Just for info: I've unfortunately had to delete some comments that used offensive language and ban two users who were nonsensical (and persistent) and/or continued to repeat factually (and easily provable) false information even after being corrected.
If there's going to be conversation here – and I hope there is – I'd like it to be friendly and constructive, even when we disagree. 99% of comments continue to meet this standard.
Disagreement is awesome. Stupidity and insistent recital of false myths and rote talking points adds no value to any conversation and should find another forum.
Thanks to everyone who's made this an interesting place to converse!
You know it's already over when the faithful publish stuff like this. Usually you'd wait until the end of the campaign. Poilievre is single-handedly responsible for me turning away from the Conservatives. He's always been a detestible little man with poor judgment. He also was probably indirectly involved in the back-stabbing of the decent man, Erin O’Toole (thank you Ms Byrne). And the catering to the worst motley crew of misfits during the Ottawa occupation was a dumb move in so many ways. He's assembled a weak caucus with a few members who are even more detestable than he is. He has been consistently weak on issues of concern to women to the point of being downright offensive, hence his very poor numbers with them. His tiresome sloganeering using MAGA language became as irritating as Trudeau’s smarm. He has run a miserable campaign and the suspicious endorsements from US right wing nutbars is a very bad look. The fact that he can't give Danielle Smith a rap on the wrists tells Canadians he's afraid to stand up for what is right. She's poison in most of Canada. Anyway, Canada will be a better place with him off the scene should he lose the election. The real question is are we ever going to get a Conservative we can vote for? As long as we've got the current crop to choose from it is impossible. It is beyond time to reinvent the party, or they will forever be an occasional option every 20 years. Not nearly good enough.
Thanks for sharing. I can’t help, though, but get the sense that there is little or nothing the Poilievre team could do that would earn your vote. Partisan lenses of every shade make it difficult to see the details of what’s actually happening. That’s why I prefer honest, open, and hopefully constructive criticism to blind approval or condemnation. Easier said than done though!
Funny thing happened this morning; I got an email from the party encouraging me to vote which is SOP. But, it was a repetition of the same old slogans with emojis for "axe' in axe the tax etc. Really! The constant sloganeering was tiresome six months ago, but emojis... c'mon. There's a time and a place to be cute and this isn't it. I found the whole thing juvenile.
And Mark, you know what me getting that email signifies. So my partisanship is flexible. At some point In my lengthy votingng life I have voted for one of the main parties (except the Bloc). This leader was unfit from the get go. Should he go on to win, which seems unlikely as you've pointed out, I think he'd be one of the worst PMs in our history. So my response to him could be partisan but I'd say it is more likely visceral. He is detestible.
A lot of people who are losing elections 3-4 weeks out end up winning. As you say, a lot can (and does) happen. So, I’m not sure “unlikely” is the right word. Yet.
Certainly, I argue he needs to change his tone and message. Certainly, he was way ahead and that lead has evaporated. Right now, I’d say it’s going to be a very tight race and too close for me to call. Yet. Certainly, it didn’t need to be that way.
And so, on a personal level, because you don't "like" the guy ( whatever that comprises), you will gladly sign up for another term of the same Liberal policies that got us here, because the guy going to re- implement them sounds nice??
Gerard, I assume you are replying to Ricardamundo, who is giving a pass to a decade of Liberal disaster because he has an emotional reaction to Poilievre, who Ricardamundo finds unpleasant. That sounds like a typical reaction from Liberal/NDP voters. They just want to go back to Liberals, no matter how badly the Liberals messed us up, because they are upset about Trump and they think Poilievre is icky. It sets a terrible precedent for demanding zero accountability of politicians, but here we are.
So Fred, your desire to "own the Libs" overrides the Conservative leader's repulsiveness. You'll vote for a sloganeer who won't get a security clearance and has the weakest caucus we've seen in decades. His many other flaws are well documented elsewhere. Hell, other prominent Conservatives find him "too trumpy" and Doug Ford wants nothing to do with him. But, he's your guy no matter how bad he is. Fortunately for Canada, you are in the minority.
To me, one larger point is that when we vote based on emotional assessment of politicians' hypothetical personalities or images, rather than logic, we end up with ten years of Junior Trudeau. Massive inflation, corruption, plummeting foreign investment, pointless spending on virtue signalling, declining competitiveness and standard of living etc.
There is no way that I will be convinced that ten years of real, Liberal damage to the economy, our international standing and our standard of living should be forgotten, based on the theoretical deficiencies of a guy whose party has not been in power for a decade, just because some people do not want to have a beer with him.
