Poilievre is covered in loser dust
Stephen Harper coming out to say he was consulted by Carney on the trade talks is one hell of a nail in the nominal leader’s political coffin.
Cruel? Nah. I don’t think so. More like brutally honest. Pierre Poilievre says — insists! — he’s the leader of the common sense people. Common sense people don’t speak in euphemisms. They speak the cold, hard truth. Even when it hurts.
Sucks when it’s about you, though, eh? How the mighty have crumbled. Or is that just his apple?
I saddled up last night to watch the livestream from the Jeanne and Peter Lougheed Performing Arts Centre in Camrose, in the riding of Battle River-Crowfoot, ahead of the August 18 by-election. It featured a long table of candidates among whom, weirdly, was the man everyone thought would be prime minister six months ago, fighting for attention and subject to being ruthlessly cut off if he went over time.
Yikes, discipline.
How desperate do you think he feels if he agreed to take part in a local debate? He got up to deliver his opening remarks and then others randomly stood when speaking and that was kind of odd. So was the 20-minute break an hour into the proceedings. Although it was a great excuse for me to go to sleep. (CPAC has the recording if you want to see it.)
The overwhelming feeling is that everyone is wondering why the hell we’re here now. What is the purpose of this exercise? To pick a representative? They just did. In fact I think the person who got the loudest applause — by far — was Damien Kurek when Poilievre thanked him for giving up the seat he’d just won with almost 83% of the votes so Poilievre, who’d lost his seat in Carleton, could easily win another one and get back to Ottawa.
I don’t know Battle River-Crowfoot the way I know Carleton. I’ve only been to that part of Alberta twice, to film two different documentaries. I drove from Edmonton to Drumheller in what was the longest sunset I’d ever experienced. But one thing that’s true everywhere is that nobody likes to be taken for granted. Or used.
This by-election is 100% unnecessary except for one person who has convinced himself the universe owes him a well-paid job with a subsidized house and a car and driver.
I don’t know what the parties’ internal polling looks like, but I’m guessing it’s not good for the blues. That’s probably why Stephen Harper felt it was time to come out of his shell and piss all over what’s left of his successor’s career by talking about how the prime minister had reached out to ask for his advice on trade negotiations.
Carney’s office didn’t leak this. And the timing is not innocent. Harper was contacted two weeks ago for his trade negotiations advice and it just came out? This is a clear “get the hint, pal, we’re done with you.”
FWIW, an upset in Battle River-Crowfoot is less likely than in Carleton but as someone who was with Bruce Fanjoy from day one, I can tell you it sure as hell wasn’t likely in Carleton either, not until Fanjoy started working really hard at it. (Buy the book to read the backstory.)
Bonnie Critchley is not having as much runway as Fanjoy did. But she’s working like someone who means it. And!
AND!
Pierre Poilievre’s success in 2023 and 2024 was in large part due to the Trudeau government’s inaction on housing and the affordability crisis, and Poilievre’s incessant harping on same. He showed how popular it was to talk about these things, but he also showed how unpopular he was personally. So if you’re a smart Conservative with leadership ambitions, you think to yourself, self, you think, I know what I’m going to do. I’ll take the popular message and deliver it in a manner that is efficient but minus the Maple MAGA flavour that cost Poilievre everything.
It’s not like Poilievre is the only one in the blue camp that can speak a full sentence. Right now, nobody wants to be the idiot who stabs the leader too early. But you better believe knives are being sharpened and will come out at the first opportunity. I’m thinking August 19.