The Conservative leader is ultimately going down for reasons that have nothing to do with the crimes for which he is commonly associated in the public’s imagination.

Andrew Scheer, meet Al Capone.

No, the mild-mannered (and soon-to-be-former) leader of the Official Opposition isn’t a gangster. Not even close. But like Capone, Scheer is ultimately going down for reasons that have nothing to do with the crimes for which he is commonly associated in the public’s imagination. Or if not the public’s imagination, his party’s.

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Having used Conservative Party funds to pay for his children’s private education, Scheer’s political obituary will now have a different focus than it would have otherwise had, had the agitators pushing for his dismissal over his poor performance in the recent election been successful in outing him.

But even Scheer’s exit walks and talks like a complete cock-up. The Conservative Party says everything relating to the Scheer family’s moving expenses and school fees was done above-board. Yet Scheer still stood up in the House of Commons to say he’d be hanging up his cleats.

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It all has the feel of a rather polite coup. The powers that be in the party appear to have asked Scheer if he wanted to go quietly and with a hint of fig leaf, or face a long and bloody battle to lever him out of the way come April. The more excitable types will imagine that Stephen Harper simply pointed at his watch before drawing a finger across his throat. Who knows? Perhaps Scheer just did what Tom Mulcair could not: read the room and exit before he was humiliated by an unsatisfied party membership.

The powers that be in the party appear to have asked Scheer if he wanted to go quietly and with a hint of fig leaf, or face a long and bloody battle to lever him out of the way come April.

The manner of Scheer’s exit is at least consistent with how the Canadian public came to know him during the 2019 election: not as advertised, i.e. the goat horns they wanted pinned on Justin Trudeau. The irony slays. An almost-insurance broker and secret American not enough? Try the ultimate family man on a fat public salary getting done in for sending his kids to private school. Not very conservative, mate. Try again.

And so now the Conservatives will try again. Hopefully this time they’ll opt to have a dialogue with modern Canada, not just the narrow subset of Canadians who have Conservative membership cards already tucked into their wallets. More and more people now view parties as bewildering artefacts, equivalent to rotary phones. Now is the time to open the tent and draw more people in; this is the trick Justin Trudeau managed in 2013 and it’s one the Conservative party needs to repeat now.

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Inshallah, this reinvention will also include a policy rebirth. There surely cannot be another festival of boutique tax credits presented to client groups across the country at the next election. You might as well campaign to gag people with spoons. Little, tiny dessert spoons. It’s time to serve up some bigger dishes.

In a perfect world, everything will be up for discussion, whether that’s a carbon tax, an end to supply management, smashing Canada’s telecom tyranny, a complete rethinking of federal cash transfers in areas of provincial jurisdiction, or Canada’s current tongue-up-backside approach to the tyrant who runs China. And for God’s sake, tear down 24 Sussex Drive and buy a new VIP plane for the prime minister. You kit the PM out with every modern convenience you can find!

What absolutely doesn’t need to happen now is a coronation or a massive personality exercise. To start, none of the usual suspects being bandied about for the leadership have the charisma to match Justin Trudeau. Nobody probably does. But there are lots of people who could out-idea the Liberals, who are already showing a few signs of humility following the humiliating election performance. The party’s job now is to find that person, even if it takes time. Even with the threat of a snap election.

Whatever the case, all of the jockeying that had been going on behind the scenes in the race to oust Scheer will now move into the light. And that’s as it should be. The man took his shot and missed. Holding Trudeau to account while the party sorts itself out can be his legacy.

Not very gangster, but that’s life, innit?

Andrew MacDougall is a London-based communications consultant and ex-director of communications to former prime minister Stephen Harper.

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