Donald Trump election win roils Canadian Conservative leadership race

OTTAWA – Donald Trump hadn’t even given his victory speech early Wednesday morning before his brash style of nativist, anti-immigrant rhetoric began intruding into the Canadian political scene.

Conservative party leadership candidate Kellie Leitch jumped on the Republican president-elect’s surprise U.S. victory to fan the fires of her own campaign, which is premised on enforcing as-yet undefined “Canadian values.”

On Facebook and in emails to supporters overnight, Leitch hailed Trump’s election as an “exciting message that needs to be delivered in Canada as well.”

“It’s why I’m the only candidate who will ensure that every visitor, immigrant, and refugee will be screened for Canadian values.”

The posting drew immediate reactions from fellow MPs and Conservative leadership hopefuls Deepak Obhrai and Michael Chong, who flatly rejected the racial undertone of Leitch’s appeal — even before a leadership debate Wednesday evening in Saskatoon.

“We need to stand above that,” Obhrai told The Canadian Press. “Canada was built by immigrants and all immigrants have brought positiveness in this country.”

Chong issued a release calling it a mistake for “conservatives to ape Donald Trump’s divisive path to the presidency.”

“The Conservative Party leadership race is fast becoming a stark choice between two very different visions for our party and our country,” wrote Chong.

That, of course, is Leitch’s strategy in a contest crowded with a dozen entrants to succeed former prime minister Stephen Harper.

But whether a successful Canadian Conservative can “ape” Trump’s formula as an antidote to Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s relentless inclusiveness remains an open question.

Rona Ambrose, the interim Conservative leader, issued a much more low-key message of congratulations Wednesday to the president-elect.

“The United States is, and will remain, Canada’s closest friend and ally,” Ambrose said in a release. “Our unique relationship has stood the test of nearly 150 years.”

Conservative pundit Tim Powers of Summa Strategies said appealing to Canadians who feel disaffected and abandoned by Trudeau’s sunny agenda is a given for some leadership candidates. And he tipped his hat to the Leitch campaign’s strategy of making her the “focal point” of Wednesday’s post-Trump debate in Saskatoon.

Leitch’s campaign guru Nick Kouvalis helped former Toronto mayor Rob Ford, no stranger to alienating minority groups, achieve power in one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world.

“Probably those who are running campaigns playing off those fears feel a bit more emboldened today and are looking to elicit reaction,” said Powers.

Whether Leitch — a lifelong partisan, orthopedic surgeon and former cabinet minister — is the best vehicle for a Trump-like, anti-elitist message is another matter, added Powers, calling her “the ultimate party insider.”

Andrew McGrath, a former press secretary to Leitch when she was in cabinet, responded to her overnight pitch with disappointment on social media.

“You were status of women minister,” McGrath posted to Leitch on Twitter. “Shame on you.”

Trump was the focus of a number of allegations of lewd behaviour from women who came forward after an old tape emerged in which he boasted that his star power allowed him to sexually accost women with impunity.

But there’s also a deeper structural hurdle for any Conservative leadership aspirant who wants to harness Trump’s populist anger.

Political scientist Tom Flanagan, a former architect of the Conservative party with Stephen Harper, noted Trump won by exciting a whole new class of supporters. The Conservative leadership race requires winning support from existing and new members in equally weighted ridings all across the country.

“Trumpism may find echoes in the West and rural Ontario, but how well will it play in Atlantic Canada, Quebec, and the city centres of Toronto and Vancouver?” Flanagan asked in an email.

“I’m not saying Trump’s victory will have no impact on the Conservative race; it may indeed have quite a lot of impact. But anyone hoping to follow Trumpian strategies in the Conservative race has to adjust them to the very different institutional framework.”

The party is to choose its new leader in May.

— Follow @BCheadle on Twitter