Conservative Party

OTTAWA — Celebrity businessman Kevin O’Leary is making a last-minute pitch to Conservative party members to vote for Jean Charest.

The reality television star’s nod comes as the race enters its final weeks and all five campaigns are trying to motivate supporters to cast a ballot.

O’Leary briefly entered the party’s 2017 leadership race, but dropped out after determining he’d never win over the province of Quebec and in turn couldn’t defeat Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Good Lord but this is desperate.

“… Some in the media claim Mr. Poilievre flirts with right-wing extremists because he is one himself, a Canadian Donald Trump. Nonsense. Unlike the former U.S. president, Mr. Poilievre supports high levels of immigration and steers clear of social-conservative issues. He focuses almost exclusively on economic insecurity. His closest political counterpart is Ontario Premier Doug Ford.”

Gee, I remember reading that on some blog when he first started running for the leadership. PP will win, do not expect a savior.

Of the many remarkable characteristics of Stephen Harper — aside from his overwhelmingly genial disposition — none is stronger than his deliberative character.

He thinks, thinks well and deeply, before he acts. So then, of this we may all be certain, that his choice to endorse Pierre Poilievre was not the whim of a fleeting mood, but a judgement long-considered and firmly articulated. The endorsement came as a surprise as Mr. Harper has mostly abided by the tradition that ex-prime ministers remove themselves from the affairs of their successors.

I hope he lives up to the Pierre Poilievre he’s projecting. Recall how quickly the past two leaders showed their true colours after winning the leadership.

Liberals could weaponize Conservative infighting to weaken Poilievre, Preston Manning warns

In imagined speech, Conservative elder statesman says Trudeau can use Conservatives’ own words as ammunition

An elder statesman of Canada’s conservative movement is offering a vivid warning about how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberals might attack Pierre Poilievre if he wins the Conservative leadership.

In an email sent to Conservative leadership campaigns and senior Conservatives earlier this month, former Reform Party leader Preston Manning engages in a thought experiment envisioning the sort of speech Trudeau could deliver in the House of Commons to welcome Poilievre — widely expected to become the next leader of the Conservative Party of Canada in September.

With all due respect does anyone seriously consider Preston a “conservative?”

Frankly this article sounds more anti-Poilievre than pro-conservative.

I hope Justin’s handlers have sent Presto an appropriate “Thank You” gift.

No matter I will vote the full Trotskyist slate next election anyway.

Pierre Poilievre brought his federal Conservative leadership campaign to Dartmouth to criticize the Liberal government’s carbon tax plan, defend free speech and deride Canada’s prime minister.

Hundreds of supporters gave the Ottawa-area MP a standing ovation as he entered a crowded hotel conference room Saturday and warmly received his broadsides against the Liberal government’s policies.

OTTAWA — Although three weeks remain in the Conservative party’s leadership race, the talk in political circles has already shifted to what’s next.

Pierre Poilievre’s victory is being treated as a foregone conclusion by his rivals and allies alike. He has upwards of $5 million in the bank, more than 300,000 party members signed up behind his cause, and the crowds turning up at get-out-the-vote events are assuaging earlier fears that all of the new members he’s recruited wouldn’t turn out to vote.

I think it’s almost 48 hours since the last Poilievre hit piece, if so that would be a new record.

CHAREST: Open letter to my fellow members of the Conservative Party of Canada

” … I’ve spoken to thousands of members and party activists and it’s clear to me there are policy areas where conservatives should be champions: national unity and addressing western alienation, health-care reform, religious freedom and reproductive choice, families, law and order, defence, security and economic growth and independence.

Most of the voting public believes there are much bigger issues than “freedom” at stake in this country.”

That’s his pitch, here’s the translation:

I’ve spoken to a couple of pals and it’s clear you people need to be reminded: Quebec Rules OK? Western Canada? If you mean Thunder Bay I’ve heard of it. We will continue to provide an ever declining standard of health care and denounce those who refuse to call it the best in the world. We will make Canada a secular 24/7 abortion abattoir run by sacred transvestites and ensure that our security services continue to target the scourge of white supremacism that threatens to interfere with corporate Canada’s wishes for unfettered mass immigration and continued economic relations with the very worst humanity has to offer.

