Conservative Party

OTTAWA — An apology to the Tamil community, improving cricket infrastructure, and putting a visa office in Kathmandu are just some of the promises Patrick Brown has made in hopes of becoming the next leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.

But a search for these pledges on the campaign website, and social media accounts of the Brampton, Ont., mayor come up empty.

They appear only to exist in pitches he delivered to leaders and members of the country’s Tamil and Nepalese community, whom he’s courting, among other immigrant and racialized Canadians, to buy party memberships as the clock ticks down to the June 3 deadline.

Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre has often been criticized for his populist politics. His opponents and critics have been eager to paint him as a xenophobe, or as a Donald Trump-style populist, but when one looks at Poilievre’s campaign messaging, it’s evident that these attacks are baseless. Poilievre’s own brand of populism has been laser-focussed on a racially-inclusive message of economic justice.

There’s been a lot of panic over the “P” word lately. Yes, Pierre Poilievre, but more specifically, populism. The term is being weaponized to villainize candidates who oppose the elite status quo, often implying they have devious ulterior motives, anti-democratic leanings and racist views.

The truly dangerous populists are on the left

As the Conservative leadership campaign kicks into high gear, Pierre Poilievre has solidified his position as the front-runner, and unless there’s some unexpected shift, he’s likely to win the race. This should be no surprise for those who’ve followed his rise in the Conservative party. Unlike ousted leader Erin O’Toole, who tried desperately to be Trudeau lite and only succeeded in alienating his own base without winning over anyone else, Poilievre is an unabashed conservative who is not afraid of taking conservative positions on a range of issues ranging from the economy to gun control and everything in between.

Seems as if it was just a month ago that federal Conservative leadership contender Jean Charest was telling Conservative MPs at an Ottawa gathering that he was not a red Tory. True blue.

Charest also pledged not to “run against so-cons” – the party supporters, mostly religious, who are generally opposed to abortion, same-sex marriage and transgender rights.

It seems like only a month ago, because it was only a month ago.

Pierre Poilievre is upending every conventional assumption about Canadian politics.

There is growing evidence that the Carleton MP has successfully tapped into the anger and frustration of younger suburban voters who believe they have been denied the right to home ownership and job security by “gatekeepers,” as Mr. Poilievre calls them, who have been acting in their own, selfish, interests.

We have been seeing it in the packed rooms where hundreds, even thousands, have gathered to hear and be photographed with the Conservative leadership candidate. And now we have data to back it up.

I still won’t back him if he remains committed to mass immigration – a policy that even the LPC now admits has helped “create” the housing shortage.

Go Incognito.

It is not the Wedding Feast at Cana but to some it’s close to an equal transformation. It belongs in the category of things, like turning water to wine, that are not supposed to happen, things which defy the common order of nature.

Charest condemns leadership rival Poilievre’s convoy, crypto, climate policies

Doubling down on his condemnation of his Conservative leadership rival, Jean Charest says that Pierre Poilievre should be disqualified from becoming leader of the federal Conservative party over his support of the “Freedom Convoy.”

“Everyone knows that Pierre Poilievre supported the blockade,” Charest said in an interview on CTV’s Question Period. “If you say to Canadians: ‘I want to be the leader of the Conservative Party and I want to be the chief legislator of the country, but I don’t have to obey the laws,’ I’m sorry. That’s not just a failure in leadership. It disqualifies you, as far as I’m concerned, as being someone who thinks or aspires to be a leader of a party.”

With 10 days left for candidates to enter the Conservative party leadership race — and 20 before $300,000 worth in fees are due — what’s capturing the attention of those watching as of late are the crowds.

More specifically, who’s drawing them in and who isn’t.

Pierre Poilievre would fall into the first category, as the longtime Ottawa-area MP has been consistently appearing before massive groups of people at rallies across the country.

You would think that by now the brain trust behind the major Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) leadership candidates would have learned that if you betray your base on climate change, you won’t survive long as party leader.

Conservative leadership hopeful Jean Charest is turning up the heat against perceived frontrunner Pierre Poilievre, taking him to task for his support of the trucker protests that took over downtown Ottawa and led to blockades at border crossings.

“I have a competitor by the name of Mr. Poilievre who supported, as you know, the blockade,” Charest told CTV Morning Live on Friday. “And if you want to be a leader in this country and a legislator, you can’t make laws and break laws.

“Laws are not a buffet table, if you’re a legislator, from which you choose what you want. Because what you’re really saying to people is I’m above the law,” Charest added in a separate interview with CTV News.

Poilievre seems to have gained the momentum.

OTTAWA—As Pierre Poilievre and his team watch thousands of people jam into his Conservative leadership campaign events, they say they are seeing a new political movement take shape.

Gesturing to all the young people at an event in North York last week, Conservative MP Adam Chambers called it proof Poilievre is reaching a different demographic.

“This is a new thing for the Conservative party,” he said.

But Poilevre’s campaign also knows that a movement alone isn’t going to win him the leadership.

What appears to be drawing them are his calls for freedom: from vaccine mandates, from regulations that make it hard to build affordable homes, from taxes that make it expensive to drive a car, and as a whole from a government he says has too much control over their lives.

HMA