Don’t speak French? Here’s what you missed in the French CPC debate.

On Wednesday June 17th, Conservative Party Members watched the Leadership candidates debate in English, and there was a lack of consistency when it came to what some of the candidates talked about in those two debates. Inconsistencies which every Conservative member should know about.

Let’s start off with the most inconsistent of all candidates, which is Erin O’Toole. Erin is running as a “true blue” conservative, despite running as a progressive in 2017 and having a Red Tory voting record. While Erin talked about his “true blue” vision and criticized MacKay for being a Red Tory during the English debate, the same can’t be said about the night before. His performance in the French debate showed how self-centered he is, and that he is just trying to pander to everyone for political gain. He had a very angry tone during the whole debate, and he spent the first half of the debate trying to pick fights with MacKay over personal insider affairs. He kept on repeating “MacKay criticized my platform” amongst other self-centered lines.

For the second half of the debate, O’Toole made himself look more progressive than MacKay. He kept on repeating that he was proud to have been one of the few conservative MP’s that supported the 2013 transgender bathroom bill, and called MacKay transphobic for not supporting the NDP legislation. At some point in the debate, he started to repeatedly yell to MacKay “why did you vote against the LGBT community?!”. This is the same Erin O’Toole who told social conservative voters last week that he should be their second choice. 

Now to Peter MacKay. Let’s start off by addressing the elephant in the room. Peter MacKay DID NOT call Jason Kenny an angry man. 

This whole controversy was caused by CPAC’s English translator who had trouble following along due to O’Toole consistently talking over MacKay. What MacKay actually said is that he had voted against the transgender bathroom bill, like O’Toole’s friend Jason Kenny. MacKay also did not say that he would give Quebec a veto over a pipeline, but said that he would consult with Quebec Premier Francois Legault before making any decisions. Peter MacKay mentioned in the French debate that he would support another lockdown if a second wave of COVID-19 hits Canada, despite numerous experts saying that the lockdowns were a complete failure.

Peter MacKay also had the audacity to compare his time as defence minister to Erin O’Toole’s military service. What came as a surprise to many, Peter MacKay told Leslyn Lewis he would allow his cabinet to have free votes on issues of conscience, which backtracked on his previous promise to whip the cabinet on those issues. Peter MacKay also called out Derek Sloan for his personal religious viewpoint on sexual orientation, where “true blue” Erin then jumped in to say “what about trans people?”. Peter’s performance and attitude in the French debate is what caused former MP Brad Trost to tweet that his concerns about MacKay being leader of the Conservative Party.

Derek Sloan’s French language skills exceeded everyone’s expectations. His message was consistent in French and English, unafraid to tell Quebecers that he is pro-life and that he would build pipelines in Quebec. However he did not say in French but did say it in English that he thought Québec’s Bill 21 was systemically racist, later saying in a press scrum he would have mentioned it in the French debate but he thought the opportunity to talk about it never arose. Unfortunately, Sloan was unable to confront Peter and Erin’s Red Tory drama during the French debate due to his lack of greater fluency in the language.

Dr. Leslyn Lewis was also very consistent, as she is proud to have no hidden agenda. Everything that she said in French, she said in English. However, her lack of French skills ended up being a handicap for here in that debate, because she was unable to express herself in the impressive and eloquent manner that she does in English. However, Dr Lewis did ask Peter MacKay a very direct question on conscience rights, and considering the fact that she has only had about 23 hours of french speaking, she did alright and she has plenty of time to learn and champion french before the next federal election. 

Justin Trudeau is a very inconsistent and pandering Prime Minister, so it is important that the next Leader of the Conservative Party be consistent and unapologetic on policy in both official languages.