High-profile conservatives organizing to shift Conservative Party to centre

A group of influential Canadian conservatives has been working over the summer to create an organization that will try to pull the Conservative Party closer to the political centre, say several sources with knowledge of the effort.

The group includes well-known conservatives in and outside of the party, according to four sources speaking on the record and on background so as not to betray the confidence of the people involved. One political activist said he attended one of the emerging group’s meetings in June, and was joined by several former rivals to new Leader Andrew Scheer (Regina-Qu’Appelle, Sask.) for the party leadership.

The small movement sprung out of the “dinner tour” hosted this spring by Maclean’s columnist Scott Gilmore, after the organizers of the new group met at one of Mr. Gilmore’s stops, according to Mr. Gilmore and Nick Tsergas, a co-founder of the online political advocacy group A Strong Canada, which is dedicated to fighting what its founders see as a spread of “fear-based,” American-style politics to Canada.

“It’s the old Progressive Conservative diaspora coming back together and reclaiming its party,” said Mr. Tsergas, who has been working along with fellow A Strong Canada co-founder Aaron Binder on a parallel effort to influence Conservative and NDP politics in Canada.