It’s a poisoned chalice. It could tear apart the conservative party of Canada. And it would benefit nobody. It would be Pierre Poilievre winning the leadership of the federal conservative party.
And this is not a partisan concern. Canada needs a healthy conservative party. It does not need one built on disrespect for law and order. It does not need one built on endorsing cryptocurrencies over the concerns of the Bank of Canada. It hardly needs the nastiness and lies that Poilievre so regularly brings to our parliament.
His supporters can call it hyperbole if they like but Poilievre has disgraced his party in parliament. The truth of the matter is that good government requires a strong and reasoned opposition. It doesn’t need the catcalls and insults across the floor. Yet that seems to be what Poilievre encourages and wants to lead.
And if he really has more than 300,000 temporary conservatives signed up to support his candidacy, do conservatives who have supported the party over the years really want these people deciding who should lead the party into the next election?
Was it just to show these temporary supporters that he is willing to pass a law against mandatory vaccination that he recently presented a bill to parliament to that effect? I seriously doubt that such a law would be approved by many of Canada’s conservatives. To deny the success of mass vaccinations—that have virtually eliminated some of the most serious children’s diseases in this country—would be ludicrous. If that private member’s bill comes up for a vote in this current parliament, it is unlikely many conservative MPs would support it.
While Poilievre might represent Carleton electoral district just down highway 417 from Ottawa, he was born, raised and educated in Calgary. He reflects the same environment-be-damned attitudes of most Alberta conservatives. He is a global warming denier. He preaches the usual hard-right conservatism of small (uncaring) government and small taxes. His rigid right-wing approach to economics is more Ebeneezer Scrooge than Milton Friedman.
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