Emotional voting and financial illiteracy are a scourge in this country. There has to be a consequence from messing the country up as badly as the Liberals did.
Governments, like diapers, need to be changed frequently or they start to stink. Putting yet another climate hysteric in charge and rewarding the cynically, insta- rebranded Liberals with even more time in power is a terrible precedent, but apparently that is the way Ontario wants to go, because people are hysterical about Trump.
Trump is an ass, but many of the Canadian policies he complains about (pathetic defense spending, widespread China interference, outrageous dairy cartels, etc) are things we should have fixed under Trudeau but were either ignored or made worse by him. Sam Cooper has done a lot of good work on this. Canada is in a self inflicted crisis of domestic complacency, Trump hysteria and low political accountability.
And the security clearance thing is a trap the Liberals set, hoping Poilievre would be stupid enough to get it and then be barred from commenting on an issue that Trudeau knew about for two years but glossed over because interference massively benefited the Liberals. Juneau-Katsuya of CSIS says that the number of MPs elected as a result of interference was more like 50. Look it up.
If you read the thread and the comments prior, there are plenty of reasons given not to vote for him. Those combined with his attack dog charm, his juvenile sloganeering, and his lack of any kind of track record should be pretty clear. But to be concise, he is detestible.
Mark just as an add on, my wife has voted conservative since The Right Honorable Stephen Harper.
Two months after Poilievre was elected my wife turned to me while I was having morning coffee, and said to me, I will never vote for that man. Never.
We still have twenty seven days. A lot can happen in a week in politics. As we have recently witnessed. But I am afraid that who ever is running the conservative campaign may not be able to see that a change in the messaging or the modification of the messaging might be in order.
The Liberals are moving back to the center, closing in on what the old conservative party of Canada use to be, which was a center right party, spanning the country from coast to coast. Canadian women seem to correlate Poilievre, with the people running the US. Every time you hear about a woman being forced to carry a lifeless fetus to term, a woman who is criminally charged for a miscarriage….
Whether their impressions of Poilievre are right or wrong. The die is cast. I have voted conservative since 1989. My wife since early 2000. She will not vote conservative this time.
It’s not just that PP has no platform other than slogans and now props (wtf was that report card yesterday) … it’s what the party stands for … voting in favour of bill c311 … how about standing with the freedom fighters during Covid? There are so many more issues that the conservatives preach that align with the Trump organization… when the 2SLGBTQ+ groups are threatened -especially trans kids … I make it my business to protect diversity of which I have not seen any of that with conservatives … hate abounds in the party … I can never vote for hate … and voting for conservatives would be voting for inequality and lack of free speech not to mention sale of our country
I winced at your opening salvo re: Pierre and his lack of platform. In truth, the issues Pierre has been crying from the rafters about to all who care to hear—and his ideas about fixing them—are the same ones Mark has been talking about since this campaign started. This may well be why no one is hearing Pierre anymore; he’s become the chicken little of Canadian politics. I imagine that if you put Pierre on a soapbox on a corner and Mark on a similar soapbox kitty-korner to him, both men saying the exact same things, (not a far stretch of current reality) Mark would get all the attention because, as the author writes, he’s the shiny new toy. Timing is everything in all things, but especially in politics. Pierre’s time was a year ago, but it’s a time now. Too bad, too, because I also agree with the author‘s assessment vis-a-vis Mark’s image machine vs the old guard of Justin
The first time in my adult life living in downtown Toronto that I heard one of my neighbours refer positively to a conservative leader was Erin O’Toole.
The Mulroney endorsement was huge no question…and telling. Sheer didn’t get that.
I also feel he would have raised the Red Tory profile of the party and the message. The Liberals noticed this quality too I’m convinced hence the early election call depriving him of the opportunity to redevelop the brand.
A bit harsh on the NDP aren't you? Do you think we'd have a dental plan or Pharmacare if the Liberals hadn't needed the NDP support to remain in power? Can we agree they accomplished something?
Most Canadians do not have government Pharmacare or a Dental Plan. It's a promise to develop a concept for an idea of a plan to conceive of a program.
It's not paying my Rx bills or cleaning my teeth.
So, no. The purpose of the NDP is to talk about their ideas. Not to implement anything. Governing is hard and requires compromise. NDP members have zero interest in that. Just ask Tom Mulcair.
