Pierre Poilievre‘s first words in the House of Commons were a sure sign of things to come.
It was October 2004, and though at 25 years old he was one of the youngest faces in the room, he had been preparing for this moment.
As a teen, he had read economist Milton Friedman’s 1962 book “Capitalism and Freedom.” At 15, he had joined the board for his member of Parliament in Calgary, Preston Manning. By 20, he had penned an essay about being prime minister.
Can Pierre Poilievre contain the populist beast he has unleashed?
The polarizing Conservative leadership front-runner “caught a tiger by the tail and he may not be able to control what he has created.”
Having just watched the first episode of the hyped-up “Rings of Power” streaming series, it got me thinking about the upcoming Sept. 10 coronation of Pierre Poilievre and the path the new leader of the federal Conservative party will choose as the ring-bearer of the Official Opposition.
Like the dwarves who dug too deep for riches in the mines of Moria, Poilievre has plumbed the depths of social media for conspiracy theories and grievance rhetoric, coming up with campaign gold by embracing the freedom convoy and anti-vaxxers. It has earned him a ton cash for party coffers and a record number of new memberships.
The question now is whether Poilievre can contain the populist beast he has unleashed by channelling his inner Stephen Harper, or whether he’d rather hop on its back, ring firmly embedded, and burn the place down.
OTTAWA — It’s just after 9 a.m. on a Friday morning at Wilfrid’s Restaurant in the Chateau Laurier and guests are helping themselves to a breakfast buffet when Jean Charest takes his seat in the corner of the room.
This iconic hotel down the street from Parliament Hill, the scene of so many political tete-a-tetes and soirees, is about as cliche a meeting place as you can get in official Ottawa. It’s somehow entirely appropriate.
Frankly I’m more interested in what’s on offer at the breakfast buffet.
It’s something of a rite of passage for a prominent conservative politician to pledge to defund the CBC. You just have to do it, whether your heart is truly in it or not.
OTTAWA—There is a clear, but narrow, path to victory.
That’s what Erin O’Toole’s Conservatives were told in the winter of 2020 by consultants hired to help plan for an eventual general election.
That path was laid out over 100-plus pages of analysis and behavioural modelling, a portion of which was recently obtained by the Star.
Tax code matters are one of the more convoluted and least enthralling aspects of governance. Many politicians either generally avoid the topic or simplify it to the extreme: you either cut taxes or raise them.
Whether leaders assume a lack of interest on voters’ behalf, think they’re too dumb to grasp the details, or are in fact too dense to do so themselves, the effect is the same. Canadians miss out on lively debate and fresh ideas about a topic that greatly impacts their –– and the country’s –– economic health.
Trudeau is fucking over the poor to please the Corporate welfare class – Canada developing path to permanent residency for 500,000 undocumented workers
Barring a miracle, Pierre Poilievre will easily win the federal Conservative leadership race when the party announces the voting results on Sept. 10.
He’ll have won largely by reinforcing his image as a political attack dog, exploiting voters’ fears and anger, fuelling citizen rage, and tacitly emboldening the extremists in his party and the anarchists in our society with cynical promises to restore their “freedoms.”
It’s a strategy straight out of the successful — and sleazy — campaign playbook of Donald Trump.
OTTAWA — Pierre Poilievre plans to force the federal government to stop using overly complex bureaucratic wording by passing a law that will require the use of “plain language” if he is elected prime minister.
The Conservative leadership candidate is making this promise — his last policy announcement of the campaign — mere days before he might be confirmed leader of the Conservative party.
An advocacy group started by centrist Conservatives to provide more of a voice to the political middle has dropped the party’s name to expand its base.
The “Centre Ice Conservatives” have become the “Centre Ice Canadians.” What does that say about the state of the federal party and the role of moderate Tories within it?
Moderate as in never was a conservative.
MONTREAL—It has been more than a decade since Quebec voters have handed a party a second governing mandate. Over that period, the Parti Québécois, the Liberals and the Coalition Avenir Québec have all had a turn at the helm.
On Oct. 3, Premier François Legault is hoping to break that pattern. With the campaign officially underway as of this weekend, here are five early takes on the state of play in Quebec …
Doing well in BC …
@PierrePoilievre was bottled lightning in #Nanaimo today, here's a little taste #Canada❣️ pic.twitter.com/wHnDOvyjIN
— Debber (@wallydebling) August 28, 2022
OTTAWA – There are just two weeks left until the Conservative Party of Canada announces its new leader on Sept. 10.
While nearly half of the ballots have already been cast, the five candidates — Pierre Poilievre, Jean Charest, Roman Baber, Scott Aitchison, and Leslyn Lewis — are busy rallying support in a final get-out-the-vote push.
I don’t understand how the author of this article could write that Charest along with Poilievre are the “front-runners”. Unless they know the books are cooked Charest is not even close.
OTTAWA — “Our next prime minister.”
“I’ll vote for you bro!!!”
“This guy is Canada’s future.”
Those are the kinds of comments NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh used to get on his TikTok videos. Users of the app — a youth favourite — would reply to the leader’s viral clips, begging him to unseat Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and change the way politics is done in Canada. Orange heart emojis would sometimes follow.
But those comments aren’t from Singh’s profile. They’re scattered beneath presumed Conservative leadership front-runner Pierre Poilievre’s TikTok videos. And now, the heart emojis are blue.
This turns into a “But Jagmeet is the superior candidate for da Yutes” spiel.
There’s a popular narrative that Canada’s chattering classes enjoy spouting to anyone within earshot. If Pierre Poilievre becomes the next Conservative leader instead of Jean Charest, they say, he’ll create a massive split in Canada’s conservative movement and guarantee a fourth consecutive election victory for Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“Young people want freedom from the woke control freaks in government, media and academia,” Pierre Poilievre said recently on Twitter. “That is why they are supporting my campaign to put them back in charge of their lives.”
Mr. Poilievre’s campaign for the federal Conservative leadership has been successful, and he’s now in a strong position to win the September vote. But to what extent are the many people buying into his freedom pitch aware of his track record on that very subject?
That’s two anti-Poilievre pieces today.
The path to choosing the next leader of the federal Conservative party has been a long, often strange journey.
It has featured the sacking of a challenger by the party brass, a candidate who refused to debate unless she was asked questions she wanted to answer, another debate which featured a sad trombone and a former leader and top contender playing The Newlywed Game with his spouse of 42 years.
Debased political discourse? This from the toady media that daily fellates Trudeau.
