Conservatives had a ‘leader problem,’ not a ‘strategy problem’: Liberal campaign director

The Liberal national campaign director is commending the Conservatives for employing what he characterizes as the right strategy during last month’s election.
“I think that their strategy is right to concentrate on change, cost of living,” Andrew Bevan said in an interview on CTV Power Play with Vassy Kapelos on Wednesday. “I don’t think they had a strategy problem.
“I do think they had a leader problem,” Bevan added, saying he doesn’t think the Conservatives needed to pivot their overall strategy, but rather work on making leader Pierre Poilievre sound less like U.S. President Donald Trump. The Liberals spent most of last year lagging significantly in the polls, including several months spent trailing the Conservatives by more than 20 points. Bevan was appointed by former prime minister and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau last October, just weeks before Trump was re-elected.
Then, amid a simmering caucus revolt and the resignation of his top deputy Chrystia Freeland — along with the looming threat of a now-ongoing trade war with the U.S. — Trudeau stepped down, kicking off the race to replace him.
Now-Prime Minister Mark Carney won the Liberal leadership in mid-March, and called an election shortly after, running on the promise of being the best person to deal with Trump, his global trade war and his threats to Canadian sovereignty.
“I don’t think that Mr. Poilievre ever had a chance at winning a ballot question on Trump and on the threat from the U.S.,” Bevan said. “I mean, Mr. Carney so outperformed him on that issue.”
“I don’t know why they would have moved into our issue space and try and somehow beat us on that,” he added. “I think that would have been impossible.
Bevan also pointed to the narrow margin of victory between the two leading parties as an indicator the Conservatives were on the right track by sticking to affordability issues. The Liberals won 169 seats on April 28 — just three short of a majority — while the Conservatives won 144 seats. “We got 43 per cent, they got 41 per cent,” Bevan said. “That’s a pretty successful losing campaign.”
Source: ctvnews.ca/politics