Ever since the electoral reforms of the mid-19th century, the Mother of All Parliaments — the Westminster Parliament of the so-called United Kingdom — has been dominated by a party of the left(ish) and one of the right(ish). The latter calls itself “Conservative”. The “Liberal” party, as the former was known when W.S. Gilbert wrote those lyrics was supplanted in 1924 by the Labour Party, which, under Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, is now having its turn at bat.
Can we talk about the crazy way that we let our political parties select their candidates and leaders.
Over the weekend, the Ontario Liberal Party held a nomination race to select their candidate for the upcoming provincial byelection in Scarborough Southwest. Ahsanul Hafiz took 718 votes on the third ballot to defeat current Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, who received 699 votes.
There’s an expression I heard years ago that I try to keep in mind for perspective on days when it feels like everyone in the world has been sent specifically to annoy and oppose me.
The original version used naughty language, but I’ll clean it up for the sake of this venerable newspaper. It goes like this: If you wake up in the morning and meet a jerk, you’ve met one jerk. If all you meet all day long are jerks, then perhaps you are the problem.
The media want desperately for Poilievre to fail. Can’t imagine why.
Pierre Poilievre’s speech to the conservative Canada Strong and Free Network conference in Ottawa on Thursday was a perfectly acceptable Opposition leader’s address.
Modestly delivered and modestly received, it had much to be modest about.
The problem was, it sounded like a reheated version of one of his speeches from last year’s election, a campaign in which he was rejected by voters who were apt to see him as too chippy and too negative.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre had an opportunity to reinvigorate his party this week at one of Canada’s most important political networking conferences. Unfortunately for the most part, he delivered an underwhelming speech that lacked vision, energy and real answers to the challenges facing Canada’s conservative movement.
The Canada Strong and Free Network’s (CSFN) annual Ottawa conference is among the most significant conservative gatherings in Canada, and typically brings together the best and brightest of the movement’s thinkers, leaders and influencers.
OTTAWA — Portraying himself as the “fighter” the country needs, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre made the case Thursday that he is still the right person to take on Prime Minister Mark Carney and bring his party back to power — and that he doesn’t need to change to get it done.
Addressing a packed room of ideological faithful at the annual Canada Strong and Free Network conference, Poilievre portrayed Carney as the “illusion” of a moderate politician, and claimed the Liberal government is really part of a self-interested “club” of special interests that is failing to improve the lives of regular Canadians.
The old message remains potent. Be patient, even the MSM can’t hide forever that the LPC is the same old clowns at the same old circus.
Carney’s pseudo-patriotism can’t outlast reality.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says Prime Minister Mark Carney should tell Canadians what leverage the country has over the United States in coming trade negotiations.
In an interview with The Canadian Press on Friday, Carney rejected the characterization of energy and critical minerals as “leverage” in negotiations to renew the Canada-United States-Mexico trade agreement.
OTTAWA — A Postmedia-Leger poll published this week shows the Conservatives narrowing the gap slightly with the Liberals, but satisfaction with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s performance remains high among Canadians overall.
Forty-eight per cent of Canadians said they support the Liberals, compared with 37 per cent for the Conservatives, when asked which political party they would vote for if a federal election were held today. That amounts to an increase of three percentage points for the Conservatives compared with a similar poll conducted eight weeks ago.
The grandpas underpinning the “Elbows Up” movement have washed their hands of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre for the moment, but it’s their grandchildren who may ultimately decide his political future — and that of his party.
The Conservatives’ weak byelection performance was billed as a defeat, but that was the best possible outcome for Poilievre, at least personally. Dodging a second defeat in a general election denied Poilievre’s increasingly noisy Tory detractors a legitimate reason to bring the knives out despite the absence of a saviour waiting in the wings. Even if they had their golden child lined up, these non-believers must know future Liberal victories are all but guaranteed so long as the NDP wallows in the single digits.
An Ontario Conservative MP says she will not be crossing the floor anytime soon, despite an attempt from the Liberal Party to poach her.
Kitchener Centre MP Kelly DeRidder says she got a phone call from the Liberal Party, trying to convince her that switching sides would give her a better chance at winning the next election.
SARNIA, Ont. — The sign on the door says “closed” and Jamie Morningstar is not happy.
Clutching an envelope of income tax papers, he’s come for help to the constituency office of local MP Marilyn Gladu, who two weeks ago stunned the populace — and Parliament — by jumping from the Conservatives to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals.
OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says Prime Minister Mark Carney should appoint more Tories to the Senate, arguing that the opposition voices Canadians voted for at the ballot box ought to be properly represented across Canada’s Parliament.
“The Senate is not currently a reflection of the Canadian people,” Poilievre told a news conference in Ottawa on Thursday.
Neither is the Carney government.
More than half of past Conservative voters want Pierre Poilievre to lead the party into the next election, although a growing minority would like to see him replaced before then, a new poll has found.
The public-opinion survey for the non-partisan Angus Reid Institute found that 30 per cent of past Conservative voters want Mr. Poilievre to step down before the next election compared with 18 per cent surveyed in August.
The message that worked against Trudeau will work against Carney who has not lived up to anyone’s expectations.
Be patient while the MSM devotes itself to coverage of Poilievre’s real & imagined shortcomings while granting Carney a free ride.
And remember even the RCMP has predicted riots.
OTTAWA—Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is going all-in on his fight to oppose the Liberal government’s vision for a high-speed rail network in Central Canada — a project that boasts support from younger voters, local political leaders and even some in western provinces.
To Poilievre, the project is a boondoggle-in-waiting with a $60- to $90-billion price tag that could spiral out of control, imperil existing transportation routes and raze through rural communities.
When federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre appeared on the popular right-wing American podcaster Joe Rogan’s show last month, many in his party were ecstatic with the result.
Mr. Poilievre resisted his worst instincts, passing on invitations to dump on Prime Minister Mark Carney, fuel separatist sentiment in Alberta or indulge in the conspiracy theories being propagated by Mr. Rogan.
Poilievre is doing well despite fixed polls and remains popular among the young.
The media can’t protect Carney forever eventually enough people will connect Canada’s decline directly to the Liberal Party.