Again, I think you're shorting the NDP. From the March 22 Health Canada news release all remaining Canadians, which is those 18-64 years old will be eligible for the Canadian Dental Care Plan in May 2025. That's not the hand waving you speak of and it wouldn't have happened if the Liberals didn't need NDP support. Credit where credit is due sir. Hand waving is what we've seen from Mr Poliviere up until the start of the election campaign.
"Will be eligible" = "not eligible" yet. Sign this 5-year contract and we'll get around to it. Maybe. Possibly. Perhaps. I'll believe it when I see it. But, I don't expect to ever see it.
Ideology is the foundational lens through which a person understands and navigates the world. It’s not something that can simply be turned on or off or adapted on the fly.
True. Ideology is also deeply personal and, therefore, something best avoided when building a consensus of people. The only way to do this is by focusing on the pragmatic: what needs people share, etc. That's how every politician ever has won the day. And, it's how every politician ever has lost their jobs – by forgetting people voted for pragmatism not ideology.
First of all as a conservative voter, I would like to pass on a bit of information to any one who would like to listen. This is not a way to run a campaign.
I received my conservative party email. Besides asking for money ( a given) there was a click here and voting survey appeared. And the very first question was ,are you voting for the conservative party or the Woke Liberals? WTF!
Is this a High School president election.
Secondly if anyone has Pierre Poilievre's ear: Get The Fucking Security Clearances. But you cant do that now can you. Because now it's the campaign trail night and day.
Third: Axe the tax. The Trudeau Carney Carbon Tax. Stop the crime, build the homes. Well guess what, the carbon tax is sitting in the penalty box, a majority of crime is under provincial jurisdiction. Unless the conservatives are going to build El Salvador like penitentiaries. I think not.
Fourth: Stop having conservatives sounding like they are out of an episode of Star Trek Voyager. Resistance is futile, you will be assimiliated, you will be Borg. Can you just change it up a bit. Find a change of pace.
Didnt the conservatives learn anything from the US election ? The democrats with Orange man bad, Orange man Evil. That really worked out well for them.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Campaigns are always a complex balancing act between addressing emerging issues in a thoughtful and resonant way, and focusing on tight, repetitive messages that fit through the limited bandwidth available to reach a wide audience.
I agree. But when your shadow ministers are on CPAC answering every question with the Trudeau Carney Carbon Tax............. Hence the Borg visualization.
Interesting timing, finding this post. I normally swing between NDP and Green. I've never voted Lib. I don't particularly want to vote Lib now, so I went to check on Pierre's website. It took me about 5 seconds to realize he hates me and doesn't want my vote. ARE YOU CANADA FIRST OR ARE YOU WOKE? What kinds of questions are these? Are we five? I dunno. Carney at least seems like an adult? Still not a fan of the Libs and do agree it's time for a change, but yeah. Herpes or cancer. These are our choices.
I’m a specialist in defence and international security. Aside from years of basing their entire platform on hating Trudeau and throwing red meat to their far right base, unlike the Liberals, the conservatives literally don’t have a defence policy. None. Zero. And this is an environment where defence *has* to be an issue. The Liberals have a policy and while it’s not perfect, at least it’s there. It seems to be the same for many things.
I cannot stand the name calling and performative outrage, the constant reference to culture wars (if I hear “woke” one more time…), and the lies. They lost me with their support of the convoy and their baffling glad handing with the far right. It’s only a few weeks ago that Poilievre appeared on Jordan Peterson’s podcast. He’s been photographed with Jeremy MacKenzie and Chris Dacey. Every public utterance was a page straight from the MAGA playbook.
And now, there’s a pivot. Fine. And I would normally have considered voting Conservative. But not this time and not for this guy. Drag the party away from Maple MAGA and we’ll talk.
If many voters are just not smart enough or too emotional about Trump to realize that the Liberals put us in this mess in the first place, what can Poilievre or anyone else do about it? Canada feels doomed to permanent mismanagement due to voter hysteria about Trump and complacency about our own politicians. It's not a Conservative party communication problem. It's economic illiteracy and emotional voting. We will end up with yet another Liberal, anti prosperity government that Ontario deserves.
Poilievre is a man out of time, put in when the party was threatened by Max not Justin. Unelectable without Justin as a foil, bad timing sure, but bad choice from the hop. O'Toole would have been in majority territory today if they would have left well enough alone. They just gotta give normal people someone they can vote for and stop chasing people who'd be better served by voting PPC anyway. Give people a party that will balance a budget without all the clowning around baggage and they'll win. My 2 cents.
