Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: Andrew Scheer should face the music and step aside

Dec 2, 2019 | 1:16 PM

POLITICS IS A TOUGH, DIRTY BUSINESS, a fact of life Andrew Scheer is finding out these days.

Scheer is trying to save his job as Conservative leader as others in his party are determined to take it away from him.

One TV commentator described it yesterday as a “civil war,” a not entirely inaccurate description.

The jury is out on whether Scheer will get the boot or live to fight another election, but he’s doing what he can in the meantime, shuffling his advisors and naming a new deputy leader.

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The knife sharpeners are convinced a change at the top is essential if the Conservatives have a hope of winning the next election.

Why is this man so determined to hold on to a job that so many he once called supporters have come to believe he’s not fit to keep? If ever Justin Trudeau was going to be defeated, it was in 2019, when he generated scandals for himself that should have doomed him.

Yet Trudeau eked out a minority government and remains, for the time being, in power. The biggest reason for that is Scheer, to whom Canadians never warmed.

Voters decided they’d rather live with Justin Trudeau’s major scandals than with Andrew Scheer’s minor ones.

Most of us, faced with such a situation, would throw in the towel and take more time for our children and grandchildren and weekends at the lake. But not Scheer. If he quits now, he’ll be remembered as the leader who snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

This is about everyday personal pride.

The logical, as opposed to the emotional, decision is clear: step aside and give his party a chance. Before the decision is made for him.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and newspaper editor. He writes five commentaries a week for CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.