QUEBEC CITY -- As devoted delegates gather behind closed doors to deliberate over social conservative and anti-carbon tax policies, the Conservative party sought to project a more moderate public image on Friday, seeing long-time progressive Peter MacKay endorse Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
In his 25-minute lunchtime address, the one-time leadership hopeful said to seize on the party's current momentum, Conservatives need to present a united front.
Speaking about the sense of "pride and purpose" he's feeling at this moment in Canadian politics, MacKay then offered this endorsement to raucous applause: "I believe Pierre Poilievre will be the next prime minister of Canada."
"Canada… it's time to turn the page," he said. "Like Poilievre, I am a proud Canadian Conservative, a pragmatic Conservative, and a compassionate Conservative."
MacKay infamously was one of former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer's most outspoken critics in the aftermath of the 2019 federal election, where Scheer's stance on abortion and same-sex marriage became issues that hung around him like a "stinking albatross."
The Harper-era cabinet minister ran and lost the 2020 leadership race to Erin O'Toole, but bowed out of running against Poilievre and is now calling on Canadians to get behind him.
Inviting MacKay onto the main stage—where he balanced out the red meat base-rallying messaging that dominated Thursday's opening— is a signal that the divisive times are behind the Conservatives, said long-time Stephen Harper and Rona Ambrose staffer turned Conservative strategist Jordan Paquet.
"I think the strategy for sure is to focus on the issues that matter for Canadians and those are the issues around affordability. That is absolutely the smart way to go," he said.
MacKay's message, slamming the Liberals as being divisive and too expensive, was delivered not long after the Liberals brought their calls for Canadians to think twice about what the Conservatives are really serving up, particularly on the climate front, right to the front steps of the convention centre.
Slumping in the polls and facing questions about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's shelf-life, federal Quebec cabinet ministers Steven Guilbeault and Soraya Matinez Ferrada held a press conference outside of the convention centre, where they insisted their presence was not because they're worried about a Tory surge, but rather because they were denied the ability to come inside.
The Liberal Party said the Conservative Party rejected its request for what's known as "observer status," a convention where for years other parties sent delegates to monitor the goings-on of their opponents' conventions.
"I think we have to work hard for Canadians. That's what we have to do, not worry about Pierre Poilievre," Guilbeault said. "We understand that some Canadians are having a hard time right now… But the solution is not to go back on everything we've been doing… we believe that we will be in a better position in the coming months."
This echoed a comment Trudeau made to reporters covering his trade trip early Friday when asked whether the Conservatives touting their largest in-person convention to-date is cause for concern.
"My focus very much continues to be making sure we're building a better future for Canadians," Trudeau said.
Paquet suggested the Liberal strategy of coming to critique the Conservatives on their doorstep may be a sign they are “running a little scared right now.”
"I think they're doing everything they can right now to change the channel because they are seeing some of the writing on the wall," he said.
The NDP also came out criticizing Poilievre on Friday, calling him "the master pretender" in a media release, channeling some of the direct attacks NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh levelled against his opposition counterpart during an address to his caucus earlier this week.
"Canadians aren't fooled by his talking points and slogans. They know Pierre Poilievre is not who he pretends to be, and they remember his record after nine years in the Harper Government… With Pierre Poilievre, it's all an act," read the statement signed by NDP MP Charlie Angus
"The truth is that Pierre Poilievre doesn't want to help you and your family and his record proves it. He just wants power. He’s pretending he cares, but if he gets the chance, he’ll do the same thing that Conservatives always do," Angus said.
All summer Conservative Leader Poilievre and his inner circle have been plotting and enacting efforts to broaden his appeal, from a mini makeover—swapping his eyeglasses and suit jackets for T-shirts and aviators—to a series of national advertisements aimed at softening and re-introducing the career politician to Canadians.
And there will be more coming; Conservative Fund leader Robert Staley told delegates on Friday morning that with the party flush with fundraising dollars, the party will keep spending on advertising to "influence voters" in key ridings.
Meanwhile, inside the convention centre, Conservatives broke off into a trio of rooms that media was not permitted to access, to dig into the dozens of policy proposals to whittle down the roster to 30 resolutions that will make it to the main convention hall floor for an open discussion and vote on Saturday.
While there are proposals being batted around by grassroots Tories today that align with Poilievre's preferred message track on housing, crime, and favouring "technology, not taxation," when it comes to climate change, riding associations have advanced a number of other hot-button resolutions.
They are pushing for the party to champion so-called "social" issues such as restricting gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth, and opposing vaccine mandates or "forced political, cultural, or ideological training" for workers.
The party won't be making public the results of Friday's deliberations until Saturday morning, and Poilievre has already made it clear that even if his supporters signal with their votes that they want him to tact to the left or right, the decision on what he'll run on in the next election rests with him.
"At the end of the day, it is still a very big tent party," said Paquet.
The marquee moment of the convention came Friday night, when Poilievre delivered a rally-style speech to more than 2,500 delegates. The message he sent the party faithful away with -- one of Canadians deserving a country where each generation is better off than the one before it -- will be what they take to Canadians' doorsteps as the march towards the next election.
The evening ended with a Poilievre photo line that lasted longer than an hour, as just on the other side of the convention centre glass, federal Liberal Quebec lead Pablo Rodriguez held a scrum where he panned the "traditional... far right" speech as very long, with little new beyond making it clear a Conservative government would mean cuts for Canadians.
