Big start to the year for Pierre Poilievre's conservatives.
• Also read: The Rebel News commentator had already been arrested at the request of the Conservatives
• Also read: Here's what to expect in Ottawa in 2024
In any case, in the polls they are far ahead of the Liberals at 40%.
But also an allusion to political conspiracy and the corners of the Internet.
Common sense
There is certainly the absurd case of Leslyn Lewis, a member of the Conservative shadow cabinet – potentially a minister – supporting a petition calling for Canada to withdraw from the UN.
If Lewis wanted to criticize the UN, that was his right.
But Lewis instead plays the classic score, echoing the usual tones of modern conspiracy, from Bill Gates to vaccines to the World Economic Forum. We know the song.
The fact that Poilievre, the future prime minister, accepts that an MP from his party is floundering in such a quagmire is already worrying.
But now the Conservative leader saw another good business opportunity when an agitator from the website Rebel News was arrested while attempting to interview Minister Freeland.
However, instead of leaving this “controversy” where it belongs, on the fringes of the internet, Pierre Poilievre has instead decided to support Rebel News.
To make it a political issue.
According to him, this arrest would reveal “the state of freedom of expression in Canada,” “after 8 years of Justin Trudeau.”
So the government's fault, that is Justin Trudeau's.
Trudeau is said to have “divided the media into two groups: those he bought with subsidies and those he censored and arrested.”
Is this the common sense that Pierre Poilievre claims to have?
Canadian chaos engineer
Does he really believe what he writes? Who knows?
What I do know is that his tactics allow him to collect emails and political donations from the conspiracy world.
What I also know is that Poilievre is taking another step by supporting Rebel News, from which his predecessors have historically distanced themselves.
And he not only supports these provocateurs, who are just copies of the American extreme right, but also makes them a journalistic reference.
What I also know is that this whole circus is stirring up chaos.
And he believes he can emerge victorious from this chaos.