a field of 14 candidates in a surprising victory over Maxime Bernier.
The new Conservative leader trailed Maxime Bernier through the first 12 ballots before securing the leadership race on the 13th and final ballot with 51 percent of the vote appealing to the party’s mainstream. Scheer campaigned on a vision that largely extended the legacy of Stephen Harper, the Conservative Prime Minister who governed Canada from 2006 to 2015. Scheer is a former Speaker of the House of Commons first elected as a lawmaker in 2004, and thanked Harper at length in his victory speech. Scheer was quick into campaign mode again as the new leader pledging to rescind a federal minimum price on carbon due to take effect next year and balance Canada’s budget in two years. Scheer also said that he would pursue new trade deals, citing the U.K. -- Canada’s fifth- largest trading partner -- after any Brexit deal. Also good news to Canadian’s oil and gas industry, Scheer has also said he will approve TransCanada Corp.’s Energy East oil pipeline proposal if elected, which currently remains under regulatory review as this would have a major impact in getting Canadian oil to marketing both home and abroad. As they say let the games begin as Andrew Scheer goes on the attack in the Canada House of Commons as the Conservatives start to get the party’s campaign rolling to take on Trudeau’s Liberals in the next election.
W ell it might not have had all of the glamour and glitz of the nomination process south of the boarder, the Conserva- tive Leadership race did have a lot of similar elements including a reality TV star. This past weekend at the Canada’s Conservative Party Leader Conven- tion party faithful selected their new leader, electing Andrew Scheer from
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • MAY 2017
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