The CPC is in a tough spot, they need to grow their voter base beyond current levels, and need strategies to glean votes from traditionally Liberal strongholds like major urban centers. A strong right-winger like Poilievre might have some success within the party where there are plenty of loyal conservatives to draw on, but out in the real world it's a different story. A positive stance on inequality and environmental issues is essential when it comes to enticing the swing vote, and these are both traditionally weak areas for conservatives in general, and Poilievre in particular.
After this week’s footsie game between Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh, why would anyone ever vote NDP again?
Remember the old idiom: A distinction without a difference? Well, that is precisely what the NDP now are to the Liberals.
After this week’s footsie game between Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh, why would anyone ever vote NDP again? Remember the old idiom: A distinction without a difference? Well, that is precisely what the NDP now are to the Liberals. On the environment, on energy policy, on the military, taxes...
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On the environment, on energy policy, on the military, taxes, health care, the Emergencies Act and social programs, rank-and-file New Democrats might like to delude themselves that their party’s platform is still somehow morally and intellectually superior to that of the Liberals. In truth, though, the variations aren’t a matter of degrees, but rather of microns.
It would be the same, though, for a Conservative party led by Jean Charest. For crying out loud the man was the Liberal premier of Quebec for nine years, just how “conservative” could he be?
Are you a Conservative voter who believes Trudeau’s imposition of the Emergencies Act to dismantle the truckers’ blockade in downtown Ottawa was a gross overreaction and an affront to all Canadians’ civil liberties?
Well then, good luck with Jean Charest. When he was Quebec premier, his government passed legislation to limit public gatherings of more than 50 people and to give police extraordinary powers to detain marchers in response to weeks of student protests over increased tuition fees.
And whether as a member of Brian Mulroney’s government or as head of his own Quebec government, Charest never met a public dollar he couldn’t spend or a tax he couldn’t raise.
With Singh and Charest as the two main alternatives to Trudeau, neither the New Dems nor the Tories would be different enough from the Liberals to offer voters a true choice.
And if you want to know where radical political movements come from, they are often the result of the convergence of all the main parties towards a single set of policies. When frustrated voters cannot find a mainstream alternative nearer to their own viewpoints, they can be persuaded to migrate to a more extreme position.
Like the Le Pen movement in France or extreme nationalist parties in other countries.
Several times I worried in print that there was too little to distinguish the Erin O’Toole Conservatives from the Trudeau Liberals. But compared to Charest, O’Toole was light years away from the Libs.
If you’re worried about Trump-like populism infecting Canadian politics, don’t just focus on the contagion of social media. Worry, too, when there are only slivers of distance among our three main parties.
If you want the Libs’ blend of avarice for power coupled with support for mushy, Big Government principles and spending, just suck it up and vote Liberal.
With the Liberal-NDP Non-Aggression Pact and the all-out attempt by central Canadian commentators to paint Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre as too extreme (and Charest as the only electable Tory), we are watching all major parties coalesce around the same vague, “woke” agenda.
The only reason I can see for this is that a plurality of voters want the Liberals’ values (whatever they conceive them to be). They just don’t want Justin Trudeau as prime minister with his divisive tactics, endless scandals, blithering rhetoric and inability to deliver effective government. So they are hoping to craft one or more of the other parties into the vision of the Liberals they truly want.
But let’s just do a little electoral math to show how counterproductive this let’s-all-mimic-the-Libs strategizing will be.
Let’s say 60 per cent of Canadian voters lean liberal-left, 40 per cent hew to the centre-right.
If the Tories go small-c conservative, they can have that 40 per cent to themselves. But it they keep angling lib-left, they’ll be fighting it out with the Liberals and NDP for a fraction of the 60.
Not likely a winning plan.