OTTAWA– Conservative leader Andrew Scheer is set to embark on a cross-country “listening tour” to meet with the party’s grassroot membership that holds his political fate in their hands.

Scheer is fighting to keep his job after his party’s disappointing election results on Oct. 21, which saw the party gain seats but lose ground in Ontario and Quebec.

On Wednesday, the Conservatives revealed Scheer will travel the country to meet with local organizers and activists, including some who will likely travel to Toronto this April to vote on his continued leadership.

The embattled Conservative leader got some breathing room Wednesday when his MPs decided not to empower themselves to force an immediate review of his leadership. The Conservative caucus voted against giving themselves that power – one of four elements of Conservative MP Michael Chong’s parliamentary reform bill passed under the Harper government.

Scheer’s inner circle had been closely focused on Wednesday’s caucus meeting, gauging support for Scheer among MPs and senators and expecting a difficult discussion behind closed doors. They will now turn their attention to making sure Scheer survives the vote on his leadership at the April convention.

The Conservatives have tapped former cabinet minister John Baird to lead an external review of the Scheer campaign, examining what worked and what didn’t. The findings of that report are also expected to be released at that April meeting.

Scheer is facing a fight from within his own party. The Star reported on Tuesday that a loose network of partisans and MPs are holding discussions on how to oust Scheer. Those working against Scheer are unlikely to be mollified by the Conservative leader surviving his first caucus meeting.

Scheer’s team previously told the Star that he’s hoping for a “clear mandate” from the party’s membership to lead them into the next election. But it’s not clear what level of support Scheer considers a “clear mandate.”

In addition to Baird’s external review, the party’s campaign team – led by close Scheer friend and campaign manager Hamish Marshall – has been analyzing the election results internally to figure out what went wrong. Marshall was expected to personally address caucus Wednesday afternoon to give a preliminary view of that analysis.

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The Conservatives returned to Ottawa with 26 more MPs than they had won in the 2015 election and holding Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party to a minority. But despite Scheer’s team framing Oct. 21’s vote a the first step towards the Conservatives returning to power, most Conservative MPs and senators were not in a celebratory mood Wednesday.

Sen. Claude Carignan, the Conservatives’ former Senate leader, told reporters that Scheer had lost Quebec voters before the election even began. Carignan said Scheer’s fumbling of questions about women’s access to abortion cost them dearly in Quebec, a province where Scheer’s inner circle believed they could gain ground but ended up losing two seats.

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“All the hesitation that he had in the (first leaders’) debate and the electoral campaign, particularly at the beginning of the campaign, created doubts in the heads of people,” Carignan told reporters.

“In Quebec, we lost this campaign the first week.”

With files from the Canadian Press

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