I am calling bull on this article. Pierre Poilievre is campaigning on facts, the horrendous Liberal record of the past 9 years, and is giving back HOPE to Canadians who have lost it. The comparisons of him to Trump are outrageously false. We have had such a hard left turn ideologically that it seems some people cannot recognize the center/right anymore.
Pierre Poilievre is putting Canada First. A position, it appears, the post national crowd seem uncomfortable with? The question is, why?
Based on your comment, I'm unclear what part(s) of my column you think is(are) bullshit.
Other than you're generally unhappy with the turn of events and the fact Poilievre is no longer leading in opinion polls of voter intent. That may be "bullshit" reasoning and/or intent by Canadian voters, but it's currently a fact.
It remains to be seen if the CPC can "re-change" voter intentions to its favour. Speaking personally, I hope they can. Speaking professionally, I'm unconvinced as yet. Either way, voters will always vote in their own best interest. That's how democracy works. It's up to candidates and parties to align themselves with those interests. The voters are never wrong. Even when I disagree with them.
This is a good column and a fair assessment. Depressing, but fair. Wish I knew how to change it, but it seems like a majority of Canadians want the Liberals to remain in power. Liberal operatives are already making plans to be the majority party to 2050. People need to be careful of what they wish for.
Sure hopefully your analogy is wrong. Im following the polls like in the USA election they had Harris going full tilt to win , but she had zero people at her rallies that were not paid stand ins. Still the polls raged on and praised her . Now lets get to the Canadian media and Polls , showing Carney in the lead with a hand full of people attending his rallies and most that attend Carneys Rallies are armed Guards to keep the people away from him . The Conservative s have been turning out in the thousands to rallies all across Canada and the message is resonating with them . What I see on the rally side of the election is nothing like what the Mainstream media and polls are saying. Im hopeful that the over financed bought out media has zero followers as the numbers have shown in the past . Canadians have turned to social media as they have rejected the Communist propaganda machine as a a joke and only listen or watch it if they need a laugh . This election Im not going with the polls HYPE Im going with what I see at the Rallies. May awake Canadians vote us out of this mess.
Agree that the Liberal government needed to go and was pissed that one-message-track PP was the only credible alternative presented - it’s taken shock treatment and orthopaedic surgery to get him to switch blaming all Canada’s problems on JT and turn the blame on PM Carney instead.
But this is COVID-level (or Great Recession or Brexit…) disaster and Reform-based blame-everyone-else-for-holding-us-back politics are, except for the Reform base, just kind of lame and irrelevant (at least core NDP supporters can recognize similar irrelevance and pivot). MC, with his ‘banker’s haircut’ (vs boy band for PP) seems like just the person to try to navigate Canada’s best course through.
Then, on the other side, Conservatives need to find their centre-right PC core again if they ever want to govern Canada. Never personally liked Premier Doug, but he had some sort of road-to-Damascus conversion during COVID and is now doing a pretty damn good job getting $h!t done ‘for the people’ in Ontario. Don’t believe he is PM material, but he’s a pretty good attack dog for the province’s, and he knows who he could work best with as PM…
A few weeks ago, in one of our mainstream newspapers, and I believe it was the Toronto Star, if I remember correctly, one sentence was given that tells you everything you need to know: Canadians are known for tolerating the intolerable. This is why they keep voting for the same Liberal party over and over again, always expecting a different outcome… The very definition of insanity.
"Unintuitively, the Conservatives should be a logical choice for many disaffected NDP voters. When you strip ideology out of the equation and focus on kitchen table pocketbook issues, there is massive overlap between Conservative and NDP voters."
Talk about now knowing the electorate. Rightwing echo chamber writ large.
Just for info: I've unfortunately had to delete some comments that used offensive language and ban two users who were nonsensical (and persistent) and/or continued to repeat factually (and easily provable) false information even after being corrected.
If there's going to be conversation here – and I hope there is – I'd like it to be friendly and constructive, even when we disagree. 99% of comments continue to meet this standard.
Disagreement is awesome. Stupidity and insistent recital of false myths and rote talking points adds no value to any conversation and should find another forum.
Thanks to everyone who's made this an interesting place to converse!
