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It wasn’t so much what Andrew Scheer said as I left his office a week ago that made me think he wouldn’t stay on as leader, it was how he said it and the look in his eyes.

“Thomas is 14, he was 10 when this started,” Scheer said speaking of his oldest son.

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That’s a lot of growing up for a kid to do while their father is running for and then becoming leader of a political party.

I had dropped by Scheer’s office for an informal meeting while I was visiting Ottawa. The man I had first met 15 years earlier as a young, 25 year-old, newly elected MP had changed a great deal and what I sensed as he uttered those words told me more than the words themselves.

Exasperation, frustration, longing — so many emotions wrapped up in one sentence.

We had spent the last half-hour being brutally honest with each other about the election campaign and his party’s performance. He heard my brutal assessment, I heard his frustrations.