The secret is out. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has been telling his fellow conservatives his secret strategy to win the country. The fact that it is the same strategy as promoted, by then federal conservative, Jason Kenney, a dozen years ago, is beside the point. It involves, first of all, getting out the naturally conservative voters. The next part is convincing new Canadian voters that their future is assured by voting for the conservative party. It is the same strategy that won Stephen Harper a majority in 2011.
One thing I will admit is that the conservatives are much better at getting out their naturally self-centred vote today than they were back in the 1960s. That was when liberal communications specialists such as myself were making sure that we had good connections in the immigrant communities and we understood their concerns. I figure the liberals were running about 50 years ahead of the conservatives back then.
The problem that was building for the liberals, at the time, was that the CCF/NDP had been eroding the progressive vote, The conservatives were coming out in control of the rural vote but losing in the cities which were absorbing the high volumes of new immigrants.
What was wrong with the liberal strategy in the back half of the 20th Century was that right-wing liberals such as John Turner and Paul Martin Junior damaged the liberal’s progressive image and voters saw little difference between the conservative and liberal parties.
What is really wrong with the Poilievre strategy is that he is still locked in his Albertan image. Despite running in an Ottawa area constituency, Pierre Poilievre is an Albertan at heart. He has absolutely no concern for the environment that he cares to discuss and he sees prime minister Justin Trudeau as the evil enemy.
Poilievre sees the liberal handouts throughout the pandemic as a deliberate plot to bankrupt the country rather than an honest effort to soften the blows of COVID-19.
And how he will overcome his open support of the ‘Freedom Convoy’ to Ottawa in the winter of 2022 has yet to be discussed with Canadian voters? And he is going to be continued to be mocked for his support of cryptocurrencies.
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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry
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