Scheer announced on Thursday that former Liberal MP Leona Alleslev would become his number two in caucus as he also rebuffed calls to step aside

OTTAWA — The new Conservative deputy leader — a Liberal MP until 14 months ago — says she can help the party win back vital seats in Ontario.

The controversial choice of Ontario MP Leona Alleslev signals Conservative leader Andrew Scheer’s determination to break the Liberal lock on the Greater Toronto Area.

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“There’s no question that we didn’t do perhaps as well as we would have liked to in the last election, particularly in Ontario, and particularly in the GTA,” Alleslev, who crossed the floor from the Liberals to the Conservatives in September 2018, told the National Post. “I will have a strong voice at the table in that regard, because we need to make gains in Ontario and Canada needs us to form a majority government.”

Scheer, who is facing increasingly vocal criticism and calls to resign from party members in Ontario and Quebec, announced on Thursday that Alleslev would become his number two in caucus as he also rebuffed calls for him to step aside.

“Now is not the time for internal division and internal party politics. That is an unfortunate part of the Conservative tradition, but it’s essential that we stay focused on the task at hand,” he said.

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Alleslev’s appointment risks creating further divisions in the party, as some Conservatives expressed surprise at elevating such a recent Liberal to that position. But Alleslev said her caucus colleagues aren’t concerned about her recent Liberal past.

“I would say that that’s not the feedback that I’ve been getting,” she said. “My phone has been blowing up all day actually. And I’m so grateful to my colleagues who have been overwhelmingly supportive of me being asked to fulfill this role.”

Alleslev, a former air force officer, IBM consultant and Bombardier manager, told the House of Commons in 2018 she was defecting because she’d lost confidence in the Liberals’ ability to address the country’s economic and security challenges.

She subsequently won her Ontario suburban riding of Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill in the 2019 election, marking the only pick-up for the Conservatives in the GTA compared to the 2015 election. The failure of the Conservatives to flip Liberal ridings in the GTA was the single biggest reason the Liberals held onto government in the fall campaign.

Now is not the time for internal division

Alleslev said her appointment signals the Conservatives “understand the importance of Ontario” when it comes to winning the next campaign. However, she declined to give specific suggestions about what needs to be done in that regard, saying she’ll leave that for the party’s internal review process.

“I have some thoughts, I’ve talked to some of my colleagues about it,” she said. “But at this point, I really want to get a better perspective from someone who’s spending the time to do a comprehensive review before I make any comments on that.”

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Speaking to reporters on Parliament Hill, Scheer sold the move as a step toward securing a majority in the next campaign.

“This is all about moving forward,” Scheer said. “Leona embodies exactly the type of person we’re trying to reach out to to show that if you have voted Liberal in the past, if you’re disappointed with the government that Justin Trudeau is providing Canadians, there is a place for you in the Conservative Party of Canada.”

Scheer said that since crossing the floor, Alleslev has “gained the confidence of the entire team,” and said her appointment could change the minds of Toronto-area voters and “earn their support in the next election.”

Scheer added he would stay on as leader if he won a “clear mandate” at an upcoming leadership review in April, but did not specify how much internal support would be needed to meet that threshold.

Photo by Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

On Wednesday, former MP Lisa Raitt — Alleslev’s predecessor as Conservative deputy leader — said at a University of Toronto event that many Conservatives believe Scheer is “not strong enough” to defeat Trudeau. Raitt, who lost her GTA seat to the Liberals in the fall campaign, said she did not personally agree with that assessment of Scheer.

Meanwhile, a group called Conservative Victory has been established in an effort to oust Scheer. It is headed by Conservatives including Kory Teneycke, a former Stephen Harper aide who ran Doug Ford’s 2018 Ontario election campaign and was also the man who ran the campaign for Scheer’s main rival for the leadership, Maxime Bernier. Jeff Ballingall, who founded the Ontario Proud and Canada Proud websites and John Reynolds, a former Conservative MP, also head up the group.

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Teneycke and other former Harper aides have become some of Scheer’s loudest critics in the media. Jenni Byrne, who was a senior advisor and campaign director for Harper, told CBC News this week it would not be “in his best interests or the best interests of the party” for Scheer to stay on as leader.

Former Harper advisors Rachel Curran and Dan Robertson used Twitter to criticize Alleslev’s appointment as deputy leader. “I’m all for lavishly feting a new member of the family, but this is taking the matter too far,” Robertson tweeted.

“She contributed to defeating our (Conservative government), slandered Stephen Harper, voted for 3 awful Liberal budgets and defeated a solid CPC MP by promoting Justin Trudeau,” Curran tweeted, referring to Alleslev’s 2015 election win and following three years as Liberal MP. “But sure, other than that. I am genuinely glad she’s seen the light!”

Later, in an email to the Post, Curran said she’s been told “by those who know (Alleslev) that she is smart, direct and truly conservative, so I hope we will see evidence of that in her work as deputy leader.”

Conservative MP Mark Strahl, a Scheer loyalist who was named party whip on Thursday, defended Alleslev’s appointment.

“Leona Alleslev crossed the floor because she believed in Andrew Scheer‘s principled leadership, she ran and won as a Conservative with Andrew Scheer in the GTA and we want more former Liberals to join us to get rid of Trudeau,” Strahl posted on Twitter.

Scheer also named Candice Bergen as House Leader, and Chris Warkentin will be his coordinator between the Conservative caucus and Scheer’s office. Both are close allies of Scheer. Alain Rayes was given the position of Quebec political lieutenant within caucus.

MPs will return to the House of Commons Dec. 5.