COLUMN: Think Again – Leslyn Lewis is the Conservative future

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/06/2020 (1763 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Let’s play a game. I’ll tell you the background of a political leadership candidate, and you guess what party this person seeks to lead.

The person I’m thinking of is a 49-year-old Black woman who immigrated to Canada as a child from Jamaica. She lives in Toronto, has two children, and works as a high-profile lawyer. She holds a Masters in Environmental Studies from York University and a PhD in International Law from Osgoode Law School.

So, which party does she belong to?

If you guessed anything other than Conservative, you got it wrong. Don’t feel too bad though. Leslyn Lewis is shattering a lot of stereotypes people have about Conservatives these days.

You know the stereotypes I’m referring to. It’s the assumption that old, white males are Conservative while young, visible minority females vote Liberal or NDP. Not this time.

In addition, Lewis is not running for the Conservative leadership in order to turn it into Liberal-party lite. She is unabashedly fiscally and socially conservative. No one can accuse Lewis of being unclear about where she stands on the issues.

Lewis entered the Conservative leadership race as an underdog. She does not hold a seat in the House of Commons and was relatively unknown at the beginning of this race. However, Lewis is picking up impressive support. Not only has she secured endorsements from six sitting MPs, she has signed up thousands of new party members across the country.

Her media interviews have gone well, and pundits generally gave her favourable reviews after the English-language debate last week. Everything I’m hearing from Conservative party members is that the more people get to know Lewis, the more they like her.

Obviously, winning the leadership race would still be incredibly difficult. Peter Mackay and Erin O’Toole remain the two high-profile frontrunners. However, all signs indicate that Lewis is going to have a strong showing. Even if she doesn’t win the leadership, she is virtually guaranteed a front-bench seat in any Conservative government.

But imagine for a moment what would happen if she did happen to win the leadership. Picture the irony of Lewis, a visible minority woman, going up against Justin Trudeau, the most privileged white male of all. Trudeau’s pathetic virtue signaling and symbolic gestures would pale in comparison to a highly intelligent Black woman with a superior education and who didn’t rely on her last name to climb the career ladder.

Lewis also compares well to NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet. Singh has lurched from one public relations disaster to another during his leadership while Blanchet makes no effort to hide the fact that he and his party care only about Quebec. No one can seriously argue that either of these men are more qualified than Lewis to lead our country.

Earlier this month, we saw political leaders actively participate in massive protests while simultaneously insisting that all other public gatherings must remain strictly limited in size. Lewis had the perfect response to this double standard. She put out a statement arguing that “if people are allowed to gather together in a call for justice, then we must allow people to gather together on their knees for prayer.”

Her logic was impeccable. Either COVID-19 is a serious public health emergency that justifies suspending the freedom of assembly or it isn’t. We need political party leaders who aren’t afraid to take bold stands and to call out hypocrisy when they see it.

No matter who wins the leadership vote in August, there is one thing we know for sure; Leslyn Lewis is the Conservative future.

 

Michael Zwaagstra is a high school teacher and a Steinbach city councillor. He can be reached at mzwaagstra@shaw.ca.