You know it's already over when the faithful publish stuff like this. Usually you'd wait until the end of the campaign. Poilievre is single-handedly responsible for me turning away from the Conservatives. He's always been a detestible little man with poor judgment. He also was probably indirectly involved in the back-stabbing of the decent man, Erin O’Toole (thank you Ms Byrne). And the catering to the worst motley crew of misfits during the Ottawa occupation was a dumb move in so many ways. He's assembled a weak caucus with a few members who are even more detestable than he is. He has been consistently weak on issues of concern to women to the point of being downright offensive, hence his very poor numbers with them. His tiresome sloganeering using MAGA language became as irritating as Trudeau’s smarm. He has run a miserable campaign and the suspicious endorsements from US right wing nutbars is a very bad look. The fact that he can't give Danielle Smith a rap on the wrists tells Canadians he's afraid to stand up for what is right. She's poison in most of Canada. Anyway, Canada will be a better place with him off the scene should he lose the election. The real question is are we ever going to get a Conservative we can vote for? As long as we've got the current crop to choose from it is impossible. It is beyond time to reinvent the party, or they will forever be an occasional option every 20 years. Not nearly good enough.
Thanks for sharing. I can’t help, though, but get the sense that there is little or nothing the Poilievre team could do that would earn your vote. Partisan lenses of every shade make it difficult to see the details of what’s actually happening. That’s why I prefer honest, open, and hopefully constructive criticism to blind approval or condemnation. Easier said than done though!
Funny thing happened this morning; I got an email from the party encouraging me to vote which is SOP. But, it was a repetition of the same old slogans with emojis for "axe' in axe the tax etc. Really! The constant sloganeering was tiresome six months ago, but emojis... c'mon. There's a time and a place to be cute and this isn't it. I found the whole thing juvenile.
And Mark, you know what me getting that email signifies. So my partisanship is flexible. At some point In my lengthy votingng life I have voted for one of the main parties (except the Bloc). This leader was unfit from the get go. Should he go on to win, which seems unlikely as you've pointed out, I think he'd be one of the worst PMs in our history. So my response to him could be partisan but I'd say it is more likely visceral. He is detestible.
A lot of people who are losing elections 3-4 weeks out end up winning. As you say, a lot can (and does) happen. So, I’m not sure “unlikely” is the right word. Yet.
Certainly, I argue he needs to change his tone and message. Certainly, he was way ahead and that lead has evaporated. Right now, I’d say it’s going to be a very tight race and too close for me to call. Yet. Certainly, it didn’t need to be that way.
And so, on a personal level, because you don't "like" the guy ( whatever that comprises), you will gladly sign up for another term of the same Liberal policies that got us here, because the guy going to re- implement them sounds nice??
I think you should re-read my many comments. lol.
Gerard, I assume you are replying to Ricardamundo, who is giving a pass to a decade of Liberal disaster because he has an emotional reaction to Poilievre, who Ricardamundo finds unpleasant. That sounds like a typical reaction from Liberal/NDP voters. They just want to go back to Liberals, no matter how badly the Liberals messed us up, because they are upset about Trump and they think Poilievre is icky. It sets a terrible precedent for demanding zero accountability of politicians, but here we are.
So Fred, your desire to "own the Libs" overrides the Conservative leader's repulsiveness. You'll vote for a sloganeer who won't get a security clearance and has the weakest caucus we've seen in decades. His many other flaws are well documented elsewhere. Hell, other prominent Conservatives find him "too trumpy" and Doug Ford wants nothing to do with him. But, he's your guy no matter how bad he is. Fortunately for Canada, you are in the minority.
We can agree to disagree.
To me, one larger point is that when we vote based on emotional assessment of politicians' hypothetical personalities or images, rather than logic, we end up with ten years of Junior Trudeau. Massive inflation, corruption, plummeting foreign investment, pointless spending on virtue signalling, declining competitiveness and standard of living etc.
There is no way that I will be convinced that ten years of real, Liberal damage to the economy, our international standing and our standard of living should be forgotten, based on the theoretical deficiencies of a guy whose party has not been in power for a decade, just because some people do not want to have a beer with him.
Emotional voting and financial illiteracy are a scourge in this country. There has to be a consequence from messing the country up as badly as the Liberals did.
Governments, like diapers, need to be changed frequently or they start to stink. Putting yet another climate hysteric in charge and rewarding the cynically, insta- rebranded Liberals with even more time in power is a terrible precedent, but apparently that is the way Ontario wants to go, because people are hysterical about Trump.
Trump is an ass, but many of the Canadian policies he complains about (pathetic defense spending, widespread China interference, outrageous dairy cartels, etc) are things we should have fixed under Trudeau but were either ignored or made worse by him. Sam Cooper has done a lot of good work on this. Canada is in a self inflicted crisis of domestic complacency, Trump hysteria and low political accountability.
