If this keeps up — and I expect it will — we’ll need to add a crossing guard in the House of Commons to make sure people get to the other side safely.
Also, Pierre Poilievre’s goose is cooked. I mean, it was back in April when he lost his seat to Bruce Fanjoy (buy the book!), but back then people didn’t believe it. They’re believing it now.
Even within his own party, his support is slipping.
New data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds a majority (58%) of recent Conservative voters want Poilievre to lead the CPC into the next election, but that majority has shrunk from the last time ARI asked this question in August (68%)
The problem is that Poilievre is too good at being polarizing. The people who love him, love him to death. There were a lot of people who didn’t love him but were willing to support him while he looked like a winner. Those people disappear real fast when perceived winners turn into obvious losers. The rest? They dislike him so much they wouldn’t spit on him if he were on fire.
Where’s Poilievre’s room to grow?
His main challenge, in a nutshell, is this: his strategy was to convince everyone that everything sucked and that only he could fix it. Canadian voters didn’t buy it last April, and sure as shit don’t buy it now.
Procedural stunts like the… whatever it was about the Alberta MOU in the House this week, don’t register outside the Ottawa bubble. Bitching that the prime minister is on a plane too often is childish and petulant at a time when pretty much everyone agrees we need to diversify our economy. It’s hard to make new alliances from home. You have to go meet people. What’s the prime minister to do. Bike to the freaking Netherlands?
My advice to Poilievre (no, seriously) is this: Read the room. Canadians want their politicians to cooperate and work together for everyone’s benefit. That doesn’t mean agreeing with the government on everything or even most things. But it does mean showing up with serious arguments to make, along with a willingness to work together when that makes sense, instead of being the childish jerk we know so well.
I don’t think he’d consider that even if it was the only option. So I guess he’s done. And he’s got nobody else to blame but himself.
