Liberals other than in Alberta and Sask enjoy a 55-60% approval rating according to the last poll I read. Maritimes are even higher. It's sickening.

Other than BC which has never collected transfer payments, those on the public dole seem to vote liberal. Go bigger.

Don't worry, JD. Elk and I get into it all the time. I give it to him and he gives it to me right back. He's got skin as thick as an alligator anyhow. You ought to hear us yelling at each other out of our goose blinds. LOL.

Conservatives lost the damn election because they are caught in the quagmire of their rigid past. They elected a leader who had the charisma of a clam, and is a social conservative. I am also a social conservative. I am a dinosaur. However, church and state should be completely separate. If you can't march in a gay pride parade, don't run for leader of the country. A leader has to lead everyone and not demonize any particular group.

People in Ontario go to work, earn a paycheque, and have to balance their books just like we do in the west. They are not against fiscal sanity. What they are against is a party with a socially conservative agenda (real or imagined). Ontario has elected Conservatives before, and they will again, if they choose the right one. They also need to clean house by getting a real team of political strategists, because the ones they have now are utter failures.

I will go to my grave believing Scheer and the Conservatives lost that election as opposed to JT winning it.

Michelle Rempel for leader is my hope.

You are forgetting Erin O’Tool...

Really love Harper. Was hoping Pierre would commit to a run. Unfortunate both him and Rona declined the opportunity in my opinion. I think I'd take MacKay over Rempel at this point.

Agree, under his watch we had national unity, a great economy, a strong dollar, we were a great country to invest in, and we had respect the world over as did Harper himself, he was a VERY well respected Statesman and a gentleman.


Now look what we have :angry3::angry3::angry3:

From arguably the best PM in history, to hands down the WORST!

All in one, foul election. Thanks a lot Eastern Canada! :mad0100::mad0030::sign0176::angry3:

B.C. has collected transfer payments.

https://i.imgur.com/Q9yuRqBg.png

Right now Stephen Harper is the only one to stand a chance against, against the Eastern Media and Trudeau, He's the only one capable of Election, He's My choice, as the only possibility to save Canada. Let's demand He run.

But then again after the next 4 yrs. of Trudeau there may not be much left of Canada capable of being saved.

BC has never collected transfer payments? What planet are you on?

I think Harper knew that the Conservatives couldn’t beat Trudeau 5 years ago so he fell on his sword to protect a potential future Conservative Prime Minister from getting trounced at the polls. I also believe that MacKay and Baird knew they couldn’t overcome Trudeau’s momentum and left politics knowing the Conservatives wouldn’t form government.

I also think that the Liberals are grooming Chrystia Freeland to take over as leader for the next election after they pressure junior to step down.

I totally agree about the conservatives losing the election. Trudeau was at the weakest point any “leader” could be and the damned conservatives didn’t go for the jugular.

They just assumed a smear campaign with no legislative substance was the way to go. Harper at least tried to convince people that his corporate welfare would be for the greater good.

And of course the liberal smear campaign was more effective, because the liberals used a taxpayer funded propaganda machine to do the smearing, they used the CBC. And they had unions like Unifor also spending millions to smear Scheer.

So you think that Scheer was defeated by a better propaganda machine. Nonsense.
Scheer defeated himself, with the best advantage a politician could have.
Harper would be out of his mind to run again, and subject himself to the political meat grinder.
The Conservatives need to find "Tomorrow's" candidate, not yesterday's.

Most swing voters I know went left because of the green issue. Nothing to do with smearing. Everyone knew or at least believed that green policies would take a back seat on the right. UThus you had a large majority voting NDP liberal and green. Agree or not but cons better come up with some kind of swell sounding green policy or they will be doomed next time around also. That or cons can hope for a financial collapse. Money still trumps all with most moderates.

Scheer "just wasn't ready" (using the conservatives add campaign from the previous go-round),he failed on some key Q&A, and was unable to convince those who were on the fence to sway to the right during the vote.

It's the Conservatives vs the left (Libs + NDP + Greens) and the right is being attacked 3 fold from all 3 centre-left political parties and in addition from the propaganda machine abroad. The CBC as an example, every day for the past several month has reported a "climate change" story of some sort yet SNC and blackface have all but gone silent???

Also the election was not lost in Ontario nor Quebec it was lost in urban vote as the rural vote country wide went predominantly blue or non-liberal.

