Does Pierre Poilievre, our little boy blue and leader of Canada’s conservatives, now have some conservative concerns to help him do his job? He met with conservatives in Quebec City this past weekend and they were supposed to tell him of their concerns and policy wants. They even thought they were there to help make Canada great again. It was like a wedding. They had clichés borrowed and Little Boy Blue.
It took an hour to get to the close of the new leader’s speech, when little boy blue, once again, told us that he is going to “Make Canada the freest nation on earth.” Mind you, the conservatives who cheered his speech still voted against youth making their own gender selection and complained about who could use which toilets.
Not to worry though. Under the conservative party’s constitution, the party leader chooses to say what will be promised come an election. And he has already told us that he will axe the carbon tax. Maybe there are a few people in the conservative party who understand economics and will explain to Mr. Poilievre that the prime minister’s responsibilities do not include telling the Bank of Canada to print money. That might disappoint Mr. Poilievre. He complains that Mr. Trudeau has not only printed money but has doubled Canada’s national debt. He really needs to come down on one side or the other. And yes, the national debt, which is quite manageable for a country with the gross domestic product of Canada, did take a major hit during the pandemic. We are recovering quite rapidly. Blaming Mr. Trudeau for COVID is illogical.
But the basic problem with the speech was that sometimes you were not sure where the truth ended and the slurs and inuendo took over. The audience was not helpful with its mindless chants of “Bring it home” and “Canada is Broken.”
What was concerning though was the lack of attention to the war in Ukraine. Mr. Poilievre made it very clear that he was not interested in spending any money outside of our country. While Boy Blue normally ignores Quebec, being in Quebec City, and some better polls lately, encouraged him to give Quebec some recognition. I think a smart leader would have also talked more about climate change.
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