This time, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer didn’t miss an empty net. He put the puck in. Sadly, the period was already over, and it had been for a week.
That hockey analogy is riffing off one made by Peter MacKay, not long after last year’s election. The Conservatives were gifted just about every imaginable gift by the Liberals — remember the brownface pictures? — and still flopped. A popular vote win was wasted on a campaign that completely fizzled in Quebec and Ontario, particularly in the crucial Greater Toronto Area ridings. It was a pathetic performance against a self-destructing opponent. MacKay’s comment was bang on — the net was empty and all the Tories had to do was glide the puck in. But they couldn’t do it.
Much of the blame was assigned to Scheer — he of regrettably limited charisma, minimal gift for campaigning, a tin ear for communications and a few mid-campaign surprises of his own. He tried to hang on for a couple awkward months before finally agreeing in December to quit, saying he simply didn’t have the heart to continue any longer with the kind of commitment a leader required. He and the party agreed he’d stay on until a new leader was selected. But then the pandemic hit and the Conservative leadership race was put on hold. This has left the official Opposition with a leader who’s already agreed to quit because his heart isn’t in it anymore — and it shows.
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