page_title: Andrew Scheer
section_title: 2017 leadership election
hierarchical_section_title: Andrew Scheer / Political career / 2017 leadership election
caption_attribution_description: English: Andrew Scheer leadership campaign logo
context_page_description: Andrew James Scheer PC MP is a Canadian politician who served as the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada and leader of the Official Opposition from 2017 until 2020. Scheer has been the member of Parliament for Regina—Qu'Appelle since 2004.
  Elected to the Saskatchewan riding of Regina—Qu'Appelle at the age of 25, Scheer was re-elected in 2006, 2008, and 2011 before becoming the speaker of the House of Commons at age 32, making him the youngest Speaker in the chamber's history. He held the speaker role for the entirety of the 41st Canadian Parliament. On 28 September 2016, Scheer announced his bid for the leadership of the Conservative Party, running under the slogan of "Real conservative. Real leader."
  Scheer has described himself as focused on economic development, fiscal restraint, and reducing inefficiencies in government. A staunch opponent of the federal carbon tax, he has stated that he would balance the federal budget within two years of forming a government and open up the airline industry to foreign competition. Scheer has been likened to former Prime Minister Stephen Harper. On 27 May 2017, he was elected leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.
context_section_description: On 28 September 2016, Scheer announced his bid for the leadership of the Conservative Party, and that he had the support of 32 members of the Conservative caucus. On 27 May 2017, Scheer was elected as the second full-time leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, beating runner up Maxime Bernier and more than 12 others with 50.95% of the vote through 13 rounds. Bernier later attributed his failure to the "fake conservatives" in the supply management dairy lobby and agricultural sector. Scheer garnered laughs at the annual Press Gallery dinner by joking:
  "I certainly don't owe my leadership victory to anybody...", stopping in mid-sentence to take a swig of 2% milk from the carton. "It's a high quality drink and it's affordable too."
  Scheer's campaign for the Conservative leadership was run under the slogan "Real conservative. Real leader." He avoided advocating the social conservative issues that some of the candidates championed, saying that he wanted to "reach a broader audience of Canadians". Positions on which he took a strong stance included scrapping the carbon tax and being "tough on crime". During his political career, Scheer has been compared to former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and has been called  "Harper with a smile" or "Stephen Harper 2.0". Scheer is considered a Blue Tory and is critical of the policies of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, having also been critical of Trudeau's late father, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau. Scheer considered former prime minister John Diefenbaker and British member of the European Parliament (MEP) Daniel Hannan as political influences. Scheer described U.S. senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio as "strong conservative voices" during the 2016 Manning Center Conference. Unlike other candidates, Scheer's leadership team was focused less on headlines or eye-grabbing policy and more on data and organizing.
  During the Conservative leadership race, Scheer stated that he would balance the federal budget within two years of forming government, however his platform on specific reforms to accomplish this have not yet been revealed.
  Scheer benefited from the unexpected support of Brad Trost during the leadership race. It was reported that some of Trost supporters contravened the Canada Elections Act and party membership rules by offering incentives to vote. Dimitri Soudas, a former Harper aide, pointed out that it violated election rules and it benefited Scheer's campaign but the ballots had been destroyed so the result stood.
  Scheer was criticized by opposition politicians for removing his campaign platform after winning the Conservative leadership race. Tory strategists suggested that the ideas proposed by Scheer during the race were not likely to be part of the Tories 2019 election platform. It was later revealed in a Dairy Farmers of Canada briefing document after the 2018 Conservative Convention in Halifax that "The powers of the leader are far reaching in preventing policy from being in the party platform. DFC [Dairy Farmers of Canada] has been told by the Leader’s office that he will exercise this power, and that this policy will not be in the Conservative election platform regardless of the outcome at convention",.
  The day after the election it was revealed that Hamish Marshall, Scheer's campaign manager, was listed as an IT specialist and one of the directors of the far right news outlet The Rebel Media. On 16 October 2017, The Globe and Mail asked Scheer if he knew that Marshall worked for the Rebel during the leadership campaign, he responded: "I didn't ask Hamish about every client he had" and then ended the interview. Later, a Conservative spokesperson clarified that Scheer was aware that the Rebel was one of Marshall's many clients, but did not know the specifics. The day after, Marshall was named Conservative campaign chair for the 43rd Canadian federal election. On 21 March 2018, in an interview with Macleans, Scheer stated that Marshall and his past relationship with the Rebel should not be conflated with his selection as campaign chair.
caption: Leadership campaign logo
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