Is Poilievre the alternative voters want?
Perhaps Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was feeling too comfortable.
After all, his party is ahead of the Liberals by 20 points in public opinion polls. The poll aggregator 338Canada.com has the Conservatives winning a 207-seat majority in the House of Commons, if an election were held today — a Brian Mulroney-sized landslide. The Conservatives, according to Abacus Data, lead across all age brackets, education brackets, even gender lines.
So, perhaps Poilievre thought he had little to risk when he decided to stop and say hello to an encampment at the Nova Scotia-New Brunswick border, where a group of citizens was protesting the carbon levy. In videos made by the protesters , you can see Poilievre come out of a trailer with the flag of Diagolon — a far-right, white nationalist group described as “extremist” by the U.S. State Department — drawn on the side.
Poilievre may not have known what he was walking into when he stopped for a sunset visit. But after arriving on site, speaking to demonstrators, and seeing their symbols, Poilievre assured them that, “Everyone is happy with what you’re doing.”
Really? It recalled moments during the Conservative leadership race when former Quebec premier Jean Charest tore into Poilievre’s support for the socalled “Freedom Convoy.”
“You cannot make laws and break laws, and then say, ‘I will make laws for other people.’ I’m sorry, but that is a question of basic foundation of principles in my life,” he told Poilievre.
Charest was loudly booed. But he likely represented a mainstream view. You can believe the Liberal government went too far with mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations, or oppose its use as a divisive wedge during the last campaign, but supporting a group that takes over the capital’s downtown, shuts down businesses and puts thousands of people out of work so the protesters can party in the streets, intimidate residents and blast truck horns at all hours of the night for weeks, is not something that should be tolerated, let alone encouraged or celebrated by political leaders.
There is no doubt people are tired of the Liberal government. But it doesn’t mean Canadians want to vote for a man who courts support from groups that spew hate.
In an interview with Vox published this week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggests he is staying on because “the stakes” for the next election are “incredibly high.” He frames it as a choice between “a country that looks out for each other” or a path that amplifies “anger, division and fear,” where “government gets out of the way and lets people fend for themselves.”
Most Liberal MPs are willing to let Trudeau stay, and seem resigned to the idea he will lead them into a bloodbath. Some plan to announce they won’t run again; others want change but can’t find enough colleagues willing to show Trudeau the door. It’s not that MPs aren’t looking for an alternative. They just don’t believe anyone on offer has a better shot of defeating Poilievre than their current leader.
This week, several Grit MPs showed up to hear former Bank of Canada governor and likely Liberal leadership candidate Mark Carney speak in Toronto for a conversation billed as an “economic look-ahead.”
To hear MPs tell it, Carney has much more work to do if he wants the party’s top job. But Carney’s speech was disappointing, the person said.
Those looking for a rebuke or for approval of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s budget found both. He made a compelling case that now was the time to build and invest. He praised the Liberals’ housing plans. But he critiqued the government’s approach for not focusing enough on growth and productivity.
Was Carney soft launching his leadership bid? Was he positioning himself for a future run and wanted to create space between this government’s choices and his own? Was it an academic exercise to inform Canadians about the choices facing the country?
I wrote him to ask. He didn’t answer. Regardless. Carney’s speech may not have reignited Liberal MPs’ hopes this week. But someone else did: Poilievre.