For the last two decades, we have watched American politics get dark and ugly. The ill wind that emanates from there has blown across our border. Susan Delacourt writes:
The fight between Justin Trudeau and Pierre Poilievre was never going to be pretty, but this week both politicians fired off some words that could define not just their own fates, but the state of future Canadian political debate.
Poilievre, the Conservative leader, has gone where few, if any, opposition leaders have gone before, accusing the prime minister and his government of collaborating with a hostile foreign power — China, in this case.
“They must be very worried about how the prime minister is working against the interests of his own country and his own people,” Poilievre said Tuesday. “They’ve been warning him for years about this, and what has he done? He’s covered it up, even encouraged it to continue. And so, they (CSIS) are so concerned about how the prime minister is acting against Canada’s interest and in favour of a foreign dictatorship’s interest that they are actually releasing this information publicly.”
Poilievre's accusations appear to be picking up traction:
A new poll from Abacus Data, shared with the Star in advance of its wider release on Friday, shows that some doubt is flickering out there — not huge, but there nonetheless.
About 13 per cent of respondents believe Chinese interference changed the outcome of the 2021 election; another 12 per cent were unsure. That’s one in four Canadians who are open to the idea that Poilievre and his Conservatives are feeding — that Trudeau and the Liberals owe their power to Beijing.
To be clear, no evidence has surfaced that any collusion happened or that interference had an impact on the outcome of either the 2019 or 2021 votes. But public trust is a fragile thing, and these Abacus results show how the mere unproven suggestion can damage the body politic.
The poll was conducted among 2,600 respondents last weekend — before Trudeau announced measures Monday to address the escalating questions, and before Poilievre was throwing darts directly at the prime minister’s loyalty. The results are considered accurate within two percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
With all the oxygen being pumped into the debate this week, there’s a real danger the next election campaign will be fought on the grounds of democratic legitimacy itself, with Conservatives and Liberals trading accusations about which is more un-Canadian. There was some flavour of that in the great free-trade debate of the 1988 campaign, with Brian Mulroney accused of selling out to the Americans.
If we let this genie out of the bottle, we will be in real trouble.
Image: Quotefancy
14 comments:
As much as I dislike pp and his reform contingent he is playing this exactly as he should. The fact the liberals have let him control the narrative is on them. As well the libs have little to nothing to fight back with. Their weak attempts the last couple days appears desperate. The liberals were fools to ignore this “influence “ in the first place and when the information started to become public they were fools to not get in front of it immediately. They weakly tried to brush it under the carpet and claim all was well. NO!!!
They should have have called the inquiry, rapporteur, investigation, committee’s and whatever else was necessary to get to the bottom of it and get it out in the open. The liberals have completely failed on this. They failed our country, they failed their supporters,(I’m not one), and they failed their party. They failed me because at least with the liberals in power I don’t have to live life with the nasty p.o.s. pp and his flying monkeys distorting our countries values and turning it into the land of the fast asleep or whatever they think is the opposite of woke.
Yup, I’m pretty po’d at the liberals and their handling of this entire situation, among others. They keep giving the opposition the stick with which to whack them with. I could see this coming a kilometre away, why couldn’t they?
They're beginning to look tired, Graham. When they start scoring on their own goal, you know they're in trouble.
Owen Gray said...
They're beginning to look tired,
The Liberals are a young government that never grew up.
Idealism alone will not carry the day.
TB
How soon we forget about the super-secret trade agreement Harper signed with China
UU
There isn't a single word in Graham's post that I disagree with.
Funny: when I read that poll I was surprised by how little traction reformatory anti- Chinese racism has.It's almost as if Canadians realize there's no there there.
Particularly if your opposition is as cynical as Mr. Poilievre, TB.
That's what politics is all about these days, UU -- making recent events go down the memory hole.
I'm sure he'll be heartened to hear that, Gordie.
Let's hope Canadians can't be taken in, rumley.
Gotta agree with Graham, the Libs should have gotten ahead of this story much sooner. That said, calling an inquiry can backfire, as Martin found out. The more Trudeau ducks and weaves and goes "look over there, a Nazi," the more likely PP is to get a repeat of Adscam.
PP is demonstrating how desperate he is by going this route. He fails to mention his lord and master's dealings with China, Harper. There was the no small matter of a "free trade deal" with China. Harper placed the country in a very percarious position with that agreement. Fortunately he was "unelected" and the agreement was not enacted.
Blaming China for the last Conservative defeat is a measure of desperation. The conservatives just didn't have enough to offer Canadians. If Canadians are dumb enough to fall for PP's b.s. then they will have to learn to live with another Conservative government. The last one we will recall past 9 pieces of legislation Harper was told violated the Constitution. All were over turned by the Supreme Court of Canada as unconstitutional.
China's meddling in Canadian poltics is not new. Its been going on for decades. When the B.C. Lieberals were in office, the mayors of B.C. held their usual get together, but one year the Chinese government held a little soiree for them. Like what did they think this was? Most mayors attended. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Countires constantly meddle in each other's politics. Just look at the Americans. Great Britian, all sorts of other European countries, Russia, etc. Then we have the professional lobbyists all over the world trying to convince various parties their corporation is right and the rest of the country is wrong. We see ads telling us how great oil companies are, etc.
It is up to voters to educate themselves before they vote and we need to understand every country is out to do what is best for themselves, not us.
PP may think he has found a horse to ride to the P.M.'s office but beware. He was part of Harper's government and they passed 9 bills which violated our Constitution. And lets not forget how Harper's government treated Veterans and their private medical information.
Poilievre has to be confronted, Cap. His goal is to turn this into a circus. Trudeau's task is to make sure that he doesn't become the ringmaster.
Everything depends, e.a.f, on how educated voters are.
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