of Brexit during the referendum. Later in 2018, Scheer tweeted, "I was pro-Brexit before it was cool." 2017 leadership election On September 28, 2016, Scheer announced his bid for the leadership of the Conservative Party, saying that he had the support of 32 members of the Conservative caucus. On May 27, 2017, Scheer was elected as the second leader of the Conservative Party, beating runner up Maxime Bernier and more than 12 others with 50.95 per cent of the vote through 13 rounds. Bernier later attributed his failure to what he called the "fake conservatives" in the supply management dairy lobby and agricultural sector. Scheer garnered laughs at the annual Press Gallery dinner by joking: Scheer's campaign for the Conservative leadership was run under the slogan "Real conservative. Real leader." He avoided advocating the social conservative issues that some of the candidates championed, saying that he wanted to "reach a broader audience of Canadians". Positions on which he took a strong stance included scrapping the carbon tax and being "tough on crime". During his political career, Scheer has been compared to former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and has been called "Harper with a smile" or "Stephen Harper 2.0". Scheer is considered a Blue Tory and is critical of the policies of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, having also been critical of Trudeau's late father, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau. Scheer considered former prime minister John Diefenbaker and British member of the European Parliament (MEP) Daniel Hannan as political influences. Scheer described U.S. senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio as "strong conservative voices" during the 2016 Manning Center Conference. Unlike other candidates, Scheer's leadership team was focused less on headlines or eye-grabbing policy and more on data and organizing. During the Conservative leadership race, Scheer stated that he would balance the federal budget within two years of forming government, but his platform on specific reforms to accomplish this was not revealed at that time. Scheer benefited from the unexpected support of Brad Trost during the leadership race. It was reported that some of Trost supporters contravened the Canada Elections Act and party membership rules by offering incentives to vote. Dimitri Soudas, a former Harper aide, pointed out that it violated election rules and it benefited Scheer's campaign but the ballots had been destroyed so the result stood. Scheer was criticized by opposition politicians for removing his campaign platform after winning the Conservative