with him. Yeah, he referenced learn and grow. Really important messaging there that, you you know he's chasing he's humbled

he has seen that there were mistakes made on the campaign trail he talked about the expanded coalition and the number of people who came out in particular young people union members i mean i saw that then at that that rink rally that he held in central nova the numbers were astronomical i i i evoked your father's name, by the way, at that rink rally. And it's interesting to me that people are still clamouring and talking about,

will he stay on? I think there is no doubt that he'll stay on. Although the party did adopt this, they called it the Michael Chong bill, that allows for the caucus to essentially put the leader on the spot and have a vote. I don't see that happening in any way, shape or form. Well, that's what I want to ask you, Peter. What is the process by which Pierre is judged as to whether or not he can continue on as leader? What's the mechanism?

Well, it's a timely question because they're meeting today in Ottawa, and that meeting includes the entire caucus, new members and those who unfortunately went down to defeat, but they will be there. There won't be any talk of this is what I believe. Now, how he prepares from here to get back in the House to be on the point, which is where he needs to be as the leader. He did lose his election seat, as you know, which means he cannot be in the House of Commons where he has proven himself to be very effective. But look, as far as the caucus using that measure, which comes from the British tradition, where the caucus can remove a sitting leader, and we've seen that happen, frankly, a number of times in the UK in the last few years

and we saw it happen here in Canada with the conservative leader but I really don't think that that is even a possibility. I'm not hearing from you know a lot of the members who I still talk to. Nobody has brought this up and so I think it's move on, it's deal with some of the very practical matters of getting Pierre back in the house, and frankly doing the job of the leader of the official opposition, His Majesty's loyal opposition, in holding the government to account. And there's a lot of work in doing that. Mr. Carney, of course, is in Washington today, the Prime Minister, and we'll see how that goes, because the defining election issue, among many, including affordability, those issues are not going away.

The issues of dealing with Donald J. Trump, on the other hand, will also be with us for at least four years. Well, and Andrew Scheer has said that the Conservatives are willing to work with the Liberals and possibly support some of their legislation moving forward if it aligns at least partly with what their values are. But I want to spend a little bit of time with you, Peter, on the loss in his own riding, because that was something I don't think a lot of us saw.

We heard tale that there was a lot of groundwork being done by the liberals in that riding, but a lot of us just thought, oh, of course not. Of course he's going to win his riding. And a lot of factors worked against him. There was the redistricting and they added a big chunk of territory that previously had not been part of his riding, but there was also a campaign afoot to, I confused the voter, I guess, with 91 candidates on the ballot.

And now we're hearing that that same group wants to put 200 people on the ballot and now we're hearing that that same group wants to put 200 people on The ballot in his by-election now when you put all that together and you recognize as you know That a federal leader has to campaign across the country and can't just be in their riding Where does the fault lie with who dropped the ball and who needs to be held accountable? Well, let me unpack a little bit of that. I think, frankly, and this is my opinion, we have to change this ability to flood the riding of anybody for that matter. But, but a leader in particular, because you're absolutely right, Ben,

a leader has tremendous demands on them to travel the entire country. And this is a massive undertaking to do that as, as Pierre and the other leaders have experienced. The other anomaly of the redistribution, where, as you pointed out, they brought in a whole new sort of urban part to that writing that didn't exist before. And there was a massive number of public servants who were told in no uncertain terms that they were going to get axed by Mr. Poliev that the conservatives were going to win.

So that's a part of it, the practical part of it. And I think that we need to change any ability to put 90 people or more on a ballot. That just doesn't sound democratic. No, it's absolutely not. And if the argument is that they don't like the guy, well, geez, I mean, there are a lot of groups out there that if this group is given license to do this,

then good luck, because somebody could turn around and say, you know what? I've decided I don't like this guy because he's pro-life or pro-choice, and we're going to make his life a living hell in the next election. I mean, it's a Pandora's box that we do not want to open. Well, you're right. And it seems to me that, you know, we can talk about why the conservative

campaign team didn't anticipate this coming because it seems the first time this really became discussed in public was when the Globe and Mail wrote about it. And I was like you, Ben, I just sort of thought, nah, that's not possible. Leaders don't lose their writings. You know, that's of another time back in the 1920s, I think, but one of, one of the liberal leaders lost their seat twice and had to run in by-elections, but that doesn't happen anymore. Well, it did. In fact, both leaders lost their seats. So it, and this anomaly and kind of, it just seems a little shifty to me that he was targeted in such a way. But the campaign team should have picked that up sooner.

They should have picked it up on the ground, in my opinion, and then taken whatever measures they could. Well, yeah, because it seems like he tried to stem the tide. It seems like he tried to stem the tide by saying, we're not going to axe the public sector as it's been suggested. He tried to temper what people thought. He said, we're going to reduce it by attrition.

And that certainly wasn't enough. It was probably too little too late. But lastly, and I only have about 30 seconds left, but Ottawa is a bastion of liberal. It's a liberal stronghold. And do you think it's that way because of how big the public sector has gotten? Yeah, there's no doubt about that because the public sector grew by about 40%

in the last decade. And so that was a big impact. And I'll just register one last point. And that was the advanced poll where Canadians, particularly seniors, were scared. They were told there was a very deliberate campaign of fear to say, Mark Carney is the only one, he's the Donald Trump whisperer. He's the one that's gonna save us all, so you have to elect him. And that number that came out of the advance poll sunk a lot of Tories across the country, including the central North.

Peter, I'm gonna leave it. That we'll find out. We're gonna leave it there, but thank you so much, I hope this is not the last time you join us on the show. I'd love to come back on then, thanks. To celebrate the days of our lives' 60th anniversary, Join us on the show. I'd love to come back on then. Thanks. A VIP Days of Our Lives set tour, a helicopter ride over LA, and so much more. Watch Weekdays at One and look for the weekly code word to enter. Days of Our Lives. All new Weekdays at One, only on W. Stream on StackTV.