by Harvey Oberfeld
July 24, 2023
Would the REAL Pierre Poilievre please stand up!
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is a nerd; he has always come across in his speeches and pronouncements as a nerd; and, he won the Tory leadership coming across as a ner
It doesn’t seem to have been an obstacle.
An Ipsos national poll released earlier this month showed “if a federal election were held tomorrow, the Conservatives would receive 37% (up 4 points since February) of the decided vote, which gives them a slender lead over the Liberals at 32% (down 1 point).”
A NANOS poll July 14 showed the Conservatives at 35.3%, the Liberals with 29.3%; and, a Mainstreet Research survey July 8 gave the Tories 37% support, the Liberals 30%.
“In fact, in the last month, there have been six polls by different polling firms showing a five-point lead or more for the Conservatives,” according to the Toronto Sun.
And a new poll released by CTV just Saturday revealed “more Canadians consider Justin Trudeau the worst prime minister of the last 55 years than any other PM, while his father ranks as the most popular.”
“The survey, conducted by Research Co., found that 30 per cent said the current prime minister is the worst among recent PMs, while his predecessor Stephen Harper comes in second at 18 per cent,” CTV reported. You can read their full story here: https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/3-in-10-say-justin-trudeau-is-the-worst-recent-pm-1-in-5-call-pierre-trudeau-the-best-survey-1.6489981.
You would think Poilievre’s best strategy would be to let Trudeau continue to do himself in … and cultivate his own image as a safe, steady … and, yes, nerdy alternative.
And yet, Poilievre, who for 20 years has favored a conservative business image, deliberately last week started sporting a “new” look: gone were the eyeglasses; gone was his dark blue suit, white business shirt and tie; and increasingly “in” now are casual T-shirts, jeans and a sport jacket … apparently, all aimed at achieving a kinder, softer, warmer look.
I believe it looks phony! And Canadians don’t vote for politicians they feel are phony
The Conservative Leader attributed the change to his wife’s preferences, but I … and many other commentators … believe it has more to do with Poilievre’s charisma … or the lack of it, demonstrated in Poilievre’s failure to personally catch on with Canadians.
Several analysts tied Poilievre’s stuffy “image” to the Tories’ failure to increase their popularity in the four by-elections held last month in Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.
Some see the new look an attempt to increase Poilievre’s personal popularity.
I disagree: Poilievre’s bigger problems are not so much his nerdy look, but more WHAT he hS said and done!
Poilievre’s did little to enhance his image with most Canadians when he supported the Freedom Truckers’ anti-Covid vaccination border Ottawa-paralysing and border disruptions; he also pitched the use of Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation in Canada; he said he would fire the CEO of the Bank of Canada; he has opposed providing safe injection sites for drug users; he referred to a $539,000 three-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1.5-story home on a half-acre near Niagara Falls as “a tiny little shack”; and, Poilievre more often that not seems to set himself up as flag-bearer for more extreme right wing populism than was embraced by either of his two Tory leader predecessors.
“The sticking point is Pierre Poilievre’s slavish adherence to the kind of Trumpian nastiness that is rotting the heart of the Republican party in the Indicted States of America. Poilievre specializes in put-downs, not lift-ups. It is usually the latter that inspire Canadians,” Michael Harris, author of Party of One, a critique of the Harper government, wrote in The Tyee June 29. (Makes a good read : https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2023/06/29/Canadians-Want-Change-Poilievre/).
Too out of touch with moderate Canadians?
Not even T-shirts and jeans will cause most Canadians to warm up to that image … if Poilievre keeps delivering sarcasm, sourness and screwy sentiments!
But as I blogged about last month, 81% of Canadian voters want change. (http://harveyoberfeld.ca/blog/writing-on-the-wall-81-of-federal-voters-now-want-change/.
Poilievre and Conservative strategists would be wise to realize more voters would be won over by content INSIDE their playbook rather than a new, casual image of Poilievre on a glossy cover.
Harv Oberfeld
The CPC is doing what they tried to do for Harper. Remember the sweaters? I am beginning to think the CPC has been totally corrupted because the party is just the other side of the Liberal coin. The CPC supports Trudeau in mass immigration and were in lockstep with Trudeau on abusing Canadian’s rights under the guise of a fake pandemic. Poilievre is just as fake a conservative as O’Toole. Canada is dead under Trudeau and we’ve sunken into a dictatorship with only a thin veneer of democracy. The only answer is the PPC but your fellow corrupt crooks in the media won’t cover him and let Canadians decide. Apparently Trudeau has extended funding for vaccine passports until 2026. Why? Because he’s an authoritarian globalist stooge who worships Klaus Schwab as the father he never had.
A Citizen,
Well said!
Is the new PP the original PP or a double like “they” have used for Trudeau and Biden?
Harvey are you aware that there was no excess mortality in 2020 in British Columbia? The BC Centre for Disease Control web site has a wealth of information although the government is starting to play games with the data. Bonnie Henry knew the virus was a threat to less than 1% of the population when she locked us down in March of 2020. I fell for the “two weeks to flatten the curve” because I didn’t think the government and media would lie to the extent that they did. I also didn’t apply any critical thinking to what I was being told. A highly contagious, dangerous virus appears in China in November of 2019. How long do you think before it would wind up in Vancouver? Half a dozen flights arrive from China daily. If the virus was as advertised there would have been a noticeable increase in deaths and hospitalizations in the four months leading up to the lockdown. There wasn’t.