Conservative Party

Pierre Poilievre must do more to win over women voters, including pressing ‘the anger button’ less often

Pierre Poilievre must do more to attract women voters to win a majority in the next election, including “hitting the anger button” less often, say observers, including a senior adviser to former Tory prime ministers.

The Conservative Leader is trailing Justin Trudeau when it comes to support from women, with a recent Nanos poll for The Globe and Mail showing that only 22 per cent think the Tories should hang onto Mr. Poilievre until the next election.

Political commentators say to win a clear majority, Mr. Poilievre must gain the backing of women, including “soccer mums” who may not warm to his “attack dog” rhetoric.

Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre needed to be firmer in denouncing rhetoric and flags criticizing the prime minister, according to an Alberta political scientist.

During an end-of-year news conference on Friday, Dec. 30, Poilievre said he didn’t like the expletive-laden flags some Canadians are using to insult Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“I don’t like the flags, and I don’t like rage,” Poilievre said. “But I think we have to ask ourselves: ‘Why are people so angry?’ And the answer is that they’re hurting.

Who started this crap? Oh yea Erin O’Toole.

OTTAWA — At the same time Ontario police officers escorted home the body of a slain fellow officer, Canada’s Conservative leader called on the government to end “catch-and-release bail” for violent repeat offenders.

Bureaucratic jargon sucks for everyone — so let’s banish it.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre haș pledged to mandate the use of “plain language” in government if he is elected prime minister. Perplexingly, some critics have found this deeply offensive, going so far as to call it authoritarianism and “mandating newspeak.” Yet progressive governments in other countries have already adopted plain language reforms and seen demonstrable benefits with no significant downsides.

OTTAWA — A young Pierre Poilievre sits in front of a room of Conservative faithful and explains their party’s strategy for winning a majority mandate.

That hasn’t happened yet. It’s 2009 and while the Tories have won two federal elections, they’ve remained in minority territory for three years.

“We will win a majority if we appeal to naturally conservative-inclined voters and get them out to vote, and we turn small-c conservative immigrants into big-C Conservative voters,” the MP says in a video posted to the website of the Cable Public Affairs Channel.

“That’s the formula.”

Define present day CPC “Conservatism.” Is it any different from the LPC platform?

The new strategy is just the same old identity politics.

Look at the mess that has left us in.

Justin Trudeau earned the right to a victory lap after the Liberals coasted to an easy by-election win in Mississauga-Lakeshore on Monday. But the Prime Minister’s triumphalist tone in the wake of a low-turnout vote in a Grit-friendly riding was a bit over the top.

Recently, I posted a video on Canada’s addiction crisis that provoked a strong reaction from all sides.

My message was that everything feels broken, and the government’s approach to addiction policy is top among them. Over the past decade, addiction has become a crisis in Canada. Whether it be the rapid increase in opioid-related deaths, the massive spike in meth use driving rural crime or the overuse of alcohol, which continues to utilize more health care resources than all other narcotics combined, Canadians are suffering.

Everything feels broken.

But we can fix it. pic.twitter.com/4WarLBsBUU

— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) November 20, 2022

MONTREAL — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre believes the voters whose support he needs to lead his party to government in the next federal election will not be reached via the mainstream media.

His strategy is about to be tested.

On Dec. 12, the voters of the GTA riding of Mississauga-Lakeshore will be going to the polls to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Liberal MP Sven Spengemann last spring.

Shorter MSM – Come here so I can hit ya!

Pierre Poilievre’s “Everything feels broken” video, which blames “safe supply” policies for homeless encampments in Vancouver, stirred up wide criticism from across the political spectrum, including from my National Post colleague, Chris Selley.

Apart from the policy prescription — favouring the Alberta treatment model over the British Columbia “harm reduction” model — the political play was to generate a contrast with “elite” opinion. It’s an argument with punch: the government provides free illegal drugs to those suffering from addiction while ordinary families face a shortage of children’s pain medication.

Since Republicans under-performed in the U.S. midterms, a go-to narrative to explain what went wrong is that the political right is just too focused on “owning the libs.” It’s a narrative that has picked up steam in Canada, too.

Just days ago, Toronto-based journalist Matt Gurney observed on Twitter that, “It seems that a significant portion of the right-wing electorate isn’t interested in policy.… They just like people being mean and tough and owning the libs/progressives/elites.”

Gurney a conservative? 

Everything feels broken.

But we can fix it. pic.twitter.com/4WarLBsBUU

— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) November 20, 2022

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is in the midst of a major overhaul of the party he’s now led for two months.

After members handed him a strong mandate to take the party in a new direction, Poilievre ousted senior staff loyal to former leader Erin O’Toole and rejigged the front bench, with new “shadow cabinet ministers” who are more in line with his populist bent.

He’s also redefined the party’s relationship with the Parliamentary Press Gallery — skipping interviews and “scrums” with reporters on Parliament Hill in favour of other outlets, including media outfits that serve specific ethnic communities.