And the security clearance thing is a trap the Liberals set, hoping Poilievre would be stupid enough to get it and then be barred from commenting on an issue that Trudeau knew about for two years but glossed over because interference massively benefited the Liberals. Juneau-Katsuya of CSIS says that the number of MPs elected as a result of interference was more like 50. Look it up.
If you read the thread and the comments prior, there are plenty of reasons given not to vote for him. Those combined with his attack dog charm, his juvenile sloganeering, and his lack of any kind of track record should be pretty clear. But to be concise, he is detestible.
Mark just as an add on, my wife has voted conservative since The Right Honorable Stephen Harper.
Two months after Poilievre was elected my wife turned to me while I was having morning coffee, and said to me, I will never vote for that man. Never.
We still have twenty seven days. A lot can happen in a week in politics. As we have recently witnessed. But I am afraid that who ever is running the conservative campaign may not be able to see that a change in the messaging or the modification of the messaging might be in order.
Women typically do not like PP at all. They also disliked Harper and Kenney.
My wife had no problem with The Right Honorable Stephen Harper or Erin O'toole or The Right Honorable Brian Mulroney or or or.
There are Reasons why women are turning away, and it is not only about conservative policy.
Mark, I am curious as to what you think women's reasons for turning away from the Conservatives and back to Liberals are.
The Liberals are moving back to the center, closing in on what the old conservative party of Canada use to be, which was a center right party, spanning the country from coast to coast. Canadian women seem to correlate Poilievre, with the people running the US. Every time you hear about a woman being forced to carry a lifeless fetus to term, a woman who is criminally charged for a miscarriage….
Whether their impressions of Poilievre are right or wrong. The die is cast. I have voted conservative since 1989. My wife since early 2000. She will not vote conservative this time.
It’s not just that PP has no platform other than slogans and now props (wtf was that report card yesterday) … it’s what the party stands for … voting in favour of bill c311 … how about standing with the freedom fighters during Covid? There are so many more issues that the conservatives preach that align with the Trump organization… when the 2SLGBTQ+ groups are threatened -especially trans kids … I make it my business to protect diversity of which I have not seen any of that with conservatives … hate abounds in the party … I can never vote for hate … and voting for conservatives would be voting for inequality and lack of free speech not to mention sale of our country
I winced at your opening salvo re: Pierre and his lack of platform. In truth, the issues Pierre has been crying from the rafters about to all who care to hear—and his ideas about fixing them—are the same ones Mark has been talking about since this campaign started. This may well be why no one is hearing Pierre anymore; he’s become the chicken little of Canadian politics. I imagine that if you put Pierre on a soapbox on a corner and Mark on a similar soapbox kitty-korner to him, both men saying the exact same things, (not a far stretch of current reality) Mark would get all the attention because, as the author writes, he’s the shiny new toy. Timing is everything in all things, but especially in politics. Pierre’s time was a year ago, but it’s a time now. Too bad, too, because I also agree with the author‘s assessment vis-a-vis Mark’s image machine vs the old guard of Justin
I am in total Aggrement. Erin O'toole was shafted. I have voted conservative since 1989 from when The Right Honorable Brian Mulroney took office.
And I personally believe that there are other factors in play that we are not privy to.
The first time in my adult life living in downtown Toronto that I heard one of my neighbours refer positively to a conservative leader was Erin O’Toole.
The Mulroney endorsement was huge no question…and telling. Sheer didn’t get that.
I also feel he would have raised the Red Tory profile of the party and the message. The Liberals noticed this quality too I’m convinced hence the early election call depriving him of the opportunity to redevelop the brand.
Agreed
A bit harsh on the NDP aren't you? Do you think we'd have a dental plan or Pharmacare if the Liberals hadn't needed the NDP support to remain in power? Can we agree they accomplished something?
Most Canadians do not have government Pharmacare or a Dental Plan. It's a promise to develop a concept for an idea of a plan to conceive of a program.
It's not paying my Rx bills or cleaning my teeth.
So, no. The purpose of the NDP is to talk about their ideas. Not to implement anything. Governing is hard and requires compromise. NDP members have zero interest in that. Just ask Tom Mulcair.
Again, I think you're shorting the NDP. From the March 22 Health Canada news release all remaining Canadians, which is those 18-64 years old will be eligible for the Canadian Dental Care Plan in May 2025. That's not the hand waving you speak of and it wouldn't have happened if the Liberals didn't need NDP support. Credit where credit is due sir. Hand waving is what we've seen from Mr Poliviere up until the start of the election campaign.
Your mileage may vary.
