What could be some of the specific problems people have?

I’ve noticed his detractors tend to point out a handful of incidents. The first being his sell-out of the PC party to Harper’s Alliance in 2003. He did this after securing the leadership of the PC Party by promising David Orchard (the runner up candidate) that he would never merge the PC and Alliance parties. I would argue that MacKay didn’t have a choice. The party was bankrupt and was unable to properly contest the 2004 election. He made a calculated decision and had to break a promise as a result. For many people, it’s just a matter of principle. They think MacKay is demonstrably an untrustworthy liar.

The second thing I’ve heard is that his break-up with Belinda Stronach and her crossing the floor to the Liberals back in the day made him look like a pussy. He did a television reaction-interview outside in the drizzly rain while gardening with his neighbour’s dog or something. I think the organizers of that photo session were trying to position him as a sympathetic victim, but the whole ordeal made some people view him as a cuck.

It’s difficult to shake the reputation of being a cuck.

The third thing people get bent out of shape about is the helicopter ride. MacKay used a search and rescue helicopter to transport him back to work after a vacation in the Maritimes. This was spun by the liberal media as a horrific abuse of national resources. They made it sound like he was jeopardizing lives by commandeering this vehicle for personal use. This was all courtesy of the liberal media making mountains out of molehills during the Harper era. Remember Bev Oda’s expensive orange juice or Harper’s armoured limousines in India?

The truth is MacKay needed a quick ride back to work and as Minister of National Defense at the time the helicopter was able to take him there quickly. This also gave them the opportunity to get some flying time in and no lives were at risk because other resources were standing by. It was absolutely nothing, but the media made it out to be scandalous. Apparently, some conservatives took the bait and never let go, viewing MacKay as an entitled dilettante using the military for his vacation travel. Lame.

None of this is dealbreaker territory, though. In the Trump-era, these sorts of gotchas aren’t as effective as they used to be. The impressions are still there, however, and MacKay will have to do a lot of work reintroducing himself to the country.

There are, however, a few fundamental problems with MacKay that are beyond the realm of politics. One is that he seems to want this just a little too badly. That Mulroney-style, “I was born for this and it is my DESTINY!” attitude always seems to deliver catastrophic results, if not for the country, then for the person holding that attitude. Think Paul Martin or Brian Mulroney, how did they end up? Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon both had it too. Disastrous. Politicians, especially conservative politicians, tend to work best when they play it cool and don’t desperately crave the position. Ronald Reagan was an anomaly.

MacKay claimed that when he stepped away from politics in 2015, he did it so that he could spend more time with his family. His father was a politician and the demands of the career split up his family and he didn’t want that to happen to his kids. Well, he has three kids now… two of which aren’t even school aged. He’s got a hot wife and an even hotter career as a lawyer, I can’t imagine what he’s making right now. Why give all that up in order to shout at people in the House of Commons? Does he really want to sit on a bus travelling town to town like a circus clown making stump speeches about how shitty Trudeau is, day after day after day?

Why?