Federal Conservative leader Andrew Scheer announced his resignation on Dec. 12. He said he is stepping down as soon as his party chooses a successor.
The Mercury reached out to Souris-Moose Mountain MP and Conservative Robert Kitchen to talk about the changes the party is facing heading into the new year.
“Initially when he made the announcement it was shocking. It wasn’t the sort of thing that I expected when I got up that morning. It was very surprising to hear it,” said Kitchen.
However, he noted that the general atmosphere after the announcement was good.
“Once people got over that… and we were able to digest exactly what the implications were… as we progressed through the day it just got more and more positive,” said Kitchen.
It’s wrong to say that Scheer’s resignation was unforeseen, as many expected him to step down right after Conservatives lost the October election and remained an opposition. But since that didn’t happen, the announcement came to be a bit of a surprise due to timing.
Scheer said that it was a thought-through decision, which Scheer made due to personal reasons.
“He’s been thinking about it for a while, whether it was with things that he’s heard. The interesting thing is that people have been attacking him, which is unfortunate as opposed to letting him relook at what happened and what transpired after the election,” said Kitchen. “But with that said, he is a family man, he’s got five children and that’s a big thing. And I can relate to the amount it impacts on my family and with the amount of travel that I’m doing and being away. And he is a leader, so it’s huge responsibilities.”
Kitchen added this obviously was weighed in the decision, and ultimately Scheer felt that he could not commit 100 per cent to making sure that Conservatives win the next election and making sure that they are the next government in Canada.
“Weighing all of that, and obviously he’s talked to his family and his friends to make this decision. He felt it was the best thing to resign,” said Kitchen.
The Conservatives will move forward now on trying to find a new leader.
“The party will sit down, hopefully fairly quickly, to determine what the procedure will be, they will determine when the election will be, how the steps will be. And as time progresses we will more likely start to see people’s names coming out that are interested in taking over as the leader of the party.”
As of Friday morning, nobody has stepped forward, however former Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall has already said that he's not interested in running for the federal Conservative party leadership, but noted that he hopes former interim leader Rona Ambrose enters the race.
Kitchen pointed out that he hopes the party will be able to decide on a new leader in a reasonable time.
“With the minority government it could fall at any point in time, and so we want to make certain we have new leadership and are able to move forward,” said Kitchen.
He added, that there are a number of names out there, but taking on the role of the party leader is a serious decision.
“It’s a huge task to do. Obviously you’ve got to get out, you’ve got to make certain you can raise the funds to do it, you need to make certain you’ve got the support and the leadership, and the team to make that happen,” said Kitchen.
The membership will decide on the new leader, but the leadership changes in the Conservative caucus won’t change anything for the Souris Moose-Mountain constituency.
“As we move forward, I will continue to do what I need to do as member of Parliament, expressing what are important things for my constituency. That will always be the same, no matter who the leader is,” said Kitchen. “We are now in a situation where we are in opposition, but we will, I will continue to push this government to do things that are important, that are going to help my agricultural industry, that are going to help my oil and gas workers, that are going to help my coal and energy producers. Those are the things that I will continue to push no matter who the leader is.”
Kitchen also pointed out that the leader that they will have will be a leader that recognizes the Conservative Party and all of the points that they stand for within that party.
“The part is a big tent party, and that’s the good thing about it, is that we have people that have all sorts of different ideas and different thoughts. And that’s good because in that party we can express those views and then hopefully once we make that decision you step out and you come to a consensus of where we are going with that,” said Kitchen.
“And I have on my office wall a Latin saying, which is ‘ubi concordia, ibi victoria,’ which loosely translates into ‘with unity, there is a victory.’ And I believe that, and I believe that our party is that way and we will be united no matter how we look at it and by being united we will win.”
He noted that when the leader is chosen, the party will be 100 per cent behind him or her.
