Conservative Party

Mulroney backing Conservatives’ Poilievre, but cautions he won’t win going ‘extreme right’

OTTAWA – Former prime minister Brian Mulroney told CTV’s Question Period he’s impressed with new Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre — who’s been on the job for nearly a month — but that he cautioned him to tack closer to the political centre if he hopes to win a general election.

“I thought he was very good,” Mulroney said of the first time he watched Poilievre in the House of Commons as the official leader of the Opposition. “He developed a sense of humour, and he thinks on his feet, which is indispensable for a successful opposition leader or prime minister.”

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is under pressure to explain how a hidden misogynistic phrase was used to promote his YouTube videos over the last four years.

Global News revealed Thursday that 50 of Poilievre’s most recent YouTube videos included a hidden tag — #mgtow, which stands for “Men Going Their Own Way” — linked to misogynistic, mostly online communities. The tag helped promote Poilievre’s videos — such as his recent tribute to Queen Elizabeth II, videos from his leadership rallies and his messages on inflation and affordability — but was not visible to viewers.

Sabotage, ignorance or incompetence from within his team? I suspect a little of 2 & 3.

Meanwhile…. 

WATCH: Raucous exchange where Trudeau goes after Poilievre for YouTube hashtag who fights back, calls out funding for Laith Marouf, racist blackface costume wearing & firing of Jody Wilson-Raybould.

“We condemn misogyny always & everywhere & we ask the PM to finally do the same” pic.twitter.com/PyWy4Z9LCg

— Rowan (@canmericanized) October 6, 2022

Pierre Poilievre’s official YouTube videos included a hidden tag appealing to misogynistic online movements that Canada’s intelligence agencies view as a danger.

A Global News analysis of 50 of Poilievre’s most recent YouTube videos showed that they included a tag — hidden from viewers, but not from the videos’ publisher — used by a misogynistic online movement. The tag helps promote Poilievre’s videos among those circles, and signals to YouTube what users might be interested in the Conservative leader’s messaging.

Sabotage or Stupidity by an underling? Seems an awfully small demographic to warrant the inclusion of a dedicated hash tag and frankly I just don’t see it attracting an audience of any appreciable size. Am I wrong? Maybe. In the meantime I’ll blame Patrick Brown!

The article cites the SPLC as an “authority” so keep some salt handy.

As much as the Conservatives like to poke fun at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s past life as a drama teacher, there sure seemed to be an awful lot of theatre coming from the Tory benches this past week.

Members of the Conservative Party – which purports to be against cancel culture and ostentatious displays of wokeism – were utterly scandalized by a tweet that, by their telling, made them feel unsafe walking the halls of the House of Commons.

As I said this was a bad choice for the CPC, only play the Liberal games when you know you can win. 

Less than a month into the job, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has overtaken Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as the candidate seen as the best choice to lead the country, a new poll suggests.

The Ipsos poll conducted exclusively for Global News found 35 per cent of Canadians surveyed believe Poilievre is the best candidate for prime minister, while 31 per cent said the same of Trudeau, who trails the new Opposition leader in a majority of provinces — including Ontario.

Pierre Poilievre did not win the Conservative leadership by using the subtle arts of diplomacy.

But in his first couple of weeks on the job, Poilievre has been making some choices — especially on the hiring front — that seem to reveal an interest in building as many bridges as the new leader had been expected to burn.

It would be a mistake to cast these developments as proof of a kinder, gentler Poilievre, especially this early in his tenure. But he is defying many expectations — by Liberals in particular — that Poilievre would launch into his new job in pure attack mode.

OTTAWA — Nuclear technology, carbon capture and mining critical minerals are all components of Pierre Poilievre’s approach to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to fight climate change, but it remains unclear when he will unveil a more fulsome climate plan of his own.

September 27, 2022 – The ascendance of Pierre Poilievre as leader of the Conservatives is giving his party an advantage in vote intent over the Liberals not seen in more than three years.

Since the 2019 election, the two parties have been locked in what has mostly amounted to a statistical tie in national vote intention – generally driven by the rise and fall the fortunes of the Trudeau government in the moment rather than momentum for the Conservatives.

Now the opposition party – which last month elected its third leader in as many years – is pulling together a right-of-centre base that includes not only its own supporters but those who turned out for the People’s Party in the 2021 general election.

I appreciate that Poilievre is a good deal more fun than past CPC talking heads however once his policy platform is fully fleshed out & examined the swing to the PPC will begin anew.

PP is no Trump, he’s no Rob Ford, he’s entertaining but no disruptor and the party platform will be little different from that of Trudeau’s Liberals on major issues such as mass immigration, defunding the CBC, term limits, defanging the partisan bureaucracy, the green-scam and multicult.

OTTAWA — The RCMP is reviewing a statement from a prominent far-right figure who says he was drunk when he joked during a live broadcast about sexually assaulting Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s wife.

The comment provoked Poilievre’s strongest condemnation yet of a group called Diagolon and its controversial leader Jeremy MacKenzie, a 36-year-old Nova Scotia man whose online community has been linked to misinformation, antisemitism and racism.

I don’t approve of the threat to Poilievre’s wife.

That said when taken with last week’s effort to silence the Press Gallery reporter for what was nothing more than a lame joke I have begun to suspect that the CPC is telling its own perceived deplorables that they want nothing to do with them. A gentle purge if you will.

When Erin O’Toole and Andrew Scheer were Conservative leaders, both released plans to combat climate change after unrelenting questions and criticism from journalists over the lack of such plans.

Pierre Poilievre, however, is taking a different approach. The new Conservative Leader says virtually nothing about the issue and refuses to meet with journalists, dismissing them as Liberal shills.

That seems the prudent approach.

OTTAWA — Pierre Poilievre’s former campaign co-chair, John Baird, thinks the NDP is lashing out against the new Tory leader because he is eating their “lunch” among working-class voters and could pose a threat for New Democrats in the next federal election in Ontario and B.C.