Freedom is just another word for shut up and take it because it’s never going to get better for you.

Over the last seven years, I have had to take a long look in the mirror. As an Indigenous person, I ask myself, “What do I aspire to be? What do I want for my family? What do I want for my children and my grandchildren?” The troubling policies brought forth by Canada’s Liberal government have infuriated me. I am now genuinely worried for my children’s future.

I dunno, that guy with the pronouns in his Twitter bio has pretty much soured me on voting CPC – ever again.

Centre Ice Conservatives are warming the bench for now

Speaking to a gathering of self-described “Centre Ice Conservatives” in Edmonton on Thursday, former British Columbia premier Christy Clark offered a tidy explanation for why the people in the room had come together.

“When you look across the country, what we see are political leaders rushing to the fringes. Political leaders of all political stripes – they’re all trying to get right to the edge,” she said. “And you are trying to do the exact opposite. You are trying to preserve that middle political path that has saved Canada so many times and that has preserved our country.”

The only question now is how Centre Ice Conservatives — or any other group of dissatisfied centre-right conservatives — might go about doing that.

Jack Mintz: Poilievre’s spirit hung over Centre Ice Conservatives like Banquo’s ghost

In William Shakespeare’s famous play, Macbeth is distressed by the appearance of Banquo’s ghost at a banquet for Scottish Thanes. This image played in my mind as a non-partisan panelist during the Centre Ice Conservatives conference held Thursday. It is not that anyone was a Macbeth murdering his rival, Banquo, to gain power. It is simply that the attendees are disturbed that their favourite candidate for the Conservative leadership, Jean Charest, is unlikely to win the Conservative leadership. Pierre Poilievre’s name was hardly mentioned but his spirit hung over the conference like Banquo’s ghost.

The paradox of the current Conservative Party of Canada leadership race is that the front-runner in the contest to replace Erin O’Toole is seeking to move the party in the opposite direction of where most available voters seem to be heading.

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau scales new heights of unpopularity, with more than half of Canadians now holding a negative opinion of the Liberal leader, Conservatives have a rare opening before them to capture the centre. With the ranks of disaffected Liberals swelling by the day, countless Canadians are scanning the horizon for a credible alternative to the Grits.

Another of the Globe’s recent Poilievre Panic Pieces.

Poilievre is not an extremist, he will not govern as an extremist. He will turn out to be much the same as the previous two Conservative party leaders. Say one thing to get elected then do another if not the exact opposite once in power.

I like Poilievre, he’s fun. He is not the savior you are looking for because the Conservative party is not conservative any more.

Where would Poilievre take the Conservatives? Not to the far right, but the far out

People keep trying to get a read on where Pierre Poilievre would take the Conservative Party. Would he, as some fear and others hope, position it on the far right – fiscally severe, socially intolerant and so on?

Or is he, as others argue, more of a mainstream conservative than his hard-line rhetoric would suggest – witness his refusal to legislate on abortion, or his proposals to make it easier for new immigrants to have their credentials recognized in Canada.

Andrew Coyne needs to step back from the pipe. His screen must be soaked from frothing at the mouth producing this bit of Laurentian hysteria.

Conservative politics are resonating with young Canadians, according to recent polls. Pierre Poilievre is getting much of the credit for this growth in support.

Political observers are trying to figure out what’s going on. And I might have some helpful insights to explain.

Former British Columbia premier Christy Clark made a passionate plea for more moderate Conservatives to end the cycle of “clickbait politicians” which are tearing the country apart — and hinted that Jean Charest could be the man for the job.

LPC 2.0 Here we come.

Lou Kuiack, a mother of two living in Alberta, filled out her voting ballot for the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) leadership race but originally waited before sending it in the mail.

Why? The fact that the return envelope is addressed to Deloitte, which identifies as “long-standing strategic partner” of the World Economic Forum (WEF), made her “uneasy” and she was still searching for “answers” at the time of her interview with the National Post.