HALIFAX—Where are the boundaries of the Big Blue Tent?That was the central question at the Conservative party’s policy convention, which wrapped up in Halifax on Saturday. Who makes up Andrew Scheer’s conservative coalition? And what are that coalition’s priorities heading into an election year?Let’s start with the easy one: Maxime Bernier is certainly out of the tent.The Quebec MP, who narrowly lost the leadership to Scheer last year, quit the party on Thursday and vowed to start his own, calling the Conservatives “too intellectually and morally corrupt to be reformed.” He timed his departure just as the party’s activists were landing in Halifax for the pre-election reunion. Read more: Grassroots Conservatives at policy convention target carbon tax, irregular migrantsScheer blasts carbon tax, ‘political correctness’ at Conservative policy conventionOpinion | Delacourt: For Andrew Scheer, building a new coalition will be an uphill battleIf he was trying for maximum damage to Scheer, he probably should have shown up and quit on Sunday. At least then news reports would wonder about a possible Conservative schism the whole weekend.Instead, he launched his broadside on former colleagues from the relative safety of Ottawa. Scheer addressed the matter directly on Thursday, angrily denying Bernier’s claim that the Conservative party has abandoned conservative voters. The entire caucus, including Bernier’s former supporters, seemed to rally around their leader rather than the runner-up.But that doesn’t mean the Beauce MP won’t remain a headache for the party. An Abacus Data poll released Sunday showed that Bernier could leach support away from the Conservatives.After being informed of Bernier’s positions on tightening the border, cancelling retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. and getting rid of supply management, 13 per cent of respondents said they’d vote for a hypothetical ...
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