Canada’s Conservatives Choose Andrew Scheer as Their New Leader<br />By IAN AUSTENMAY 28, 2017<br />OTTAWA — Canada’s Conservative Party on Saturday chose a 38-year-old social conservative<br />and opponent of carbon taxes to lead its campaign against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the next election.<br />"I don’t like the fact Conservatives have that negative connotation —<br />that we’re always against things, always ‘tackling’ something, ‘cracking down’ on something, or ‘getting tough’ on something else," he told The National Post, a Toronto newspaper.<br />With the candidates speaking to the party’s base rather than the general electorate, much of the campaign focused on testing would-be immigrants for "Canadian values," the threat from terrorism<br />and conservative social issues, rather than broader subjects like the economy.<br />Speaking to party supporters after Saturday’s victory, Mr. Sheer largely avoided social issues, apart from a promise to end federal grants to universities "that shut down debate<br />and can’t stand different points of view." He repeated his pledge to repeal Mr. Trudeau’s plan to implement carbon pricing nationwide.<br />He said the party must accept that same-sex marriage is the law in Canada,<br />and while he said he would not reopen the abortion debate, he dodged questions about whether he would let other Conservatives introduce anti-abortion bills.
