The Conservative Party of Canada’s 3rd leadership race in six years will be decided on September 10th. The winner of what has been, at times, a very nasty and corrosive contest will have to quickly pivot and focus on getting Conservatives united from coast to coast to challenge and defeat the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The big question for the winner and all Conservatives is what the path to victory looks like and what is the right direction for the new Conservative leader to take to ensure they do not meet the fate of Andrew Scheer and Erin O’Toole.
Tasha Kheiriddin is a longtime Conservative. She served as the Progressive Conservatives Youth Federation president from 1994 to 1997, is a former staffer for Mulroney cabinet ministers Barbara McDougall and Bernard Valcourt, and worked for Charles Harnick, the attorney general of Ontario under the Harris government. Kheiriddin is a lawyer, columnist, high-profile commentator, and principal at Navigator Ltd. She is also a friend and ally of Jean Charest and the co-chair of his leadership campaign. In her new book, The Right Path: How Conservatives Can Unite, Inspire and Take Canada Forward, Kheiriddin lays out the obstacles facing the Tories in 2022 and posits what the Conservative Party of Canada needs to do to remain unified after cantankerous and at times nasty leadership race, and more importantly what it must to win the next federal election.
The Right Path is a must-read, especially for Conservatives and others interested in politics if they want to understand what is driving the angst, division, and machinations in the Conservative Party. Her key message is that unless the Conservative Party can find a way to come together and work together, the party will remain in Opposition or worse.