Lewis launches Conservative leadership bid in Steinbach

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This article was published 08/04/2022 (1174 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidate Leslyn Lewis held her first campaign event in Steinbach on Saturday, touting views on a range of social issues that appeared to resonate with a crowd of about 100 people who showed up to hear her speak.

Introduced by Provencher MP Ted Falk, who has yet to endorse a leadership candidate, Lewis delivered a 12-minute stump speech in the Mennonite Heritage Village auditorium, then took questions from the audience, posed for photos, and spoke with reporters.

“I’m running to be a bridge-builder,” she declared in a speech that returned often to the themes of common ground and personal freedoms.

“I am not a career politician. I am just somebody who gave it all up, who closed my law firm, closed my business…and decided to heed my calling.”

Lewis, 51, announced her campaign March 8. She first ran for Conservative leader in 2020, losing to Erin O’Toole but succeeding in establishing a national profile. Last fall, she was elected MP for the southern Ontario riding of Haldimand—Norfolk.

A child of Jamaican immigrants, Lewis holds advanced degrees in environmental studies and international law and has worked as a lawyer and academic. In her speech, she presented herself as a well-rounded candidate with career experience outside of the political arena.

“Many of the other politicians that are running, they’ve only signed the back of a paycheque. I’ve signed the front of a paycheque,” she said.

The quip seemed directed at her chief rival in the leadership race, Pierre Poilievre, who held a campaign rally in Winnipeg the same day.

Lewis’s speech touched on everything from the national debt to the trucker convoy, religious and personal freedoms, oil pipelines, abortion, conversion therapy, regional alienation, the news media, small business, and her faith in God and democracy, but did not mention the war in Ukraine.

Lewis wasted little time in emphasizing her religious faith, mentioning prayer within seconds of stepping to the microphone.

“I’m a Christian, I was raised in the church, I come from a very religious family,” she elaborated a few minutes later. “I’ve never even seen my mother wear a pair of pants—that’s the kind of religious family that I’ve come from.”

Lewis defined herself as “pro-life” but said she wants to have conversations with those who disagree with her. She was less magnanimous when discussing the policies of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“We should not be importing oil from foreign countries, especially dictator countries,” she said to applause. “We have our own resources, and we need to be self-sufficient.”

She criticized Trudeau for not engaging with the trucker convoy and for labelling them “racists, white supremacists, [and] misogynists.”

She also panned direct benefit pandemic programs instituted by Trudeau, saying small business owners have told her they can’t find restaurant workers.

“We paid teenagers to stay home while businesses could not find employees and we need to do something about that.”

Audience members asked for her stance on Israel (“the only democracy in the Middle East”), the carbon tax (“punitive” and “egregious”), vaccine mandates (“a political tool to turn people against each other”), oil pipelines (“the least emittive way to transmit energy”), clean drinking water for First Nations communities (“that should have been done a long time ago”), confidence in elections (“we’re going to make sure we have a lot of scrutineers”), the news media (“spewing propaganda”), and populism (“a lot of people are waking up to things that were considered conspiracies last year”).

“People are not that different after all, no matter where they are,” she said in response to a question about how she would win over seat-dense Ontario and Quebec.

While discussing whether children should undergo conversion therapy, Lewis said, “I do believe that it’s a parent’s right to usher their children through into adulthood, and so decisions like changing your sex or taking medication, I believe that parents should be involved in those decisions.”

Lewis said vaccine mandates are preventing some of her family members from flying to visit ailing relatives and suggested her stance on the issue cost her a shadow cabinet appointment under O’Toole.

“I spoke up when it cost me,” Lewis said.

Discussing alternatives to the carbon tax, she said Ottawa should incentivize green technologies and focus on recycling and consumer education programs.

In an interview, Lewis explained it was a symbolic choice to begin her leadership campaign in Provencher.

“I think that unity is very, very important, so you start from the centre and you try and build that bridge and unite us all.”

Asked how she would win back disaffected conservatives who voted for the People’s Party of Canada in the last election, Lewis said she was outspoken about personal freedoms “even before the freedom convoy made it popular.”

Lewis said the Conservative Party is “a very big tent party,” and noted that all political parties struggle with unity.

Becoming an MP has taught her about the “hurdles and hoops” involved in passing good legislation and representing constituents well.

She floated the creation of a “a long-term pandemic plan” to protect Canadians from future pandemics, or a sixth wave of COVID-19, without resorting to public health edicts.

Falk, who has promised to help any party leadership candidate organize a local campaign stop, didn’t endorse Lewis, but said he liked what he heard.

“I’m particularly impressed with Leslyn, with her positions on social issues and how she has skillfully navigated some of those difficult topics with individuals but also in the media,” Falk told the crowd.

“We share a lot of the same beliefs, a lot of the same values—traditional family values—and I know that’s important to Provencher residents and it’s important to me.”

Falk said constituents from neighbouring Portage—Lisgar, Kildonan—St Paul, and St Boniface—St Vital also attended Saturday’s event.