Potential Conservative leadership candidates are playing at being official opposition leader and taking to social media to freely give out their advice and criticism to the Liberal government over its response to the terrorist attacks in Paris.
The politicians, all rumoured to be possible leadership contenders to replace Stephen Harper, have weighed in over the last couple of days, disagreeing with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's campaign promise to pull Canada out of the military mission in Iraq and Syria.
Even Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, who has denied he is interested in the leadership as he has an election to fight in the spring, issued a letter to Mr. Trudeau on Monday, calling on him to slow down his commitment to bring in 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of the year. Mr. Wall argued that the Paris attacks should give the government pause to ensure screening is done properly and that no Islamic State terrorists get through that security process.
Peter MacKay, who served in the Harper cabinet as foreign affairs, defence and justice minister, wrote an opinion piece for the National Post that focuses on the measures his government put in place to counter terrorism, including Bill C-51 and joining the Iraq mission. He argues that to pull out now, or to amend the security bill as the Liberals have promised, would weaken Canada and put it in danger of attacks.
His intervention comes as top defence and security experts from around the world prepare to meet this weekend for the seventh annual Halifax International Security Forum. Mr. MacKay, who was the senior Nova Scotia minister, supported the forum with a lot of funding during his time in government. It was very much his show when he was in office; he is on the list of attendees for this year.
Former Conservative defence minister Jason Kenney has been the most active on Twitter – "We will show 'absolute resolve' by being the only country to withdraw from air strikes against the perpetrators?" he tweeted sarcastically on the weekend.
Mr. Kenney, who was re-elected in his Calgary riding in last month's election, is rumoured to be interested in running.
He followed with a number of other tweets, including one in which he asked "wouldn't it be more responsible to first reflect on the implications of yesterday's 'act of war' for Canada's military response to ISIS?"
In an interview Monday, he said, "I was simply underscoring my long-standing view that Canada should participate in air combat operations against the genocidal terrorists of ISIS."
"I was speaking as an opposition MP to register my concern with Mr. Trudeau's refusal to reconsider his position in light of the atrocities committed by ISIS in Paris, which has been described by the French government as 'an act of war,'" he added, using another acronym for Islamic State. "This is a serious global security issue that deserves a stronger response from our government. It has nothing to do with the future Conservative leadership election, which by all accounts will not happen for some time."
Lisa Raitt, the former transport minister, weighed in, too. "For me – we stand and fight with our friends." Some friends of Ms. Raitt have been making calls to key Conservatives, trying to gauge support for a potential run.
She even noted on Twitter that governments do what they can to prevent tragedies from happening again. "In my case, we toughened rules, changed operations and redesigned tank cars," she said, referring to her response to the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster.
On Friday, just before the attacks, the Conservatives released a statement demanding a debate and vote in Parliament before the Liberal government changes the mission.
In an interview Monday, Tony Clement, who served in a number of senior positions in the Harper cabinet, said that since the Paris attacks, the Conservative position is that Canada should continue in the coalition of countries fighting Islamic State.
Mr. Clement, who is considering running for the leadership, had tweeted to his followers over the weekend: "The Conservative Party will fully support [Mr. Trudeau] if he decides to keep our forces active in the fight against ISIS/ISIL."
"I don't think there is any shame for the Prime Minister to say things have changed," Mr. Clement said in the interview. "The Paris attacks underline the importance of continuing the mission against ISIS with our coalition allies, including the Republic of France."
He said the Tories would not "condemn" the Liberals for changing their position. In fact, he argued, it would be the most "reasonable way to assist in the security of Canada as well as the security of the world to alter their campaign position and to continue with a military component to meeting the ISIS threat."
He added that if the coalition is thinking about enhancing the mission, then Canada should be part of those discussions.
Mr. Trudeau, however, said during his wrap-up news conference at the G20 summit in Turkey on Monday that he was not changing his position.
As The Globe and Mail's Bill Curry reported from Turkey, Mr. Trudeau said: "I think one of the things that Canadians have expressed, certainly over the past months and within the election, [is] that they wanted to see a ceasing of the bombing mission and they wanted to see Canada continue to engage robustly in the fight against ISIL in a way that brought a meaningful support to the international efforts to degrade and prevent ISIL from continuing its terrorist attacks."