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There is optimism. And in many ways, I think, as difficult as moments like this can be, it's galvanized support for Andrew

Former Harper cabinet minister Peter MacKay likened the Bernier episode to a storm. “It’s kind of like a maritime weather system. It’s come, it’s blown over, and it’s gone,” he told the National Post on Friday. “There is optimism. And in many ways, I think, as difficult as moments like this can be, it’s galvanized support for Andrew. People feel genuinely loyal to him.”

It remains an open question whether, as Harper did, Scheer can hold together the many different types of conservatives. Keeping libertarians, red Tories and social conservatives happy under one “big blue tent” would be a delicate exercise even without the lurking spectre of Bernier’s still-hypothetical new party. Still, the vast majority who spoke to the Post in Halifax said unity was most important to them — because without it, they can’t win elections.

Photo by Darren Calabrese/THE CANADIAN PRESS

The environment for Conservatives to do so is “ripe,” MacKay said. Though the impact of Bernier’s party remains uncertain, there are reasons to believe so. Conservatives have almost doubled Liberal fundraising this year, $12.1 million in the first six months to $6.4 million, the NDP trailing badly with just $2.2 million over the same period. The party’s victory two months ago in a by-election in Chicoutimi, Que. was still being buzzed about here, with new MP Richard Martel invited to address the convention Friday evening.

So with the 2019 federal election top of mind, Scheer used the weekend as an opportunity to flesh out the “positive Conservative vision” he has promised to offer voters. In his keynote address Friday before an estimated 3,000 delegates, he tried to strike a rhetorical balance between crowd-pleasing lines contrasting Liberal ills with Conservative values like “freedom,” and more-practical talk about coming up with policies to make a difference that “everyday Canadians” could see in their pocketbooks.