"Will be eligible" = "not eligible" yet. Sign this 5-year contract and we'll get around to it. Maybe. Possibly. Perhaps. I'll believe it when I see it. But, I don't expect to ever see it.
Well you obviously have your mind made up about how it all works, so I won't bother you anymore with facts. Take care.
Not to worry. You haven’t bothered me with facts. :)
Well here you go.
https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/news/2025/03/canadian-dental-care-plan-expands-to-include-millions-of-new-eligible-canadians.html
INTERESTING. I hadn't thought of it that way.
Ideology is the foundational lens through which a person understands and navigates the world. It’s not something that can simply be turned on or off or adapted on the fly.
True. Ideology is also deeply personal and, therefore, something best avoided when building a consensus of people. The only way to do this is by focusing on the pragmatic: what needs people share, etc. That's how every politician ever has won the day. And, it's how every politician ever has lost their jobs – by forgetting people voted for pragmatism not ideology.
Agreed with you on that point. But RIGID ideology can be a dangerous thing initself.
First of all as a conservative voter, I would like to pass on a bit of information to any one who would like to listen. This is not a way to run a campaign.
I received my conservative party email. Besides asking for money ( a given) there was a click here and voting survey appeared. And the very first question was ,are you voting for the conservative party or the Woke Liberals? WTF!
Is this a High School president election.
Secondly if anyone has Pierre Poilievre's ear: Get The Fucking Security Clearances. But you cant do that now can you. Because now it's the campaign trail night and day.
Third: Axe the tax. The Trudeau Carney Carbon Tax. Stop the crime, build the homes. Well guess what, the carbon tax is sitting in the penalty box, a majority of crime is under provincial jurisdiction. Unless the conservatives are going to build El Salvador like penitentiaries. I think not.
Fourth: Stop having conservatives sounding like they are out of an episode of Star Trek Voyager. Resistance is futile, you will be assimiliated, you will be Borg. Can you just change it up a bit. Find a change of pace.
Didnt the conservatives learn anything from the US election ? The democrats with Orange man bad, Orange man Evil. That really worked out well for them.
There is more, but I have a hockey game to watch
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Campaigns are always a complex balancing act between addressing emerging issues in a thoughtful and resonant way, and focusing on tight, repetitive messages that fit through the limited bandwidth available to reach a wide audience.
I appreciate you joining the conversation!
I agree. But when your shadow ministers are on CPAC answering every question with the Trudeau Carney Carbon Tax............. Hence the Borg visualization.
Interesting timing, finding this post. I normally swing between NDP and Green. I've never voted Lib. I don't particularly want to vote Lib now, so I went to check on Pierre's website. It took me about 5 seconds to realize he hates me and doesn't want my vote. ARE YOU CANADA FIRST OR ARE YOU WOKE? What kinds of questions are these? Are we five? I dunno. Carney at least seems like an adult? Still not a fan of the Libs and do agree it's time for a change, but yeah. Herpes or cancer. These are our choices.
Agree about Erin BTW. I subscribe to his newsletter.
I’m a specialist in defence and international security. Aside from years of basing their entire platform on hating Trudeau and throwing red meat to their far right base, unlike the Liberals, the conservatives literally don’t have a defence policy. None. Zero. And this is an environment where defence *has* to be an issue. The Liberals have a policy and while it’s not perfect, at least it’s there. It seems to be the same for many things.
I cannot stand the name calling and performative outrage, the constant reference to culture wars (if I hear “woke” one more time…), and the lies. They lost me with their support of the convoy and their baffling glad handing with the far right. It’s only a few weeks ago that Poilievre appeared on Jordan Peterson’s podcast. He’s been photographed with Jeremy MacKenzie and Chris Dacey. Every public utterance was a page straight from the MAGA playbook.
And now, there’s a pivot. Fine. And I would normally have considered voting Conservative. But not this time and not for this guy. Drag the party away from Maple MAGA and we’ll talk.
Agree the woke stuff is a massive turnoff.
If many voters are just not smart enough or too emotional about Trump to realize that the Liberals put us in this mess in the first place, what can Poilievre or anyone else do about it? Canada feels doomed to permanent mismanagement due to voter hysteria about Trump and complacency about our own politicians. It's not a Conservative party communication problem. It's economic illiteracy and emotional voting. We will end up with yet another Liberal, anti prosperity government that Ontario deserves.
https://open.substack.com/pub/freditorial/p/can-central-canada-snap-out-of-its?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=3pmo8v
Name one group that “funds” the Conservative Party in Canada (or the Liberals) AND any US presidential campaign.
I bet you can’t. If you could, you’d have evidence of a crime.
