by Harvey Oberfeld
April 2, 2025
“Axe the Tax” was great … perhaps the most memorable political slogans in modern Canadian political history.
Successful too! Effective enough to force the Conservatives’ arch rival Liberals to drop the tax … at least temporarily.
But Pierre Poilievre’s subsequent slew of slogans and catch phrases have not done so well … and are even turning voters off!
The Conservative leader recently repeatedly served up a vision of Canadians living “in beautiful homes on a safe street protected by brave troops under a proud flag”.
Ugh!
I don’t want troops on my street! Too many Canadians can barely afford apartment rents … let alone “a beautiful home” and relatively few fly “our proud flag’ from their roof.
Poilievre has to get real!
Canadians want substance.
He should emphasize MORE exactly HOW a Conservative government will bring down the cost of living, housing, rents, taxes, groceries, crime, drug use/abuse and also increase jobs, investment, find trade alternatives to the US., retaliate against US trade/tariff threats/actions and expedite and finance infrastructure and industrial projects to counter balance any impacts.
And, yes, Poilievre should remind voters about all those issues that led so many to yearn for and even demand an election long before the Mad Hatter down south unleashed his threats/tariffs/insults against Canada.
He has a lot he can work with in this campaign.
Voters should be reminded of the Liberal record: not just the carbon tax, but how they squeezed the middle class mercilessly as inflation rose and rose and rose; the inadequate funding that led to health care deterioration across the country; failures over and over again to amend Criminal Laws that favour offenders over victims and Sentencing rules that force Judges to release recidivist criminals before the ink on their Arrest documents are dry; and, internationally, the huge immigration flood that negatively impacted so many aspects of Canadian society; while turning Canada’s back on Israel at the UN (I believe in pursuit of votes from the 1.7 million Muslims now in Canada?) and, as a corollary, offering only weak responses to increasing anti-Semitism and violence/vandalism by militant Islamists; and … maybe the worst legacy: “According to the International Monetary Fund Canada experienced nearly zero real per capita GDP growth between 2014 and 2024 …Compare that to our peers: the United States: saw 21 per cent real per capita GDP growth; Italy, 13 per cent.” (Source for this reference: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/anthony-koch-the-liberals-engineered-canadas-lost-decade-they-cant-be-trusted-to-fix-it.)
That’s what Poilievre/Conservatives should be emphasizing/reminding Canadians: the Liberal record.
Not hollow slogans like “More boots; less suits”, “Bring it home” or “Canada First”.
Unless Poilievre wants to finish second.
