OTTAWA—Glasses or no glasses?
Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has hit the road for his first full summer as party boss, having shaken off the shackles of the House of Commons after a sitting that insiders say saw him finally settling into the job.
But top of mind for Conservatives is how Poilievre is faring as he prepares for the job he wants — being prime minister.
Four federal byelections were held on June 19. Two seats had previously been held by the Liberals. The other two had been held by the Conservatives. Guess what happened on election day? Each party held its two respective seats.
No one can possibly be surprised by this.
MONTREAL—Pierre Poilievre’s leadership victory last September was the curtain raiser of a new political season on Parliament Hill.
Nine months into his tenure, there is no denying that the latest CPC leader is having a measurable impact on Canada’s federal dynamics.
But is it the kind of impact the Conservatives need to return to the government benches? The early evidence suggests otherwise.
I don’t think many beyond the Star give a damn that Mulroney and Ford don’t care for Poilievre. Neither are beloved or conservative.
OTTAWA – Conservative MPs have criticized the Liberal government’s child-care bill in hours of debates, calling the government’s entire approach inadequate, leaving out many families and imposing a top-down, Ottawa-know’s-best approach.
Since the federal byelections on Monday, the fiercest critic of the Conservatives’ performance hasn’t been a Liberal, but the national director of the Conservatives’ losing 2021 election campaign.
Fred DeLorey served in that capacity for former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole, who is now out of politics after that election saw the Conservatives make no progress from their disappointing 2019 campaign under Andrew Scheer.
In an attack on my recent video about how the country is off-track, Globe and Mail columnist Gary Mason attempted to excuse Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for the doubling of housing costs during his eight years in office. Housing costs, Mason claimed, have “been on the ascent for decades as a result of both worldwide trends and decisions by rich investors to prey upon desirable markets such as Vancouver and Toronto.”
OTTAWA — Former Conservative national campaign director Fred DeLorey said his phone was “blowing up” in the hours following the results in Monday’s byelections. He said he was hearing from members of the Conservative caucus, party staff and party presidents from around the country wondering “what the heck is going on?”
I wonder how much manpower, effort and money was devoted by the parties in each of the 4 races?
Nothing changed as all were safe ridings.
Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives clearly wanted a win in this week’s byelections in the worst way. In one riding, at least, they appear to have achieved their goal.
Conservatives held on to two seats in the four votes held on Monday night: one in Manitoba’s Portage-Lisgar and another in the southwestern Ontario riding of Oxford.
Sometime late Monday evening, Pierre Poilievre must have sighed with relief.
Unhappy Mennonites had threatened to undermine confidence in the federal Conservative Leader in not one but two ridings where by-elections were held that night.
In the end, the Conservatives easily held both seats, dealing a serious blow to People’s Party Leader Maxime Bernier.
Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives want to ‘destroy’ this rival — and what else you need to know about Monday’s federal byelections
OTTAWA—At the tail-end of a combative parliamentary session comes four chances to gauge the mood of the Canadian electorate: on Monday, voters in a quartet of federal ridings will cast ballots in byelections to fill vacant seats in the House of Commons.
What might the results tell us, after months in which concerns about Chinese government meddling and increasing costs dominated the political debate before the House is set to rise this month? Each riding has its own dynamic at play, from a battle with the far-right in the Conservative heartland to questions about Liberal enthusiasms in previously rock-solid red regions.
I wish Bernier well.
Conservatives have to moderate to win the next election, O’Toole says in exit interview
Former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole maintains the party will have to moderate if it wants to win a majority government in the next general election, and he “disagrees” with his caucus colleagues who say otherwise.
With just days to go before the Durham, Ont. MP resigns his seat in the House of Commons, O’Toole sat down with CTV’s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos, in an interview airing Sunday, to discuss why he’s leaving, his thoughts on the future of the party, conspiracy theories, and allegations of Chinese interference in Canada’s elections.
MONTREAL—When voters go to the polls in four federal byelections spread across Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec on Monday, the results will not alter the dynamics in the House of Commons. But they will provide a reality check on some of the assumptions that underpin the strategies of the main parties.
At the time of the last federal election, the anti-vax movement was running strong. That was problematic for the Conservative party — both during and after the campaign — as the issue pit the part of its base that vehemently opposed the COVID measures against a majority of provaccination Canadians.
To become prime minister, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre needs to convince voters in Canada’s big cities that his approach to priority issues is in the national interest, Erin O’Toole says.
Mr. O’Toole, the former Conservative leader who failed to lead his party to power in the last federal election, said in an interview Friday that Mr. Poilievre is “one of the smartest MPs in the House,” and his tone, which has been called aggressive, is appropriate for the times.
Just over two weeks before Torontonians head to the polls to elect a new mayor, Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre is urging city residents to vote for a candidate who will “build millions of homes” in order to bring down sky-high real estate and rental costs.
The Tory leader didn’t name any candidates, but noted that he would allocate federal funding to municipalities if he is elected prime minister in the future.
That would be a relief, Toronto has been stiffed by Ottawa regardless of who was in power.
In attacking David Johnston, Pierre Poilievre borrows a disgraceful tactic from Donald Trump
The best way to disrupt an investigation is to discredit the investigators.
Pierre Poilievre didn’t write that playbook. He borrowed it from Donald Trump.
No, this isn’t another hyperbolic comparison between American Trumpies and Canadian Tories. The similarities are eerie, but for one significant exception:
In the U.S., most American media called out Trump’s wilful distortions of how democracy works. In Canada, many in the media are repeating the canards from the Conservative leader about democracy, integrity and impartiality — largely uncritically — while dismissing David Johnston’s report on foreign interference in our elections.
