You can ask Andrew Scheer about where he fits among his Conservative peers and predecessors all you want. Just know that whatever the question, the answer is going to be Justin Trudeau needs to go.

That was the tenor of Friday’s news conference at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, where Scheer ducked a series of pointed questions on conservative-minded politicos in the question-and-answer aftermath of a health-care announcement, pivoting each time to lash out at Trudeau’s Liberals.

The headline news at the event — a Scheer “guarantee” to maintain and increase federal health-care and social-program transfers by at least 3 per cent annually — turned out to be the previous day’s news: A restated version of a pledge he had announced on Twitter, embodied in a letter to Canada’s premiers.

The slight variation was that Thursday’s letter phrased the promise to the provinces as “you have my word in writing” whereas Friday’s announcement came with its own logo, emblazoned with the slogan “Andrew Scheer’s Health & Social Programs Guarantee.”

In articulating his health-care pledge, Scheer cited the story of his late mother, a trained nurse, who prior to her death ended up “in and out of hospital for years following complications from a kidney transplant.

“She had so many different types of procedures, so many treatments, so many tests. And her experience made me appreciate our publicly funded system,” said Scheer, “as she was able to receive care our family otherwise would never have been able to afford.”

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As Scheer invited questions, things got more predictable, if not inevitable: with Mount Sinai barely a stone’s throw from Queen’s Park, the Conservative leader found himself asked for his assessment of “how you think Doug Ford has done as premier of Ontario.”

Three times, Scheer was asked his assessment Ford. And three times, Scheer dodged, avoiding any mention of the premier’s name and instead emphasizing links between former premier Kathleen Wynne’s “disastrous” Liberals and their federal counterparts.

In the third attempt, as a reporter said, “You’re not going to answer that question then?” Scheer responded, “I just did. The focus for me is between Justin Trudeau and myself. The Liberal record and the Conservative record … others can pass judgment on other levels of government. My focus is bringing my positive message to Canadians across this country.”

If Ford loomed as the elephant in the room, he was soon joined by Stephen Harper, going by Scheer’s evident unease at speaking his Conservative predecessor’s name aloud.

Full disclosure: I asked the Harper question. And it wasn’t about seeking Scheer’s judgment on the Harper years, but simply to better understand where Scheer sees himself on the conservative spectrum.

“It’s fair to say Canadians are still getting to know you,” we asked. “And I wonder, to that end, if you can look at their next best reference point, the government of Stephen Harper — and characterize the kind of government you want to have.” Is your vision for Canada more conservative or more centrist than Harper’s, we wanted to know. Or do you see yourself as part of a continuum, moving in step with your predecessor?

And again, the pivot, as Scheer steered his response directly to Trudeau, bypassing Harper altogether. “We’ve already been outlining our own policies, my own approach, my own focus. Canadians will be able to evaluate that on its own merits and contrast that to Justin Trudeau. The choice in this election is between Justin Trudeau’s record of deficits, wasteful spending and higher taxes and life getting less and less affordable and more and more expensive or our Conservative plan, which will speak to making life more affordable for every Canadian. A government that lives within its means to leave more in the pockets of Canadians because it’s time that Canadians get ahead. … I’ve charted my own course with my own focus on my own policies.”

Quarantining any mention of Doug Ford surprised no one. But Stephen Harper? Barely eight years ago, in May of 2011, Harper won his third consecutive election with a resounding majority government — the first of its kind since the 1980s — that included powerful dominance in Ontario, seizing nearly three-quarters of the province’s ridings, including much of the GTA. And when Trudeau ousted Harper in 2015, the departing PM managed to retain a respectable 35 per cent of Ontario voters, spread throughout central, southwestern and eastern pockets of the province.

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Harper’s political life ended badly, as all political lives do. Yet in Ontario, it was less than a devastating rout. Harper ended up just a small handful percentage points short of political survival. The Greater Toronto Area, which painted itself Trudeau red, was ultimately his undoing.

It is hardly a gotcha question to ask candidates to locate themselves on the political spectrum, especially when voters are only now trying to get to know what they’re all about. Perhaps, as the campaigns ramp up next month toward October’s election, Scheer will shake his allergy to any mention of peers and predecessors and open up on where he fits.

Or perhaps Canadian politics circa 2019 no longer requires such reference points? If that is the case, we’d all better brace for the coming season of laser-focused messaging. The same boilerplate answer, no matter the question.

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