You can now count Andrew Scheer among the “out-of-touch elites”, according to Kellie Leitch’s campaign manager, Nick Kouvalis.

On Wednesday night, a fundraising email from Kouvalis dismissed the latest contender in the Conservative leadership race — without using Scheer’s name — as yet another member of the “elite” attacking Leitch for wanting to screen immigrants for Canadian values.

It also took issue with Scheer using Ottawa’s National Press Theatre to launch his campaign.

“What makes this one more amusing is that it was from a ‘Conservative’, the media headline noted, who took a ‘veiled shot at rival Kellie Leitch’. Yes that’s right — this time the person attacking Kellie was someone announcing that they themselves are running for leader of our great Party,” Kouvalis wrote.

That “media headline” (which, to be accurate, was a sub-headline) came from a Toronto Star article by Tonda MacCharles about Andrew Scheer’s Wednesday leadership launch.

MacCharles asked Scheer Wednesday for his thoughts on Leitch’s proposed values test. Scheer, at his most critical, said he wasn’t sure it was practical to “police what’s going on in people’s minds”.

Scheer added, however, that he thinks it’s a good idea to have a conversation about the values that make Canada great, provided it’s done in an inclusive way that welcomes new immigrants.

But it was Scheer’s decision to kick off his campaign from the bastion of ‘elitism’ that is Ottawa’s National Press Theatre that attracted Kouvalis’ scorn.

“You didn’t read that wrong, they actually announced they were running for leader of our Party from the National Press Theatre across from Parliament Hill,” he wrote.

“So it shouldn’t be of any particular surprise that they immediately pandered to the whinging media hordes by attacking Kellie and her view, the view of the vast majority of our members, and that of the vast majority of Canadians, as pointed out by a recent poll, that Canada should screen immigrants for Canadian values.”

Scheer isn’t the first Conservative leadership candidate to launch a campaign from the National Press Theatre. Michael Chong, the most outspoken critic of Leitch’s values test, kicked his campaign off there in May.

Nor is this the first time Leitch’s campaign has taken on “elites”.

In a Saturday fundraising email, Leitch herself lambasted “self-hating Canadian elites” who “can’t stand the idea of a proud conservative standing up for Canada and Canadian values”.