Canada

Winning a party leadership race and winning a general election are two very different things. Policies that appeal to the party faithful may appear unsellable to a large segment of the population.

Newly minted conservative leaders Pierre Poilievre and Danielle Smith must now figure out the balancing act between staying true to their leadership campaign promises and presenting a winning political product to the electorate. There can be no doubt that self-styled political experts were whispering into the ears of both new leaders and counselling them to pivot from their leadership stances the moment they won their respective races.

Who do you dislike least? That sums up our current political environment.

Canada was once heralded as an outlier in a world gripped by controversial politicians such as former U.S. president Donald Trump, Brexiteer Nigel Farage and France’s Marine Le Pen. Back in 2015, the election of Justin Trudeau and his “sunny ways” government set the country apart on the international stage.

Polling by Nanos Research Group for Bloomberg News shows 30% of Canadians rank Poilievre as the leader most trusted to reduce inflation, compared with 22% for Trudeau and 10% for Jagmeet Singh of the left-leaning New Democratic Party.

Poilievre’s lead illustrates the extent to which the Conservative chief has been able to distinguish himself on the issue, focusing on cost of living during his campaign for the party leadership and hammering both the prime minister and central bank on it.

Welcome to the Canadian constitutional cafeteria. Please remember to stack your trays by the door when you leave.

It was Pierre Trudeau, father of the current prime minister, who famously said many decades ago that Ottawa should be more than a “head waiter to the provinces” when it came to constitutional matters and national government.

Now, roughly 40 years later, his son is contending with an array of provinces who would like to see the federal government even further demoted — to a busboy, perhaps.

Blackie’s Star is worried!

… The survey asked people which federal political party they would most likely vote for if an election were held today, and 33 per cent of decided voters chose the Conservatives.

That’s compared to 31 per cent who picked the Liberals and 21 per cent who opted for the New Democrats.

OTTAWA — Gen. Wayne Eyre must feel like Cassandra, the King of Troy’s daughter, who was granted the gift of prophecy but struck by the curse that no one would believe her predictions.

The chief of the defence staff appeared at the public safety and national security committee on Parliament Hill last Thursday and warned in the starkest terms possible that dark forces are gathering in a “chaotic and dangerous world” and that Canada’s geographic isolation is no longer a viable defence against them. Russia and China already “consider themselves to be at war with the West,” he said. They are interested, not just in “regime survival, but in regime expansion.”