Its also not Western alienation its rural vs urban if you look at the underlining facts my fury little friends. Try to bridge that gap and you'll be a winner.

The media turned against Harper midway through his last term it was obvious to me anyway and that played a big part of his loss. Any Conservative leader will be slandered as a racist, homophobic trump loving climate destroyer in Canadian media. Now Ford and Kenney's attempt to clean up the financial mess their provinces are will be used against Conservative leader also. I think the good potential leaders that are backing out see this.

Don't blame any of them for turning the job down. Nothing but S and A. McKay might be OK, but he has some history and it's not all good. Be an uphill battle to beat the turd and the rest of the left leaning wingnuts. Conservatives need a knight in shining armour to come riding out of the wilderness! Don't see any sign of that happening at this point! Duuuuuuhoooo Canada! :budo:

Harper will not win again. Trudeau is like his father with rampant government spending. To win Federal election, need promise stuff. Some people going to be winners (Quebec, Maritimes, Toronto, Southern Ontario), soma are going to be losers (Rural Canada, Northern Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Eastern, Northern B.C. ). Population will never be able to fix this abusive system.

Look at numbers. Pierre, and Justin largest government spenders Canada has ever had. Mulroney level spending, Chrétien cut government spending, Harper added during the great financial collapse 2008, then Harper reeled it in. Justin full on retard with Defecit spending. Craziness. Liberal government spending is exactly 180 degrees opposite of how Rural Canadians function.

https://www.fraserinstitute.org/site...nfographic.jpg

Yes I see that now. Had a look at the wrong graph. Second least received.

Doesn't sway my opinion that those seeking to make handouts their financial plan for the future vote leftward.

Fraser Institute, a Conservative think tank, says highest single year of per person spending between 1870 and 2018 was 2009 under Harper, just to be accurate.
The Liberal trend is headed to worse numbers.

We need more conservative “think tanks, and Canadian Tax payer articles”.
You do know that 2008, 2009 was great financial crash? Don’t you? Bail out $$$ for banks, and automobile manufacturers, unions. Harper had to spend $$$. Whereas Liberals have had no recession, or financial crash to deal with. Yet liberals keep borrowing more than they take in. $25 Billion over budget annually. Keeps adding to National debt.

Atlantic Canada screwed the west over for the freebees. Most oil people I know from no on won't hire anyone from there.

Yes, and this constitutes a crime as far as I'm concerned.

I realize politics is a muddy game, and all play in the mud, but you are 100% right here and it's absolute unacceptable when it's us who are paying for it with our tax dollars.

Didn't feel the need to quote everyone but agree that Kenney would be destroyed in a federal race.

I don't think that Mr. Harper coming back would be overly productive. He was a great prime minister, but the left and the media (same thing, I know) continue to castigate him. He knows it, and he is very successful, and seems to be keeping busy with his other ventures.

Peter Poiloviere I feel would have been a force to be reckoned with. He's razor sharp, very funny and fairly young, but capable, and not prone to appearing foolish on the world stage such as "socks" does. He would be fairly appealing to the French vote.

Rona Ambrose is intelligent and capable, and really would have been a good choice. There's a certain demographic that won't be swayed by a conservative candidate unless it's a woman.

Peter O'Toole might be alright, but man, the image of older white guys being conservative isn't going to die with him!

Peter MacKay might be a bit red, or maybe not as much after these years. He is for sure qualified, and held down the top jobs in the country for years. The image of a thoughtful fluffy government won't be his, and I suspect because of this, and his long ties to the Conservative Party under Stephen Harper, the top job won't come easy. If at all.

The above are my extremely shallow observations based on the extremely shallow voters that will make or break an election. It's stupid, but looks, image, sex and race will now make a difference. Never mind actual qualifications.

Didn't like the "He's just not ready" smear. Kind of implied in a back handed way that he was capable of growing into the job. We all know that not to be the case however, and is barely into advanced colouring books, and his handlers struggle I'm sure to keep him from eating the crayons, and tasting the felts.

Excellent Post, Agree on all counts and your assessments of each option.

It's going to be tough sledding for us in the next Federal election, and we really need to get the Liberals out of Ottawa.

Harper should take up Leadership of Wexit.

Seperate Alberta and Sask(if others want to come? Their invited)...

Join USA.

:happy0180: Thanks! It sure will be. I was optimistic this last time...

I for one, sure miss Mr. Harper.