Peter MacKay calls for unity ahead of Poilievre's speech to Conservative convention
CBC
Former Conservative leadership contender Peter MacKay said Friday the party has a shot at defeating the governing Liberals if it stays united between now and the next election.
MacKay, the former leader of the now-defunct Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, is more politically moderate than Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre but they have a common opponent: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
He said the party shouldn't splinter or allow certain factions to threaten its electoral fortunes.
"If you remember nothing else that I've said here today, remember this: in order to build a united Canada we must remain united as a Conservative party," MacKay said to polite applause from the roughly 2,500 delegates on hand in Quebec City for the party's policy convention.
"Canada, it's time. It's time to turn the page. It's time to undo the damage the current Liberal government has inflicted on Canadians now for the past eight years."
Poilievre will deliver a highly anticipated speech to the convention tonight. CBCNews.ca will carry his remarks live, starting at 5:30 p.m. ET.
The party already suffered a split in 2019 when former Conservative MP Maxime Bernier left it to start the People's Party of Canada.
Bernier's party did relatively well in the last election, capturing five per cent of the popular vote at a time when many Canadians questioned government policies related to the pandemic. That performance likely cost the Conservatives some seats in 2021 campaign.
The party is determined to crush the upstart PPC while also wooing the swing voters who will decide the next election.
"I've been to a lot of Conservative conventions over my lifetime," MacKay said. "But I must say I have never been at a gathering where there's so much optimism, so much purpose, so much confidence. I believe Pierre Poilievre will be the next prime minister of Canada."
It doesn't appear there is any immediate threat to party unity.
Poilievre easily won the leadership election last year after trouncing his main opponent, the more moderate Jean Charest.
On Friday, convention delegates also defeated an effort led by social conservatives to change the party's constitution and overhaul the candidate nomination process.
Anti-abortion activists wanted a change after the party parachuted a candidate hand-picked by party brass into a recent federal byelection in the Ontario riding of Oxford.
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