Pierre Poilievre thought he had marked out a path to victory. Max Fawcett writes:
From the moment he announced his bid for leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada last February, Pierre Poilievre’s path to power has been clear. He would run on a platform of uncompromising conservatism, sew up his party’s far-right flank, and prevent the sort of leakage of votes to the People’s Party that cost Erin O’Toole the 2021 election.
That was before Christine Anderson showed up at the behest of three members of his caucus:
Anderson, for those who don’t know her, is a member of Alternative für Deutschland, a populist German political party that opposes immigration, talks about the “Islamization” of Europe, and occasionally downplays or diminishes the country’s Nazi past. She made waves last year when she gave a speech trashing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during his visit to the European Parliament that went viral in Canadian right-wing circles.
That made her a minor celebrity and could explain why she was greeted so warmly by a trio of Conservative MPs (including former leadership candidate and shadow minister of infrastructure Leslyn Lewis). The three MPs who happily posed for a photo with her, Poilievre suggested, were “unaware” of her “vile” views.
Still, their actions forced Poilievre to denounce Anderson’s visit on Friday. “Frankly, it would be better if Anderson never visited Canada in the first place. She and her racist, hateful views are not welcome here,” he said in a written statement.
But Poilievre's reaction doesn't quite wash:
First, as to the notion that his caucus mates were blithely unaware of their guest’s views, there are only two possible options here: they’re lazy, or they’re lying. Neither is a particularly good look, especially when we’re talking about someone who’s hardly an unknown entity to Canadian conservatives.
Her “What What Would Christine Anderson Do” tour is sponsored by “Canadians for Truth,” the same organization that promotes events by anti-vaccine activists like Jamie Sale and Theo Fleury. Upon her arrival, she was embraced by the same people who starred in last year’s Freedom Convoy, from protest leader Tamara Lich to lawyers Keith Wilson and Eva Chipiuk. Anderson even met with, and struck a pose beside, members of the neo-Nazi group Diagolon.
Poilievre made common cause with the truckers. Now he's trying to put some distance between himself and them:
This version of himself was one he clearly wanted to leave in the past. And now, thanks to Anderson’s visit to Canada and the backlash generated by his MPs and their decision to meet with her, he’s being dragged back there. If he refuses to kick those three MPs out of his caucus, he’ll look like he’s soft on the sort of hate that Anderson is peddling — and help write the Liberal Party’s attack ads in the next election for them. But if he does give them the boot, he risks handing Maxime Bernier a ready-made parliamentary caucus, along with an argument for why the former PPC supporters who may have reluctantly decided to embrace Poilievre should return to the fold.
Poilievre calls himself a conservative. But he and his party are not conservatives. Anderson's visit does nothing to clarify who they are. But it suggests they're getting uglier by the day.
Image: The Toronto Star
16 comments:
How stupid is the Canadian electorate? Clearly, Poilievre is hoping and pryaing they are incredibly slow, Owen.
If Canadians can't see who and what Poilievre is, Lorne, we're in deep trouble.
Christine Anderson says she's talked to Poilievre a few times and thinks he's a decent guy. Poilievre claims neither he nor his MPs are aware of Anderson's views, even though one the guys in the photo above quoted her criticism of Trudeau in the Commons. Somebody's lying, and I suspect it's not the person who wears her fascism on her sleeve, so to speak.
Unfortunately, Cap, the evidence is overwhelming. Lying can be very profitable.
If we had better choices Poilievre would be shunned. However Trudeau has passed his best before date. People are tired of the smarmy superiority and the reckless spending. Neither the Liberals nor the NDP show any sign of doing better. I suspect that many people will hold their nose and vote Conservative.
That would be a mistake, Toby.
Public trough, sour demeanor and the ability to sell the most magazine subscriptions made him #1 with the Trudeau haters and gave him the blue ear tag.
There are many people I would want to spend zero time with or Canada should avoid completely. 'lil pp is two of them.
Let's hope the majority of Canadians disagree with you, lungta.
I'm with lungta on this one, Owen. Any product of Mr. Harper's politics is no where near what I want for my family. My parents were coming of age during what they referred to as "the dirty 30's" and in their words, Tory times are hard times and nothing has changed.
Does anyone actually believe that the Cons would ever have introduced or implemented such benefits as the Canada Health Act or the Canada Pension Plan? And I'm not suggesting that the Liberals would have either, had Tommy Douglas and the old CCF party hadn't been nipping at their heels. However, I still give them credit for seeing wisdom of listening to how the wind was blowing and realized that these were vote getting initiatives. Would the Cons? NEVER!
I agree, Lulymay. The Conservatives are deeply frustrated because they can't get what they want. But that's because the overwhelming majority of Canadians don't want what the Conservatives want.
Owen, it doesn't matter that the majority of Canadians don't want what far-right Cons want. All that matters is that they vote Con, and in the last two elections the Cons have garnered the majority of votes.
This is an illustration of minority rule and renormalization. A sufficiently intransigent small minority spread throughout the country can cause the majority to change. Think what happens when one family member announces defiantly that she won't eat GMO food. The rest of the family will eat non-GMO food, so it's easier to look for GMO-free options when buying the groceries. So, the family no longer eats GMO food. And, when that family goes to a larger gathering, it's simpler to arrange GMO-free food for everyone than to create and label two separate categories of food. So the demand for GMO-free products rises and Big Ag, which had counted on overwhelming a small contingent of hard-line resistors, now advertises GMO-free products. The family and wider society have been renormalized.
The Cons face a similar dynamic. The hardliners would sooner vote for Bernier than give up on fascism, while the rest of the party doesn't much care as long as they get their tax cuts. So the party now caters to hardliners. And when you've got a room full of people cheering a fascist speaker, you've got a room full of fascists. Same goes for the party, although the media choose to pretend otherwise.
Lorne - There is a saying about not assuming malice when stupidity suffices. Unfortunately, the reverse is also true. The Conservative press wants to soften and legitimize Poilievre’s image, but the people I know who vote Conservative want this, and only don’t vote for People’s Party because they don’t have a chance to win. At some point we are going to have to deal with the fact that a significant portion of our fellow Canadians are just not nice people.
And, when they fail to win the votes they need, they claim the election was rigged, Cap.
Political parties get ugly, BJ, when voters get ugly.
We have some very bad people in that group, but we also have some very fine people who say that Pierre can have his cake and eat it too.
And they want to share that cake, John.
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