Pierre Poilievre made headlines around the world recently by getting kicked out of parliament for calling Justin Trudeau a Wacko. Honestly, a lot of people are quite happy seeing this happening because Trudeau is becoming immensely unpopular.
The Conservatives lost the last election in part because they weren’t presenting a differing vision of how to run the country. The PPC got more votes than the green party in the last election in part as a protest vote because Erin O’Toole got off to a good start by contrasting his worldview to the Liberal Party worldview, but as the election neared he started to pivot the Conservatives into liberal lite while Trudeau steered the liberal party into being the more leftist NDP. I said at the time that we had a choice between the red NDP, the blue NDP, the orange NDP, the Separatists, the PPC, and the green NDP.
Besides the PPC, the other option on the ballot was staying at home watching Netflix, and if people got the impression they were going to get the exact same stuff, Netflix would win the election.
Poilievre is hammering hard on the differences between how he wants to run the country and how Trudeau has because that’s what a lot of people need to see. They’re going to be mobilized to get out there if and only if they think heading to the polls next October actually stands a chance of changing something. They don’t want the Liberal party Lite, they want someone who they think is going to try to get the car back on the car because it hit the ditch a long time ago and we’ve been driving through some farmer’s field for several years now.
Now, do I worry that Poilievre will take this dickish nature into being Prime Minister and then start to take it out on Canadians similar to how Trudeau already does? Of course, that would be really bad. On the other hand, people across the country want to feel like someone is standing up for them, and this to me looks like that strategy at work. Trudeau is an abusive leader, so it’s appropriate to push back.
Some people think this method he's using is going to fail, but I think Poilievre's approach is going to work well with moderates because the left wing parties have become so extreme and so openly contemptuous of anyone not exactly like them. Justin Trudeau spoke of anyone who disagreed with him with all kinds of names. Racist, sexist, misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic, American, Russian, or bots. He called people who disagreed with him a “fringe minority”. He spoke of how upset he was at the unvaccinated “taking up space”. It's extremely divisive rhetoric pointed at regular citizens.
The key with Poilievre is he doesn't attack the population who aren't voting for him. He attacks Trudeau and his policies. He didn't call Canadians who voted for Trudeau Wacko, he called Trudeau the man Wacko. I think that's an important distinction compared to Trudeau, who did in fact attack the population, and also threatened him.
I guess on the other hand, it's easier to attack the ruling regime while they are ruling. Attempts to counter-attack need to be handled carefully (But are possible -- one of the reasons they keep trying to bring up wedge issues is to try to paint a big spooky ghost on the wall and say "ooh look at the spoooky ghost!")
As a study in contrasts, the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh barks like a little Pomeranian dog, and he’s shown the entire country he’s a lap dog living in Justin’s purse. He’ll bark, but then he’ll accept a treat from his master and do as he’s told. That’s why the NDP isn’t doing much better than it is despite the Liberals getting killed in the polls.
I do think Jagmeet could have become the next Prime Minister of Canada, but he would have needed to present an alternative to the abusive leadership of the Liberals under Trudeau very early on.
He could have won if he presented a fundamentally different leadership, an optimistic and open version of leftism that doesn't hate Canada or Canadians or the 'other side'. Of course he never even considered something like that (and most of them haven't even considered that for years). He just wants to grow government and crush his enemies.
Singh first became prominent for many in an interaction with a conservative, where he said "we're going to face this sort of hate with love" and shouted down the conservative who at the time sort of seemed loony yelling all sorts of stuff at him. A lot of people liked that at the time including me based on the message, but in the comments to the video someone pointed out that despite talking about love, he just shouted her down and drowned her out and so his actions spoke louder than words. I didn't necessarily agree with it at the time, but I've come to see I was mistaken.
Despite often saying the right words, he's done nothing but sit in Justin's purse and bark, and when that became clear, he was never going to become Prime Minister (probably before that in fact -- when it became clear he was just more division and hatred for the enemy he was never going to be Prime Minister). Why vote orange NDP when you already have red NDP? Even now as the red NDP is losing people, orange NDP is barely moving.
If the election were held today, the Conservatives would take home a majority government and that lead seems to be growing, but we're over a year from the next election and all kinds of things can happen in the meantime. All we can do is wait and see. Who knows? Maybe I'll even change my mind before then if something really big happens.
