OTTAWA—Beset by questions over whether his social conservative positions lost Andrew Scheer the election, the Conservative leader is being attacked by social conservatives for failing to stand up for them.

The Campaign Life Coalition, an anti-abortion organization with clout, accused Scheer of “abandoning his principles” by failing to stand against equal marriage rights and access to abortion.

“If Scheer had stood firm on his principles, not apologized for them, and told the hostile, Trudeau-loving apologists in the media to go jump in the lake, he would have endeared himself much more towards that large swathe of mushy-middle voters,” wrote Jack Fonseca, the Campaign Life Coalition’s director of political operations, in a post-election memo.

“In the end, many Canadians just want principled politicians who stand up for what they believe. Unfortunately, Scheer did not give the perception that he is such a man.”

Scheer, a devout Roman Catholic, was attacked in the lead up to the election for his previous criticism on marriage equality. During the campaign, he faced Liberal attacks that he was against reproductive rights, despite the fact that he said a Conservative government would not restrict access to abortions.

While those attacks may have hurt him with more moderate voters, his refusal to clearly articulate his stance seems to have hurt him with social conservatives — a force within the Conservative party that helped him win the leadership in 2017.

Fonseca, who could not immediately be reached for comment, wrote that Scheer and his team ran a “blunderous” campaign and “snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.”

“If you cannot beat (Prime Minister Justin Trudeau) under this prime scenario, how can you ever hope to beat him?” Fonseca wrote.

“In our view, the reason Scheer lost is because he failed to inspire the small-c conservative base, which includes pro-life social conservatives as a huge constituency.”

“Not only did he fail to inspire, but he insulted and alienated them.”

Questions about Scheer’s personal feelings on marriage equality and abortion rights dogged the Conservative leader on the campaign trail, and likely cost the Conservatives votes in socially liberal Quebec and parts of Ontario.

But in an interview with The Canadian Press in the wake of the election — which saw the Conservatives increase their seat count but fail to make inroads in Ontario and Quebec — Scheer said he can hold social conservative beliefs and still win elections.

“I believe you can have both of those positions: you can have a personal view and you can acknowledge that in Canada, the prime minister does not impose a particular viewpoint on Canadians,” he told The Canadian Press.

“I believe that Canadians understand that any number of people can have a different point of view on these issues,” he added, referring to abortion and same-sex marriage.

“What’s important to them is to know whether a prime minister will make changes or seek to make changes … And my assurance to Canadians was that as prime minister, these types of debates would not be reopened.”

In an interview with Global News, Scheer gave a hard no on participating in a gay pride parade. Scheer’s team initially agreed to have him speak with the Star, but the Conservative leader was not available Friday afternoon.

The social conservatives turning on Scheer would be bad news for the rookie leader, who faces a mandatory vote in April on whether the Conservatives should hold a leadership review.

After failing to make gains in Ontario and Quebec, and disappointing results in Atlantic Canada, there are a number of senior figures within the party that grumble about his leadership — and about the team of strategists he’s surrounded himself with.

While Scheer held Trudeau to a minority, this week’s election was seen as winnable with the Liberals dealing with multiple self-inflicted wounds. Many Tories east of the Manitoba border are disappointed and angry with Scheer’s team.

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Speaking to The Canadian Press, Scheer acknowledged that his leadership over the party was in question.

“My message to (the party’s grassroots) will be: we have made improvements, we have made gains. It is not satisfactory, we need to do better, but that I and my team, we are focused on finding out what worked and what didn’t, and how to improve next time,” Scheer said.

“We are going to be looking at all aspects of this.”

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