Prime Minister Justin Trudeau might have good cause for concern now that Conservative leader Andrew Scheer has stepped aside, a Simon Fraser University professor says.
Asked if he thinks Scheer’s resignation might give Trudeau some breathing room in this minority government parliament, Dr. Sanjay Jeram, a senior lecturer in SFU’s political science department, suspects it will do the opposite.
“No, in fact it gives him less. It’s a stranglehold, a chokehold actually. It’s the opposite,” Jeram maintains. “In fact, he had tonnes of breathing room with Andrew Scheer in the leadership.
“I think this really puts a lot of pressure on the Liberals,” he said.
“Where they (Conservatives) go from here, since the party’s only been merged since 2003, the central question is, is this the moment when a more centric version – someone progressive socially – is this the moment when that becomes the model for the party and its leader?”
Does he see this as the dawn of all major Canadian parties occupying the realm of centre-left?
“I don’t think that’s the case,” Jeram said. “I think that there’s a strong appetite for fiscally conservative politics in this country, that it’s spread out across ridings.
“I don’t think it’s the end of the right by any means, it’s just a matter of a re-factioned right,” Jeram said. “There’s always going to be space for right-wing politics.”
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