The Conservatives lost the last election in part because they weren’t presenting a differing vision of how to run the country. The PPC got more votes than the green party in the last election in part as a protest vote because Erin O’Toole got off to a good start by contrasting his worldview to the Liberal Party worldview, but as the election neared he started to pivot the Conservatives into liberal lite while Trudeau steered the liberal party into being the more leftist NDP. I said at the time that we had a choice between the red NDP, the blue NDP, the orange NDP, the Separatists, the PPC, and the green NDP.
Besides the PPC, the other option on the ballot was staying at home watching Netflix, and if people got the impression they were going to get the exact same stuff, Netflix would win the election.
Poilievre is hammering hard on the differences between how he wants to run the country and how Trudeau has because that’s what a lot of people need to see. They’re going to be mobilized to get out there if and only if they think heading to the polls next October actually stands a chance of changing something. They don’t want the Liberal party Lite, they want someone who they think is going to try to get the car back on the car because it hit the ditch a long time ago and we’ve been driving through some farmer’s field for several years now.
Now, do I worry that Poilievre will take this dickish nature into being Prime Minister and then start to take it out on Canadians similar to how Trudeau already does? Of course, that would be really bad. On the other hand, people across the country want to feel like someone is standing up for them, and this to me looks like that strategy at work. Trudeau is an abusive leader, so it’s appropriate to push back.
Some people think this method he's using is going to fail, but I think Poilievre's approach is going to work well with moderates because the left wing parties have become so extreme and so openly contemptuous of anyone not exactly like them. Justin Trudeau spoke of anyone who disagreed with him with all kinds of names. Racist, sexist, misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic, American, Russian, or bots. He called people who disagreed with him a “fringe minority”. He spoke of how upset he was at the unvaccinated “taking up space”. It's extremely divisive rhetoric pointed at regular citizens.
The key with Poilievre is he doesn't attack the population who aren't voting for him. He attacks Trudeau and his policies. He didn't call Canadians who voted for Trudeau Wacko, he called Trudeau the man Wacko. I think that's an important distinction compared to Trudeau, who did in fact attack the population, and also threatened him.
I guess on the other hand, it's easier to attack the ruling regime while they are ruling. Attempts to counter-attack need to be handled carefully (But are possible -- one of the reasons they keep trying to bring up wedge issues is to try to paint a big spooky ghost on the wall and say "ooh look at the spoooky ghost!")
As a study in contrasts, the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh barks like a little Pomeranian dog, and he’s shown the entire country he’s a lap dog living in Justin’s purse. He’ll bark, but then he’ll accept a treat from his master and do as he’s told. That’s why the NDP isn’t doing much better than it is despite the Liberals getting killed in the polls.
I do think Jagmeet could have become the next Prime Minister of Canada, but he would have needed to present an alternative to the abusive leadership of the Liberals under Trudeau very early on.
He could have won if he presented a fundamentally different leadership, an optimistic and open version of leftism that doesn't hate Canada or Canadians or the 'other side'. Of course he never even considered something like that (and most of them haven't even considered that for years). He just wants to grow government and crush his enemies.
Singh first became prominent for many in an interaction with a conservative, where he said "we're going to face this sort of hate with love" and shouted down the conservative who at the time sort of seemed loony yelling all sorts of stuff at him. A lot of people liked that at the time including me based on the message, but in the comments to the video someone pointed out that despite talking about love, he just shouted her down and drowned her out and so his actions spoke louder than words. I didn't necessarily agree with it at the time, but I've come to see I was mistaken.
Despite often saying the right words, he's done nothing but sit in Justin's purse and bark, and when that became clear, he was never going to become Prime Minister (probably before that in fact -- when it became clear he was just more division and hatred for the enemy he was never going to be Prime Minister). Why vote orange NDP when you already have red NDP? Even now as the red NDP is losing people, orange NDP is barely moving.
If the election were held today, the Conservatives would take home a majority government and that lead seems to be growing, but we're over a year from the next election and all kinds of things can happen in the meantime. All we can do is wait and see. Who knows? Maybe I'll even change my mind before then if something really big happens.
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