In politics, ideological opposites feed off each other
OAKVILLE, ONT.—One of the truisms of politics is that ideological opposites feed off each other. For this reason, I’m pretty sure NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, Canada’s No. 1 socialist, is actually rooting for Pierre Poilievre, Canada’s No. 1 right-wing populist, to win the Conservative Party leadership race. Sounds odd, but it makes sense. As former […]
I feel sorry for Conservative voters in this leadership race
KAMOURASKA, QUE.—There was a short-lived television show called A.P. Bio, which ran for a few seasons starting in 2018. I liked it, despite the fact the premise was a bit weak: Jack Griffin, a fired Harvard PhD, returns to his old hometown of Toledo, Ohio, to teach high school. One of the students, Marcus, is […]
‘The way we’re heading, we’re unelectable,’ says former Conservative Senator LeBreton
After losing three back-to-back winnable elections, the Conservatives are now undergoing their third leadership election in seven years and if they don’t get it right this time, the party could fracture, says Marjory LeBreton, former Conservative government leader in the Senate who retired in 2015. “I’m very fearful, we’ve got to get this right,” said […]
Politics This Morning: Canada Day celebrations to begin at sunrise at Newfoundland’s Signal Hill
Good Friday morning, The National Capital Region will see its first in-person Canada Day celebrations of the COVID era today, to mark Canada’s 155th birthday. There will be events at LeBreton Flats Park, Place des Festivals Zibi, and around Parliament Hill, with the main stage show happening outside the Canadian War Museum. Governor General MARY […]
Stockwell Day says Leslyn Lewis will expand party, can go ‘toe to toe’ with Trudeau unlike any other candidate
Of all of the candidates vying for the position of leader of the Conservative Party, Stockwell Day says only Leslyn Lewis can expand the party and go “toe to toe” with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unlike any other in the race. “When you think about all of the men standing side by side and then […]
Do the Conservatives want to keep pretending this is America, or be relevant again in this country?
HALIFAX—The Conservative Party of Canada has never really been a new party that came together in a merger. It has always been a dysfunctional hybrid in which the hard right of its Western roots conducted a hostile takeover of the Progressive Conservatives. Peter MacKay’s lingering legacy. Stephen Harper’s success was more the product of dreadful […]
Poilievre’s Canada Day celebrations could blow up in his face
OTTAWA—Pierre Poilievre’s Canada Day celebrations may blow up in his face. If he doesn’t connect with the truckers who are promising weeks of disruption, he runs the risk of being outed as a non-supporter. If he does stand with the truckers, he runs the counter-risk of facing the ire of citizens in the Ottawa region, […]
Win or lose, Poilievre may already represent ‘heart and soul’ of Conservative caucus
Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre officially secured the support of more than 50 per cent of the party’s caucus last week after Conservative MP Ziad Aboulataif announced his endorsement on June 22, but in a campaign as divisive as this one, endorsements give more insight into the future shape of the party than they do […]
Conservative membership verification process to make high-stakes leadership race even more divisive, say top political players
The already tense Conservative leadership race will become even more divisive in the coming days once the candidates receive the preliminary membership list and start to challenge the legitimacy of each other’s supporters’ membership. “The stakes are high, they [Conservatives] have a real chance of winning in the next election,” said Innovative Research president Greg […]
Playing the game of politics
OAKVILLE, ONT.—A successful political consultant once told me the thing he loved most about his job was “playing the game.” In other words, he enjoyed surmounting all the challenges associated with running a political campaign: plotting a winning communication strategy, finding trends to exploit, matching wits with a skilled opponent, etc. Of course, it also […]
