Why Poilievre doesn’t deserve the 17 per cent lead in the polls

HALIFAX—“All things are subject to decay and when fate summons, monarchs must obey.”—John Dryden, 17th century Augustan poet. Is it time for Justin Trudeau to start reading John Dryden? With the PM's popularity fading like a flower left unwatered on a post-holiday table, has the moment arrived for him to accept his fate? Is it true that he is no longer wanted on the political journey, and ought to resign? The polls certainly suggest he has worn out his welcome with a lot of Canadians. The pool of those who like him a lot is shrinking, while the ranks of his fanatical detractors continue to swell. His own caucus is getting restless. A floor-crossing or two could open the floodgates of public squabbling over whether the party needs a new leader. Remember the debacle of the Greens over leadership issues and what that can do? Though the next election could happen as late as 2025, 10 Liberal MPs have already decided not to re-offer. That number could grow, especially if Liberals conclude they are about to be rocked. Not the best thing for team spirit going into a national election. Thanks to the adoption of MAGA-Republican methods by the Conservative Party of Canada, the view of Trudeau has been pushed from mere disapproval—which is fair enough—to something very close to revulsion. This is just plain, butt-ugly, Trump politics. Their attacks have been deeply personal: pillorying the PM on everything down to where he spends his vacations. But there are deeper problems for Trudeau than being vulnerable to personal attacks often because of his own patrician blundering. Those other problems are laid out in a recent Angus Reid Institute poll. It may be, that like his provincial counterparts, the PM has been caught in the “blast radius” of the COVID pandemic. It not only killed 54,000 Canadians, but deeply interrupted and interfered in the lives of millions of others. One of the pandemic's victims appears to be incumbent politicians who held office during that period. No one seems to remember the lives saved—35,000 in Canada—just the lives damaged. According to Angus Reid’s numbers on provincial governments, there is strong and universal disapproval of how political leaders handled the health-care response. Regardless of political party, not one provincial government escapes the public’s rancour. The Angus Reid poll found that “there are zero provinces in this study that have seen their approval ratings for the year on any of four key measures—health care, housing affordability, education, or drug and addiction policy—improve from 2020 to 2023.” That is putting it diplomatically. The average percentage saying that provincial governments have done a “good” or “very good” job in handling health has plummeted: in 2020, 49 per cent approved of how their provincial governments were handling health care. By 2023, that number had plunged to just 24 per cent. In Ontario, only 19 per cent approve of government health-care policy, and in New Brunswick, just 11 per cent. There is not much any politician can do with an electorate pissed off in an oceanic sense. Everybody is mad about everything. But even electoral rage has its responsibilities. If the decision is Trudeau must go, equal attention has to be paid to whether or not Pierre Poilievre is the answer. And that means determining if he deserves his 17 per cent lead in the polls, and the prospect of a majority government that represents. He does not, and here is why. First of all, Poilievre is a guy who has lived off the fat of the system all his life. He lives in a publicly paid-for mansion, costs taxpayers over $4,000 a month in expenses, and recently charged the public more than $7,000 to have the windows cleaned at Stornoway. He is every bit as elite as Trudeau. And oh yes, he is a millionaire. You know, just another “common Canadian.” Is he more honest than Trudeau? Perhaps, but you would never know it from his opposition to the revised free-trade deal with Ukraine that he torpedoed. As The Globe’s Bob Fife put it on national television, Poilievre’s simply “lied” to Canadians when he claimed that the deal would impose a carbon tax on Ukrainians. Does he have a better grasp on foreign affairs than the current PM, who has called for a ceasefire in the humanitarian bloodbath in the Gaza War? Poilievre’s comments suggest otherwise. About all he has been able to cough up is the dismal claim that Hamas likes to exaggerate the numbers of innocent Palestinians killed. So, Poilievre: 24,000 dead Palestinians and another 60,000 wounded? What are your numbers and where did they come from? Why are several countries supporting South Africa’s charges of genocide against Israel in this war at the International Criminal Court in The Hague? Was Poilievre being honest when he rushed to label the Nov. 22 Rainbow Bridge incident a terrorist attack for a cheap and temporary political leg up? Or when he urged Indigenous Peoples to get a better work ethic? (He did apologize for stepping on that one.) Or when he denied ever speaking to far-right German politician Christine Anderson of Germany’s AfD party after she had a leisurely lunch with three of his MPs? And what about Poilievre’s reaction to the risibly named Freedom Convoy? That group of selfish shills, financed from abroad, shut down the national capital city for three weeks in 2022, and made the lives of Ottawa's residents unliveable. He delivered donuts, not calls to leave. His real attitude to a free press? Defend the crazed Rebel Media, and defund the CBC. And the biggest question of all. With no stated policy on the life-and-death issue of our time—global warming—can Poilievre be trusted to reduce fossil fuel emissions before it is too late? His political mentor, Stephen Harper, once said it would be madness in economic terms to regulate the energy industry. There is no reason to expect that Poilievre will be any more planet-friendly than the man who put him power. So I started with a quote from John Dryden. With respect to ditching Trudeau for Poilievre, let me end with another one: “The tamp’ring world is subject to this curse, to physic their disease into a worse.” Michael Harris is an award-winning author and journalist. The Hill Times

Why Poilievre doesn’t deserve the 17 per cent lead in the polls

Thanks to the adoption of MAGA-Republican methods by the Conservative Party, the view of Trudeau has been pushed from mere disapproval to something close to revulsion. This is just plain, butt-ugly, Trump politics.

Canada’s aging crisis and a call for reform in eldercare

South Korea to the rescue in Ukraine?

Appeasing Donald Trump with defence dollars

A reluctance for post-pandemic learning

It’s not promises that build the economy—it’s construction

Progress towards partnership: Canada taking strides on African engagement

All signs point to a stampede towards Pierre Poilievre

Call it the revenge of Tricky Dick

Poilievre has the most room to move, but he also has to make sure ‘he doesn’t make a mistake,’ say pollsters

Federal politics has entered a ‘none-of-the-above’ phase

Casting the Conservatives in a MAGA light over Ukraine can backfire on Trudeau and Canada

News

Get free news updates

Opinion

Submit a guest opinion article

resources

Advertise

subscribe

get help

Get free news updates

Submit a guest opinion article

Why Poilievre doesn’t deserve the 17 per cent lead in the polls

Thanks to the adoption of MAGA-Republican methods by the Conservative Party, the view of Trudeau has been pushed from mere disapproval to something close to revulsion. This is just plain, butt-ugly, Trump politics.

Get The Weekend Point of View Newsletter