Khan faces a difficult fight — with his own base

Opinion

The political aspirations of Wally Daudrich have fizzled out for the moment — but the ghost of it will remain something with which PC Leader Obby Khan must contend.

Daudrich, who lost to Khan by a hair in a leadership contest which concluded in late April, ran a campaign promising to be a “pro-freedom, pro-life and true conservative” leader. That embrace of social conservatism took him almost all the way to the head of the Progressive Conservative table — he actually garnered more votes than Khan, only to lose on a percentage basis under a new system for tabulating points awarded to candidates. (Under this system, Khan won 50.4 per cent of total points, and Daudrich 49.6 per cent).

But the final nail in the coffin — barring any political resurrections down the line — was Khan’s refusal to put Daudrich in as the party’s candidate for a byelection for the constituency of Spruce Woods. Daudrich has said he won’t apply to contest the nomination.

Denying Daudrich the byelection spot was prudent of Khan. He has a tall order ahead, running the PCs in the wake of a deeply unpopular re-election campaign under former premier Heather Stefanson, and reshaping the party’s image in the public eye. (A task made more difficult by recent findings of ethics violations by that outgoing government.)

As leader, Khan has promised a change in tone, in its political rhetoric and its Question Period behaviour.

“A new day has begun,” he told the chamber in early May.

In trying to build back trust after the party’s anti-landfill-search campaign plank registered with voters as callous, he would not have been served well by appointing a candidate who joked about sending polar bears into downtown Winnipeg as a solution to the city’s homelessness problem.

But while Daudrich is out of the running, it remains the case that in terms of sheer number of voters, a majority of Progressive Conservative members — however slim the majority — wanted Daudrich in, and not Khan. And so he must try to create a kinder, gentler, more moderate image for the PCs, even as much of his base advocates taking the party further to the right.

It will make for an interesting test of whether or not a leader steers their party, or the other way around.

Will Khan, the party leader who has apologized for the landfill rhetoric, insist on tamping down the further-right elements of his party? Or will their influence ultimately force him to take the ship in the direction they want it to go?

It’s a problem faced by small-c conservatives and their parties the world over — small-government, pro-business people trying to continue their usual work in the shadow of a rising tidal wave with MAGA stamped either literally or spiritually upon it. The far-right political element, embodied by Trumpism stateside and the “Freedom Convoy” in Canada, is loud and proud about its grievances.

This movement also found a voice in Daudrich, who credited U.S. President Donald Trump with helping to “change the mood” among conservatives.

Earlier this year in this space, this paper wondered whether Khan was actually all that ideologically different from Daudrich, or if he was simply better at concealing his more risible positions beneath a veneer of rhetorical discretion and decent retail politics.

If he means what he says, he will have to steel himself for battles both within and without, as he tries to inspire the party’s base to follow him to a more moderate place.

But if the PCs continue to be swept up in an increasingly right-wing tide, it will be strong evidence he didn’t.