Tell me also, what are the “religious cultural biases” of Poilievre or Carney?
This type of mindless parroting of bullshit social media talking points has to stop.
Think harder. Be better.
Thanks, Mark. I could not have said it better myself.
So, you have no idea what you’re talking about. Read up on Canada’s election finance laws. Until then, you offer zero value to the conversation.
Poilievre is a man out of time, put in when the party was threatened by Max not Justin. Unelectable without Justin as a foil, bad timing sure, but bad choice from the hop. O'Toole would have been in majority territory today if they would have left well enough alone. They just gotta give normal people someone they can vote for and stop chasing people who'd be better served by voting PPC anyway. Give people a party that will balance a budget without all the clowning around baggage and they'll win. My 2 cents.
I am calling bull on this article. Pierre Poilievre is campaigning on facts, the horrendous Liberal record of the past 9 years, and is giving back HOPE to Canadians who have lost it. The comparisons of him to Trump are outrageously false. We have had such a hard left turn ideologically that it seems some people cannot recognize the center/right anymore.
Pierre Poilievre is putting Canada First. A position, it appears, the post national crowd seem uncomfortable with? The question is, why?
Based on your comment, I'm unclear what part(s) of my column you think is(are) bullshit.
Other than you're generally unhappy with the turn of events and the fact Poilievre is no longer leading in opinion polls of voter intent. That may be "bullshit" reasoning and/or intent by Canadian voters, but it's currently a fact.
It remains to be seen if the CPC can "re-change" voter intentions to its favour. Speaking personally, I hope they can. Speaking professionally, I'm unconvinced as yet. Either way, voters will always vote in their own best interest. That's how democracy works. It's up to candidates and parties to align themselves with those interests. The voters are never wrong. Even when I disagree with them.
This is a good column and a fair assessment. Depressing, but fair. Wish I knew how to change it, but it seems like a majority of Canadians want the Liberals to remain in power. Liberal operatives are already making plans to be the majority party to 2050. People need to be careful of what they wish for.
Sure hopefully your analogy is wrong. Im following the polls like in the USA election they had Harris going full tilt to win , but she had zero people at her rallies that were not paid stand ins. Still the polls raged on and praised her . Now lets get to the Canadian media and Polls , showing Carney in the lead with a hand full of people attending his rallies and most that attend Carneys Rallies are armed Guards to keep the people away from him . The Conservative s have been turning out in the thousands to rallies all across Canada and the message is resonating with them . What I see on the rally side of the election is nothing like what the Mainstream media and polls are saying. Im hopeful that the over financed bought out media has zero followers as the numbers have shown in the past . Canadians have turned to social media as they have rejected the Communist propaganda machine as a a joke and only listen or watch it if they need a laugh . This election Im not going with the polls HYPE Im going with what I see at the Rallies. May awake Canadians vote us out of this mess.
Agree that the Liberal government needed to go and was pissed that one-message-track PP was the only credible alternative presented - it’s taken shock treatment and orthopaedic surgery to get him to switch blaming all Canada’s problems on JT and turn the blame on PM Carney instead.
But this is COVID-level (or Great Recession or Brexit…) disaster and Reform-based blame-everyone-else-for-holding-us-back politics are, except for the Reform base, just kind of lame and irrelevant (at least core NDP supporters can recognize similar irrelevance and pivot). MC, with his ‘banker’s haircut’ (vs boy band for PP) seems like just the person to try to navigate Canada’s best course through.
Then, on the other side, Conservatives need to find their centre-right PC core again if they ever want to govern Canada. Never personally liked Premier Doug, but he had some sort of road-to-Damascus conversion during COVID and is now doing a pretty damn good job getting $h!t done ‘for the people’ in Ontario. Don’t believe he is PM material, but he’s a pretty good attack dog for the province’s, and he knows who he could work best with as PM…
A few weeks ago, in one of our mainstream newspapers, and I believe it was the Toronto Star, if I remember correctly, one sentence was given that tells you everything you need to know: Canadians are known for tolerating the intolerable. This is why they keep voting for the same Liberal party over and over again, always expecting a different outcome… The very definition of insanity.
The real reason you're losing is this whopper:
"Unintuitively, the Conservatives should be a logical choice for many disaffected NDP voters. When you strip ideology out of the equation and focus on kitchen table pocketbook issues, there is massive overlap between Conservative and NDP voters."
Talk about now knowing the electorate. Rightwing echo chamber writ large.
Lol. He'll win easily. The Liberals are cooked.