You can’t run a country on outrage

If recent polls remain the same, sometime between now and October 2025 Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) Leader Pierre Poilievre will become Canada’s next prime minister.

If the CPC does take power, it will be interesting to see what type of government it will be.

Certainly it is hard to tell, as to date the party appears to have no plan as to how they will govern.

They have released no policies on climate change outside of opposing the current carbon tax and vowing to eliminate it.

What would they replace it with, or do they even believe in climate change? The CPC won’t say.

They denounce the current state of the Canadian military, however they refuse to outline their own plan on how to rebuild our Armed Forces. What will they do with taxes? Who knows?

One area we know a CPC government will continue to embrace is anger and an utter lack of class and decorum. For example, on April 4 veteran New Democratic Party MP Charlie Angus announced he will not seek re-election in the next federal election after more than 20 years in Parliament.

For the record, I rarely agreed with Mr. Angus’s politics, but I greatly admired his support for the First Nations and his outstanding ability to represent his constituents. (In 2006 the Toronto Star selected him as one of the 10 top opposition MPs and in 2012 Macleans magazine voted him as one of the 25 most influential Canadians.)

So how did Poilievre react to this news? On X (previously known as Twitter) Poilievre tweeted, “Charlie Angus jumps ship rather than face voters after he voted to hike the carbon tax and ban the hunting rifles of Northern Ontarians.

“Common sense Conservatives will axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget, stop the crime — and let you keep your hunting rifle.”

And it wasn’t just Poilievre. Conservative MP Stephanie Kusie commented “I’d like to thank the member for Timmins-James Bay for relieving us of our misery and announcing his resignation. Thank you so much; I truly appreciate that. You know, we’re all gonna really miss him on this side of the House. Not!”

I am not blind to the fact that modern society is far coarser than in the past. Having said that, is it too much to ask our elected leaders to act in a dignified, professional manner as opposed to juvenile behaviour that should have been left in high school?

Would it have been so hard to thank Mr. Angus for his 20 years of devoted service to Canada and wish him well? And let’s not fall back to “the other parties are just as bad.” A good way to differentiate yourself from the other parties is to conduct yourself with class, dignity and statesmanship.

Conservative leaders were not always this crass.

Here in Ontario in the last 70 years we saw highly successful, dignified premiers in Leslie Frost, John Robarts and Bill Davis. All of them were policy driven, made decisions based on objective evidence and logic and behaved in classy, dignified ways.

Federally in my life time, while not as successful as the Ontario premiers, Conservative Party leaders Robert Stanfield and Joe Clark stood out for their decency and well thought out detailed policy alternatives.

Recently deceased Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney was renowned for his kindness and class.

People from all over the political spectrum spoke about how Mulroney reached out to them when they were in a time of need.

One wonders why Poilievre and his party feel it is necessary to behave as uncouth boors so much of the time.

Poilievre and the CPC need to understand that you cannot run a country on outrage and insults. It is about time for them to show Canadians that they can act in a classy manner and provide detailed policy alternatives.