The Pollcast: Breaking down Andrew Scheer's Conservative leadership victory
Host Éric Grenier is joined by Conservative insiders Tim Powers and Chad Rogers
The CBC Pollcast, hosted by CBC poll analyst Éric Grenier, explores the world of electoral politics, political polls and the trends they reveal.
On the 13th and final ballot of the Conservative leadership vote, despite trailing in second place throughout the count, Andrew Scheer beat Maxime Bernier to become the new leader of the Conservative Party.
He had a narrow path to victory — and he took it.
His upset victory was helped by a number of factors, including strong results for like-minded social conservative candidates Brad Trost and Pierre Lemieux and a poor performance by Bernier in his home province of Quebec.
How did Scheer manage to cobble together enough votes to win? Why did Bernier come up short? What happens to the defeated leadership candidates under a Scheer-led party? And how does the new Opposition leader stack up against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau?
To discuss what happened on Saturday night and what happens next, Conservative insiders Tim Powers of Summa Strategies and Chad Rogers of Crestview Strategy join Pollcast host Éric Grenier one last time.
Listen to the full discussion above — or subscribe to the CBC Pollcast and listen to past episodes.
Past episodes with Chad Rogers and Tim Powers on the Conservative leadership race:
- Jan. 2016: Your primer on the Conservative leadership race
- May 2016: The state of the Conservative leadership race
- July 2016: Tony Clement in, Jason Kenney out
- Sept. 2016: The impact of MacKay's decision not to run
- Nov. 2016: Conservative leadership begins to heat up
- Jan. 2017: O'Leary, French debate shake up race
- Mar. 2017: 3 months to go in CPC leadership race
- Apr. 2017: Bernier, O'Leary or someone else?
- Apr. 2017: Kevin O'Leary's exit
- May 2017: A last look at the CPC leadership race
Follow Éric Grenier and Tim Powers on Twitter.