United We Roll Twitter demands Bernier step back, wants unity behind Scheer

Bernier and his People’s Party went into their first electoral test Monday in three federal byelections.

The party captured just over 10% of the vote in Burnaby South yesterday, but failed to make any sizable impact in the rural Ontario riding of York-Simcoe, or the urban Montreal riding of Outremont, where the party had less than 2% of the final vote.

Bernier tweeted early Tuesday that the poor Ontario and Quebec numbers were "disappointing" and said he "expected more" from those ridings while praising the more favourable Burnaby result as "great."

Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson delivered the best results for Bernier by a longshot, while taking away some thunder from Jay Shin, the Conservative Party’s candidate in Burnaby South.

The People’s Party walked away in 4th place behind winner Jagmeet Singh’s NDP’s, the Lee-led Liberals, and the Shin-led Conservatives.

Jay Shin, captured about 23 per cent of the vote, five points less than what the previous Conservative candidate there managed to achieve in the 2015 federal election.

However, even if the Conservatives were to add the 11% of the PPC vote to their numbers it still wouldn't have secured them a victory over the NDP.

“As Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson said last night, babies start walking at 8 months and our party was born only 5 months ago! We must continue to grow at the same breakneck speed until October. This is only the beginning of our journey. We are in it for the long haul,” said Bernier in a Tweet.

“We are addressing crucial issues the other parties won’t touch. We have the clearest principles and the best platform. There is no alternative. CANADA NEEDS US. Let’s work even harder now to find the best candidates and be ready for the general election.”

The United We Roll Twitter account does bring up an interesting point, noting that a split in the vote could bring about a potential Ross Perot situation that the U.S. saw in the 90’s when a fledgling 3rd Party enters and sways enough votes away from one party to change the results of the election.

The People’s Party is a young and rebellious youth of a party compared to two older and much more in-their-ways party options that are presented by the Liberals and the Conservatives.

It also brings up the age old question, do you vote for who can win, or do you vote for who you believe in?

It’s an interesting time in Canadian politics, and perhaps we will get more insight into the thoughts of Canadian voters as more and more polls come in.

At this point it is incredibly difficult to gauge out whether the People’s Party are a legitimate threat for the Conservative Party. It’s a pipe dream to think that they could win, but it isn’t too far out there to think that they could take away enough attention from the Scheer-led Conservatives to cause a difference.

It’s true, you should vote for who best represents your beliefs, but what if that’s at the risk of keeping a Prime Minister in office who represents the exact opposites of everything you believe in?

A Prime Minister who has time and time again let you down, and you feel does not represent your point of view, and doesn’t make you proud to be a Canadian?

It’s a very difficult situation. Scheer doesn’t appear to have a major likability factor, and as I’ve pointed out before does seem to come off as a bit of a used-car salesman type figure. It seems like he’s trying to sell us something that isn’t overly convincing.

Perhaps it’s how centrist he can be, or how generally low energy he can be, but perhaps with more time to shine, Scheer will convince the masses that he’s the strong conservative leader that many are praying for.

With the SNC-Lavalin scandal still in full force, Scheer will have more and more opportunity to showcase his ability to impress people and drill into Trudeau for alleged malevolence.

A charming and charismatic leader like Bernier who has a long track record in politics may get plenty of attention, but it’s up to Scheer to keep Canadians in line, and keep them voting for a party that can win and that they can trust in