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Conservative Party

MP McLeod pleased to see Scheer’s leadership future in the hands of party members

Nov 7, 2019 | 3:47 AM

KAMLOOPS — Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo Conservative MP Cathy McLeod says the party’s convention in April is the best place to determine the leadership future of Andrew Scheer.

McLeod is returning to Kamloops after attending the party’s first caucus meeting since the October 21 election.

Though the Conservative Party added 22 new seats in the election, the failure to form government caused some to deem the Conservative campaign a failure, and hold Scheer responsible.

McLeod says she agreed with the caucus decision to leave Scheer’s future in the hands of party members.

“We firmly believe that any leadership review process should be done by the broader party,” said McLeod. “I was pleased to see that there is going to be a review process, it’s going to happen at our convention in April. I think that’s the place for this particular review to move forward.

“It’s mandated in our party’s platform that, if you lose an election, there’s an automatic leadership review,” she added. “I was also glad that (former Conservative cabinet minister) John Baird is going to be having a comprehensive look at the campaign in terms of what went right and what went wrong.”

The party keeps the content of caucus meetings confidential, but McLeod says she was excited to meet her new parliamentary colleagues and is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to call the House of Commons back so parliamentarians can return to work.

“It was great to see 40-plus new colleagues, because of course not only are there the 22 new seats, but we had a number who retired. [The new MPs] arrived with great enthusiasm and it was a real pleasure to be able to get to know them.”