Andrew Scheer (The Canadian Press)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

conservative leader steps down

Dreeshen surprised, disappointed by Scheer resignation

Dec 12, 2019 | 4:27 PM

Count Red Deer-Mountain View MP Earl Dreeshen as one Conservative who is disappointed that Andrew Scheer has resigned as party leader.

Scheer made the announcement on Thursday morning in the House of Commons.

“I know how hard Andrew’s worked and what he brought to the table, I was proud to work with him, and I would’ve been proud to work with him as we moved forward, but now we’re in a transition,” says Dreeshen, a member of parliament since 2008.

“I was surprised. I really felt that (although) we were in a minority government, we’d taken some great strides with some of the work we’d done; our NAFTA preparations, discussions on the throne speech, and the motion we had on China.”

Dreeshen adds that with increased control for the Conservatives at the committee level, he felt the party was ready to make some real headway and get answers on issues like SNC Lavalin.

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“We’re not going to take our foot off the gas just because of this,” he insists.

First reported by Global News and later confirmed by the party, it was revealed that Scheer has been using party funds to pay for his children’s private school fees, though his team has denied that pushed forward his resignation.

Dreeshen isn’t bothered by it, saying It’s a normal practice for political parties.

“The party has always offered to reimburse the costs associated with being a national leader and any relocation,” Dreeshen says is his understanding. “He had a meeting with our executive director and they made the standard offer, including to cover the differential for school costs in Saskatchewan and Ontario. All the proper procedures were followed.”

Moving forward, Dreeshen says the party needs a leader with many of the same qualities as Scheer.

“I see this as a day where it was important for Andrew to be able to tell his piece, and the rest of it is just mischief and frustration because he’s done so much for the party. But we don’t know where we’re going, or what the timeframe is going to be, and we’ll probably have some time to think,” Dreeshen says.

“What people didn’t recognize was that we had somebody who was speaker of the house, and to many people, that doesn’t seem like much, but quite frankly, it’s running a major department, it’s diplomatic relationships around the world, and that’s what we had in Andrew.

“That’s the kind of person we should be looking for in the future, somebody who understands how the world works.”

Conservative MP for Red Deer-Lacombe, Blaine Calkins, also expressed his thanks for Scheer’s hard work and leadership.

“It is a momentous challenge to be the leader of a major federal party, a member of parliament and a father of five,” Calkins says.

“Under Andrew’s leadership, Conservatives received more votes than any other party in the 2019 election, held Justin Trudeau to a minority government and formed the strongest opposition in Canadian history. The Conservative Party of Canada is a strong and united force that will continue to work hard to hold the Liberal government to account.”