Tories look like a credible alternative
Afew hours after Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and his family left Rideau Hall with a brand spanking new federal election in hand, Erin O’toole and the Conservatives released their first campaign ad on Twitter. It featured the prime minister’s head superimposed onto the character of the spoiled girl Veruca Salt from the 1971 film Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. The two-headed monster was singing “I want it now” and pointing to phrases such as “Federal Election” and “Higher Taxes.”
The video left people gawking, and not in a good way. Many Conservative supporters were ready to pull out their hair, if they had any left at the end of the 37-second clip. Some suggested it was a lousy ad purposely made to get plenty of eyeballs and elicit public chatter. While this has certainly been done before, the lousy ads in question are usually, shall we say, less lousy than this one.
While I also thought the Willy Wonka ad was awful — it has since been taken down for violating copyright restrictions — I didn’t get too worked up about it. A ridiculous one-time visit to the chocolate factory could be excused, so long as it served as a lesson for the Conservatives to create sharp, focused and precise political messaging for the rest of the campaign. Since then, that is exactly what they have done.
The 160-page Conservative election platform, for example, is packed with important economic strategies to help individuals, families and businesses during the pandemic. There’s a multi-billion dollar plan to deal with COVID, and a promise to balance the budget in 10 years.
A “Canada investment accelerator,” which would give a five per cent tax credit for any capital investment made in 2022 and 2023, would be introduced, along with a 25 per cent small business tax credit on amounts of up to $100,000 invested over the next two years. The Tories also have plans to deal with health care, affordable housing, mortgages and money laundering.
The O’toole Conservatives have now positioned themselves as a solid political and economic alternative to the Trudeau Liberals. By focusing on fiscal management, tax credits and more realistic public spending measures to keep costs under control, it’s a strategic plan that would benefit Canadians.
Meanwhile, O’toole got a surprising bump this week from his middle-of-theroad position on mandatory vaccinations. He supports people getting fully vaccinated, but he won’t make it mandatory for either his candidates or Canadians in general. Trudeau has taken a much different tact, and warned of “consequences” for federal public-sector workers who refuse to get vaccinated.
Chris Aylward, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), would have none of this, however. He told CTV News on Aug. 17 that “any talk around discipline, around terminations for members unwilling to be vaccinated is totally unacceptable by PSAC and I want to make that very clear.”
When the Conservative leader is basically speaking the same language as the president of Canada’s largest public-sector union, that’s really saying something.
Another high point this week was O’toole’s statement that a Conservative government “will not recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.” This powerful stand against the violent, bloodthirsty terrorist organization was released during a time when Trudeau had a noncommittal position, and Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau suggested on CBC that the Liberals would take a “wait and see” approach. More than nine hours later, and after plenty of criticism, Trudeau finally made a statement that was similar to O’toole’s.
This was yet another example of our weak-kneed national leader following rather than leading on important issues. To O’toole’s credit, he took a firm, intelligent and realistic position against a terrorist group that my old friend and boss, Stephen Harper, would have appreciated.
Finally, O’toole and the Conservatives got an additional boost that they had
THE WILLY WONKA AD WAS AWFUL ... (BUT) I DIDN’T GET TOO WORKED UP ABOU T IT.
nothing specifically to do with, but could be a sign of things to come in this campaign.
The stunning victory of Tim Houston and his Progressive Conservatives in Nova Scotia on Tuesday was the first provincial election during COVID-19 that led to a change in government. No one, including the pollsters, had predicted anything quite like what took place on election night. It could be the first sign that the status quo in Canadian politics, and the spendthrift ways of provincial governments during the pandemic, is coming to an end.
If so, that would be disastrous for Trudeau and the Liberals. Atlantic Canada is an important region for the prime minister to either preserve his minority or gain a majority. While Nova Scotia had a history of voting for the federal Tories and the NDP in the 1990s, this hasn’t been a significant factor for several elections.
The prime beneficiary could be the Conservatives. Not necessarily in terms of picking up seats, but in terms of the NDP (and maybe the Greens) poaching more from the Liberals than originally expected. Time will tell.
It’s been a good first week for Erin O’toole and the Tories. We’ll see what Week 2 brings.