Rahim Mohamed: The CPC leadership race needs a lot more James Moore

He's not likely to run. But the race sure could use someone like him

By: Rahim Mohamed

The race to choose the next leader of the Conservative Party of Canada got underway in earnest this month — opening not with the bang of a starter’s pistol but with a disheartening flurry of recriminations. With the party faithful starved for a unifier who can finally put the long-in-the-tooth Trudeau government out to pasture, the race’s “Big Three” — Pierre Polievre, Jean Charest and Patrick Brown — have instead offered little beyond predictable internecine bickering. The weeks-old race has already seen accusations of dishonesty, call-backs to 2015’s niqab fracas, and full-blown attack ads. 

Much of this can be pinned on early favourite Pierre Poilievre, who seems determined to lock-in his first-mover advantage by eliminating his two biggest rivals before either has a chance to build momentum (and perhaps send a warning to anyone else who dares to get in his way). As I wrote in The Line a few weeks ago, Poilievre’s pugilistic frontrunner campaign is unlike any in recent memory.

Part of why Poilievre has been able to get away with these attacks against Brown and Charest is because neither man has much of a connection to the Conservative Party’s caucus. The Progressive Conservative party that Charest led in the mid-1990s bears little resemblance to the party of today. For his part, Brown warmed the Harper Government’s backbenches for nearly a decade between 2006 and 2015 but drew attention for little outside of his spending habits. If Poilievre were to go after a respected sitting or former member of the party’s caucus with the same level of gusto, he would risk losing a number of his cherished caucus endorsements (at the time of writing, Poilievre had been endorsed by 45 of his co-partisans in the House of Commons, an impressive 37% of all sitting Conservatives).

So far, three of Mr. Polievre’s fellow MPs have announced candidacies, but none outside of rookie Dr. Leslyn Lewis is likely to garner a substantial amount of support (although Parry Sound—Muskoka MP Scott Atichison may have a lucrative future ahead of him as a pitchman for any number of male enhancement drugs or industrial wear clothiers). Poilievre and Dr. Lewis, who has the support of much of the party’s social conservative wing locked down, appear to have struck an early “non-aggression pact.”

For those hoping for a more diverse (by any definition) field of options, disappointment likely awaits. There are few sitting or former Conservative parliamentarian who could tick all these boxes: (1) is widely respected among Conservatives; (2) can speak both official languages; and (3) has the name recognition to make a “big splash” by entering the race. Insisting on all these conditions produces an alarmingly small list of names. 

Popular former interim leader Rona Ambrose has already stated that she will not be running, as have 2020 runner-up Peter MacKay and Shadow Minister of Foreign Affairs Michael Chong (who finished fifth in 2017). French presents a stumbling block for the leadership aspirations of former deputy leader Lisa Raitt and high-profile Calgary MP Michelle Rempel-Garner (Rempel Garner has endorsed Patrick Brown). 

Former Royal Canadian Air Force captain Leona Alleslev, who has made rumblings about entering the race, certainly looks good on paper but sat in the Conservative Party’s caucus for only three years before losing her seat in Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill last fall. Alleslev, who crossed-the-floor from the Trudeau government to join the Tories in 2018, could not expect to garner anywhere near the level of support among her erstwhile colleagues as Mr. Poilievre, who has sat in the Conservative caucus since the party’s inception in 2004.

This leaves just one person who can stare down the frontrunner’s path of destruction: James Moore. 

Still only 45 years old, Moore is bilingual, affable, telegenic and battle tested. He may be the only person who can salvage a Conservative party leadership race that is off to a nasty, uninspiring start. He is certainly one of the people that Justin Trudeau (or whoever succeeds him as prime minister) would least like to go head-to-head against in the next federal election. 

Widely respected across party lines, Mr. Moore held a number of important cabinet posts in the Harper Government, serving stints as Minister of Industry (2013 – 15), Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages (2008 – 13), and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and International Trade (2008). First elected in 2000 as a member of the Canadian Alliance, he comfortably held the working-class British Columbia riding of Port Moody—Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam (an NDP stronghold at the provincial level) for 15 years. (Superfans of this newsletter will know Port Coquitlam, or “PoCo”, as the hometown of The Line co-editor Jen Gerson). 

Moore was helping to unite Canada’s right while Pierre Poilievre was still toiling in campus politics at the University of Calgary; his conservative credentials are unassailable. Going negative against Moore would undoubtedly backfire, and potentially cost Poilievre a handful of caucus endorsements. 

It was Moore’s half-decade at Heritage Canada that won him the approval of Ottawa’s notoriously clubby press gallery. Swimming against the Harper government’s cost-cutting tide, he managed to deliver record amounts of federal cash to the arts during a years-long recession, winning him the lasting goodwill of Canada’s cultural elites. One fawning 2011 Maclean’s profile hailed Mr. Moore as a “new breed of Tory” who “actually gets it.” 

After stepping aside from politics in 2015, Moore transitioned seamlessly into the world of television punditry. Today, he is a semi-regular panelist on CBC’s Power and Politics, where he espouses a thoughtful, inclusive conservatism that could play well with a national electorate. Moreover, he has taken a principled stand against the agents of intolerance who have infiltrated right-of-centre politics over the past several years, using his Twitter account to rebuke figures like Jordan B. Peterson, former United States president Donald Trump, and the leaders of February’s “freedom blockades.”

As Ken Boessenkool wrote in The Line last week, the reality of a quasi-formal Liberal/NDP governing coalition means that the next Conservative leader will need to appeal to the broadest cross-section of voters possible. Moore, who has sidestepped the populist wave that has engulfed several of his fellow conservatives in the age of social media, would be viable across virtually all major demographics and regions of the country.

Of course, in spite of all of the positive attributes he would bring to the race, it is highly unlikely that Moore will actually put his name forward. I will not speculate on personal factors he may be weighing, beyond acknowledging that his young son Spencer suffers from a rare form of skeletal dysplasia (as was reported in 2015). Moore, who also holds advisory positions with Dentons, the world’s largest law firm, and global communications firm Edelman, seems to be enjoying his post-political life (he wrapped up a three-year stint as Chancellor of the University of Northern British Columbia, his alma mater, in 2019). Moore recently quote-tweeted a video clip depicting Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak (a Democrat) being publicly threatened at a Las Vegas restaurant, adding the caption “Why good people won’t run for office exhibit 19644”.

One can only hope that Moore will eventually grasp the desperation of the present moment — a fourth straight federal election loss would likely spell curtains for the unhyphenated conservative party that he helped build over two decades ago. The first month of the leadership race, the party’s third in five years, has not given rank-and-file Conservatives much cause for optimism, but there is still time for a game-changer to enter the picture: only one potential candidate checks all the boxes.

Help us, James Moore. You’re our only hope.

Rahim Mohamed is a Visiting Assistant Professor of International Studies at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. 

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