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Trudeau instead eked out a narrow win, forming a government that will need support from one of the smaller opposition parties in order to pass legislation.

Former Conservative cabinet minister Peter MacKay likened the election loss to a hockey player “having a breakaway on an open net and missing” — comments he later walked back.

We all poured ourselves into this campaign, and while I am part of changes that had to be made, I hope you all continue on with your eyes on the prize

One Conservative official told the National Post on Sunday that patience with Scheer is especially thin after he failed to convincingly shake off Liberal attacks that framed him as being dangerously social conservative.

Liberal ministers early in the campaign relentlessly bombarded voters with suggestions that Scheer would limit women’s rights to an abortion, despite the Conservative leader’s claims otherwise. Some pointed to Scheer’s aversion to Pride parades as a sign of his deeply-held social conservative views.

Since the election result, some party insiders have become more vocal about what they view as a need to shift Conservative social policy in order to win over a younger generation of voters.

On Thursday Melissa Lantsman and Jamie Ellerton, two former senior Conservative staffers, wrote an op-ed in the Globe and Mail that called on the party to endorse more moderate social conservative views, particularly on the topic of gay rights “which ought not to be a question at all.”

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel came out in support of the op-ed on Twitter, applauding the pair “for saying what needs to be said.”