SASKATOON, Sask. — Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch is wasting little time trying to capitalize on Donald Trump’s stunning U.S. election victory, saying his win is an example of Americans “throwing out the elites,” and that the same message needs to be delivered in Canada and the Tory race.
Her latest campaign offensive comes as a new Mainstreet Research poll conducted exclusively for Postmedia finds that Leitch – “Canada’s Donald Trump” – is currently the top leadership choice among Conservative supporters.
Other Tory hopefuls are also weighing in on Trump’s victory, saying it shows you shouldn’t count out the underdog and that Conservative candidates must truly listen to the grassroots during the campaign. But there’s also caution from some candidates that the anti-establishment message found in the U.S. isn’t the same in Canada.
Leitch’s team sent out a fundraising email in the middle of the night, after Trump was confirmed as president-elect, congratulating him on his victory and saying the same sort of anti-establishment message epitomizes what her campaign is about.
That’s why she is the only candidate willing to screen immigrants, refugees and visitors for “anti-Canadian values,” she said.
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“Tonight, our American cousins threw out the elites and elected Donald Trump as their next president. It’s an exciting message and one that we need delivered in Canada as well,” Leitch, a former cabinet minister and practising orthopedic pediatric surgeon, says in the email bearing her name.
“It’s the message I’m bringing with my campaign to be the next Prime Minister of Canada. It’s why I’m the only candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada who is standing up for Canadian values.”
Trump’s victory could shift the Conservative leadership race if candidates sense an undercurrent of public angst and simmering anger against the political establishment, as has now been seen in the U.S. and Britain.
The first official Tory leadership debate goes Wednesday evening in Saskatoon, and candidates suddenly have a whole new reality south of the border that they will have to consider in their campaigns and platforms.
Leitch’s proposed values test has been regularly panned by her fellow Conservative leadership candidates as “dog-whistle politics,” unnecessary and “un-Canadian.”
“I look forward to continuing to deliver this message to the Canadian elites — that historic Canadian values are worth protecting,” Leitch adds in the email.
“I congratulate President-Elect Trump on his victory and I look forward to working with him on issues of common concern.”
Leitch’s campaign manager, Nick Kouvalis, a master of wedge politics and the political guru behind the successful John Tory and Rob Ford mayoral campaigns, took to Twitter to deliver the same message.
The elites are out of touch with regular, average people that are trying so hard to realize the promise of the CDN/USA dream. Hope & Change!
— Nick Kouvalis (@NickKouvalis) November 9, 2016
Leadership candidate Deepak Obhrai, who has struggled to gain traction in some leadership race polls, said Conservative candidates should take note of what happened in the U.S. because there’s a powerful message for politicians.
“Don’t underestimate the underdog,” Obhrai, the dean of the Conservative caucus of MPs, said Wednesday, calling himself a grassroots fighter.
“The establishment should take note of it… They should all take note of what people want. Donald Trump tapped into the discontent with the establishment.”
But fellow leadership hopeful Erin O’Toole said he doesn’t necessarily think the same anti-establishment, anti-elite sentiment found in the U.S. election is spreading in Canada.
“I don’t sense it’s coming to Canada because the U.S. experience and Canadian experience are very different,” O’Toole said, noting Canada emerged from global recession must better than the U.S.
“That’s where that angst has been… The two situations are very different.”
O’Toole said one thing leadership candidates can draw from the U.S. results and the Brexit vote is that traditional polling and pundit assessment doesn’t always catch the undercurrent among the population.
Trump’s victory also means leadership candidates – as well as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – need to carefully assess how they approach the Canada-U.S. relationship, especially when it comes to some of the anti-trade, protectionist sentiment that has come from the president-elect.
“We can’t let some of the protectionism language from the campaign to become entrenched in Buy American and some other programs that would hurt our manufacturers, our agricultural sector, our resource sector,” O’Toole said.
The new Mainstreet Research telephone poll conducted Nov. 5-6 says Leitch is the top choice in the leadership race among Conservative party supporters, with the backing of 19 per cent of Tory faithful polled.
A pack of other contenders weren’t far behind, with Andrew Scheer at 14 per cent, Michael Chong at 12 per cent, and Maxime Bernier and O’Toole at 11 per cent.
Yet, nearly two in 10 Conservative supporters remain undecided (18 per cent), the poll says.
“Following Donald Trump’s surprise victory last night, Leitch has been quick to tie herself to Trump’s victory. She has been making waves in Canada by proposing a ‘Canadian Values’ test for new immigrants. Now, with a Trump victory in the United States, we have to wonder if this strategy will pay dividends here in Canada,” said Mainstreet Research president Quito Maggi.
“There are a number of parallels between Leitch and Trump: both are anti-establishment candidates that have been accused of pandering to xenophobia.”
A number of hopefuls in the race are so far struggling to gain traction, according to the poll, with new candidate Lisa Raitt (who jumped into the race just days ago) at four per cent, Obhrai and Brad Trost at three per cent, Chris Alexander at two per cent, Steven Blaney at one per cent and Daniel Lindsay and Andrew Saxton (who are also new to the race) at zero per cent.
Of note, the poll surveyed Conservative supporters, who are not necessarily all party members who will actually vote in the leadership race.
The Mainstreet/Postmedia poll randomly surveyed 5,066 Canadians on both landlines and cellphones, including 1,478 Conservative supporters. The polling data on the leadership race have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.55 percentage points 19 times out of 20.
• Email: jfekete@postmedia.com | Twitter: jasonfekete
Conservative Leadership Poll by Jason Fekete on Scribd