Leslyn Lewis: The quiet rise of an upcoming star within the CPC
A review of her campaign running for the conservative party leadership.
OPINION
Written for PM4PM by Jason Godin
Back in February of this year, it would have been easy for a lot of politicos to disregard the first officially accepted contender for the Conservative Party of Canada leadership race. With minimal political experience, a number of socially conservative views, and absolutely no French speaking ability, more was made in the campaign’s early days of Leslyn Lewis’ Jamaican origins and gender than any of her potential platform, while the newspapers awaited more “established” candidates such as Peter MacKay and Erin O’Toole.
Fast forward to the waning days of the leadership race, and not only has Leslyn turned heads, she’s turned the entire race on its ear, to the shock and benefit of many within the party — and the chagrin of others. Now Lewis, once seen as an also-ran candidate with no political experience (other than as a last-minute replacement candidate for Scarborough-Rouge Park, a riding which the Liberal Party has held since it’s inception), is seen as not only a spoiler candidate, but as a possible heavyweight contender and potential mainstay of the party’s future.
In her first major national outing on the debate stage, Lewis found herself quickly overwhelmed in the French debate, struggling to keep up with the conversation and at one point even answering the wrong question. To some, she deserved credit for being brave enough to attend and to be able to enunciate any of the language at all after only 2 months of study, but others would move to disqualify her from the leadership by virtue of not being able to communicate on the spot with French Canada.
However, in the English debate, the membership began to see signs of great potential in Lewis. Where O’Toole and Derek Sloan focused much of their energy on attacking — attacking Trudeau, liberals, free speech, other Conservatives, etc — Lewis spoke of a unity message in much the same way as Peter MacKay has. While calling out the need to support and uphold Canadians who hold “traditional” values, she spoke of all types of Conservatives as “parts important to our great democracy.” In addition to her softer, compassionate voice for the social conservatives, Leslyn preached the need for common sense and logical solutions to complex problems on the environment, foreign affairs, and Indigenous affairs, in stark contrast to the Liberals who speak in bombastic terms that are unrealistic (to put it mildly), and Conservatives who may not give these issues enough commitment to begin with.
One major reason for Lewis’ rising star: she stays true to herself and to her beliefs, while maintaining compassion as one of the core tenets of her campaign. Where Stephen Harper and Andrew Scheer were endlessly attacked by the Opposition — and the media — as evangelicals preparing a “Secret Agenda,” Lewis shared her philosophy on the subject openly in a Maclean’s interview in July: “The best way to not get attacked for having a ‘hidden agenda’ is to not hide your agenda,” she said while outlining her nuanced position on abortion laws in Canada (or the lack thereof). As Leslyn says on her campaign website: “If we can’t even discuss the issues that make us uncomfortable, we’ll never be able to solve them.”
Another is her street cred on the environment; Lewis holds a Master’s in Environmental Studies from York University to go along with her law degrees. In a party roundly criticized for not taking climate change seriously enough (or seriously at all, according to some), Lewis proposes specific solutions outside of a carbon tax to help our ailing environment, including supporting our own oil industry in order to avoid imports from more harmful countries, more investment in green and nuclear technologies, and is the only candidate of any party to focus any of their platform on the issue of orphan wells — abandoned derricks that have ravaged their surroundings upon being no longer commercially viable.
As the race draws to a close, it is clear that Leslyn Lewis provides a FAR more sympathetic voice to Canada’s social conservatives than they have had in decades, if not ever. The question is, will this matter when Canadians at large are not interested in further debates on matters of abortion or same-sex marriage? Lewis assures Canadians that she will focus on the issues that unite us, not divide us — but will the moderate voters believe it?
Ultimately, Lewis has rejuvenated talk of the “big tent” Conservative Party alongside Peter MacKay, and is an excellent ambassador for how great ideas can come from people with a “families first” approach to governance. She has many gifts to offer the party (and the country), particularly on matters of law and the environment. While her lack of ability to communicate in French probably should disqualify her from the leadership, and the strength of her socially conservative values may be too much of a turn-off to Liberal Canada, it is clear the future of the party is better off with her in cabinet than without her at all.
Disclaimer: the opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author only and are not intended to represent the views or opinions of Peter MacKay, or the Peter MacKay campaign.
Erin O’Toole review: https://medium.com/@pm4pm2020/erin-otoole-slick-fast-a-lamborghini-until-he-drove-it-into-a-tree-c754054a1c72
Derek Sloan review: https://medium.com/@pm4pm2020/derek-sloan-we-took-the-time-to-listen-4bdb01b92a7c
Leslyn Lewis review: https://medium.com/@pm4pm2020/leslyn-lewis-the-quiet-rise-of-an-upcoming-star-within-the-cpc-844584420e0c