Photo courtesy of CBC
Canada’s conservatives showed themselves half a step behind America’s spiral into populism with the selection of Pierre Poilievre as leader, a man whose main talent is for figuring out what everybody wants to hear and promising it to them, whether it’s possible or not.
When Poilievre started his acceptance speech with, “God save the king,” last night, I’m sure he was aware of the irony, and it played well with his supporters. As did almost every exaggerated pie-in-the-sky promise in his acceptance-cum-election speech.
His political platform seems to be lifted mainly from the Liberals. After all, everybody knows what Canada really needs. Except he’s going to do the same thing with smaller government, smaller taxes, and freedom for everyone. I guess how that’s going to work will come out in a couple of years when the election is called.
The fact-checkers would have a heyday with his statistics. According to him, someone making $55,001 a year pays 80% in taxes on the top $1. That took some creative accounting.
A chilling note his followers missed was the promise to “take control of your money and your country.”
He hit all the social conservative buttons: gun control, carbon tax, ArriveCan app (of course). Apparently, he’s going to end all the vaccine mandates that don’t exist, too. Protectionist trade policies, safe streets, tougher laws, longer times in jail. Oh, yes, and he’s big on getting rid of “Gatekeepers,” whoever they are.
He made a lot of hay, of course, on the huge budget deficit over the last two years, ignoring the fact that a lot of that money went to Conservative-supporting business owners and workers.
A key point in the speech was where he answered the question as to whether he would temper his far-right stance to attract centrist voters. Well, he made a try, but when he reached out to Quebec for defending their language and culture and tipped his hat to gay marriage and immigrants, he got a lukewarm response from his supporters. We’ll see how that plays out.
He quickly moved on to his promise to create a conservative Garden of Eden, where everyone will “own their homes, build their dreams, raise their children, look out for their neighbours and earn powerful paycheques and savings free from inflation.” I’m surprised he missed the usual “chicken in every pot,” and making Canada great again.
In fact, except for a quick bash at carbon pricing, he said nothing about climate change, health care, or inexpensive daycare, things that average Canadians are concerned about. But Poilievre’s Conservatives are more concerned with their own personal welfare.
The Conservative Party has been fooled by a candidate who promises everybody everything. Coming up with a successful election campaign platform on that basis is going to be a tough task, and I dearly hope moderate Canadian voters won’t fall for the ploy.
It’s an uncomfortable statistic that because of our first-past-the-post election process, most governing parties in Canada are elected by 35-40% of the voters. The Liberals have been doing it for years, and if the conditions were right (Like Trudeau trying to run again), the Conservatives could make it.
In my experience, people like Poilievre are completely focused on attaining power. Once they get it, they have neither the will nor the personality to serve with any leadership style except authoritarian. Poilievre will not be good for the Conservative party, and should he be so lucky as to win an election, he would not be good for Canada.
Silver lining: short term, having someone like that as Leader of the Opposition will be good for Canada, and especially for the Liberals. It will keep them from getting too sure of themselves.