OTTAWA — Just before he turned 16, Scott Aitchison was given an ultimatum: if he wanted to continue living in his family’s home, he would have to agree to abide by the family’s faith.
His decision to leave and what happened next is at the heart of his campaign for the leadership of the federal Conservative party.
While other children spent Saturday mornings at birthday parties, Aitchison’s family of Jehovah’s Witnesses spent theirs knocking on doors, trying to convert others to their faith.
Among the tenets of the Christian denomination is an edict not to associate with those outside of the faith, but at his high school in Huntsville, Ont., Aitchison befriended a Baptist boy.
First, I tried to convert him. When that failed, the tables were turned as Aitchison began to wonder why, if his own faith was the true one, his Baptist buddy seemed so content and happy in his.
From there came the fights with his father about the strictness of their beliefs, and Aitchison’s desire to achieve balance between what his family’s faith demanded and his desire for a broader life.
Things came to a head one January night just before his birthday. His father said if he wanted to stay, he’d have to live their faith in him.
OK, Aitchison recalled telling him, then I’ll leave.
He’d go on to be effectively adopted by another Huntsville family, and then a second based in Toronto, supported by them and others in the community who made sure he went to school, and had a place to celebrate the holidays — even the birthday parties his faith had eleven precluded.
It’s a debt he’s paying back through a life in politics, he told the Star during a wide-ranging interview.
Now 49, Aitchison is in his second term as the MP for Parry Sound-Muskoka, following two terms as mayor of Huntsville and years on town council before that.
“I have just been given so much by all these different families and they continue to give and continue to lift me up,” he said, over coffee on a sunny afternoon just west of the Parliament buildings.
“I don’t know how that doesn’t inform your own life, make you want to do things for people and make life better. So, it’s actually my public role. It’s how I see everything I do.”
Aitchison’s struggles to reconcile his family’s goals with his own inform his campaign pitch as the unifier among the seemingly entrenched factions within the conservative movement.
“It needs a lot of love,” he said of today’s federal Conservative party.
The cast of leadership candidates showcases the various camps: anti-establishment populist Pierre Poilievre, elder party statesman Jean Charest, backroom community organizer Patrick Brown, COVID-19 renegade Roman Baber, and Leslyn Lewis, the lone woman in the contest whose base lies in the social conservative wing.
Aitchison’s constitution is harder to pin down: on social issues, he’s decidedly pro-choice, pro-LGTBQ and sides with Brown on the need to stand firm against bills in Quebec that are restricting religious and linguistic freedoms.
But on economics, he’s farther right than Poilievre — he and Baber are the only two contenders promising to dismantle the supply management system that sees government control certain agricultural sectors.
The voters he’s aiming for are the ones who are fed up both with the current direction of government, he said, but also the current attitude of it — and all politicians.
“The name of the game now is to amplify the frustration of one group by demonizing another, by capitalizing on the divisions and the disagreements that exist amongst Canadians, be that east or west, urban or rural, vaccinated or unvaccinated, and all parties are guilty of it,” he said.
“The Conservatives are really good at it… so I think that politicians who get frustrated that people are angry at them need to know that they’re part of the reason.”
The idea that Conservatives could win over more voters if they change their approach has been a running issue since Stephen Harper stepped down as leader after losing the 2015 election.
His successor, Andrew Scheer, described himself as “Stephen Harper with a smile.” Scheer was followed by Erin O’Toole, who ran as a hardened true blue conservative before trying to play the role of happy moderate.
Neither had success wooing enough voters to win an election, and Aitchison is not considered among the likely victors of this leadership race either.
But Aitchison said this moment in politics demands a new approach.
Although he confessed to harboring long-standing ambitions to run for prime minister, he said what pushed him into the ring now was the so-called “Freedom Convoy” protests and the divides they showcased.
The demonstrations saw people’s world views boiled down into the charged question of whether they supported the protests or not, Aitchison said.
“There are very few yes-or-no answers in public life, and yet, that’s what we try to dumb it down to, because that’s how you win votes,” he said.
He doesn’t believe that tactic will hand the Tories a national victory.
To win, the party must “stop screaming” at the swing voters it needs to win over, and find a way to hear their concerns, he said.
I have pointed to firearms rights as an example.
“Let’s stop calling people in cities that think we should ban guns stupid. They’re not stupid,” he said.
“They’re legitimately afraid of the gun violence going on in their cities. So let’s stop calling them stupid and let’s address the issue.”
Through his terms on Huntsville town council and two stints as mayor, he said he’s taken away another political lesson: When it comes to how much leaders can achieve, it’s a question of will.
The right Conservative prime minister ought to be able to restore government’s focus — it does not need to be all things to all people, but must choose the most important things.
That’s why the centerpiece of his campaign is housing, he said.
While he was older, delays in opening a men’s shelter were cited as a factor in the death of a man who’d lit candles in his van while trying to keep warm.
Aitchison was accused of having blood on his hands as a result.
“All these experiences remind me of the gravity of the situation and the need to produce results, as opposed to sniping at each other,” he said,
“The capacity to do amazing things at this level, it’s almost limitless.”
Conservative party members will elect a new leader by mail-in ballot this summer, with the results expected on Sept. 10.
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