(Ottawa) Pierre Poilievre was triumphantly elected leader of the Conservative Party more than six months ago. His party has held a slight lead over Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in the polls in recent months.
Posted 1:54pm Updated 8:00am
A thirst for change is palpable in some parts of the country.
This rather favorable political context should allow the Conservative leader, who leads the official opposition in the Lower House, to receive several invitations from the provincial premierships. However, the Doug Fords, François Legault, Tim Houston and company are far from bothering to secure a formal meeting with who is believed to be the future prime minister.
Result: Pierre Poilievre has few allies in the provincial scene who could give him a boost in the next election campaign, which will take place at the latest in autumn 2025, if the agreement between the New Democratic Party (NDP) and the Trudeau government lasts until then . And that includes conservative provincial leaders.
“Pierre Poilievre does not seek allies. He’s looking for voters,” Fred DeLorey, a former close associate of Stephen Harper and former Conservative national campaign leader under Erin O’Toole, told La Presse in the last federal election.
“He only has one thing in mind. He knows his base. He wants to shake up the conservative base. And many prime ministers, including conservative ones, see things differently. François Legault can be described as a pragmatic conservative. Doug Ford is of the same breed as Tim Houston. They are all pragmatic conservatives. They are very different curators from Pierre Poilievre,” he adds.
Last month, the Toronto Star reported that relations between Pierre Poilievre’s conservatives and Doug Ford’s in Ontario are far from good. Especially since Pierre Poilievre has sharply denounced on social media the investment of 13 billion over 10 years by the Trudeau government to persuade Volkswagen to install its mega-factory manufacturing batteries for electric vehicles in St. Thomas. The Ford government has also put 500 million on the table to make the project a reality.
“Pierre has never been in business. He has no experience negotiating such an agreement and he doesn’t understand how it works,” said an Ontario conservative confiding in the Toronto daily.
Ford, Trudeau and Legault
For the past three years, Doug Ford and Justin Trudeau’s relationship has been cordial, akin to a bromance. At a joint press conference in St. Thomas, Mr. Trudeau called his provincial counterpart by his first name, and Doug Ford returned the favor. The two men hailed the fruitful relations between the two capitals.
PHOTO TARA WALTON, THE CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVE
Ontario Premier Doug Ford (center) and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (right) at an announcement in St. Thomas for a new Volkswagen battery mega-plant, April 21
They also have an interest in getting along well with each other. Because voters who support the Liberal Party in Ottawa also targeted the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario in the last two provincial elections. In Toronto, we do not see fit to organize a formal meeting between Doug Ford and Pierre Poilievre.
In Quebec, François Legault has still not had a one-on-one meeting with the Conservative leader. However, the premier of Quebec had a quick meeting with former leader Erin O’Toole about a month after winning the leadership race in August 2020.
“It was agreed between Mr Poilievre’s team and ours a few months ago that there would be a meeting. But we haven’t confirmed an official date yet,” Mr Legault’s press secretary, Ewan Sauves, said in an email to La Presse.
After a few months of tension, marked by an appeal by François Legault, who asked Quebecers to vote for the Conservative Party, which he believes is less centralist than the Liberal Party and the NDP, in the last federal elections we have a rapprochement between Quebec and Ottawa experienced for six months.
Disputes such as the closure of Roxham Road, the incorporation of the Davie shipyard into the National Shipbuilding Strategy, and amendments to Bill C-13 modernizing Quebec’s official language law were settled, bringing back the good deal between François Legault and Justin Trudeau.
National Day Care Program
Alberta will hold provincial elections on May 29th. The battle between Danielle Smith’s Conservatives and Rachel Notley’s New Democrats promises to be close. An NDP victory in Alberta, a province considered a Conservative Party stronghold in the country, could give the Trudeau administration a new ally in the fight against climate change.
Interestingly, Danielle Smith is currently campaigning to defend the national childcare program set up by the Trudeau government. This program aims to provide childcare services at an average cost of $10 a day through 2025, thanks to a whopping $30 billion investment over five years. In Alberta, this program would result in annual savings of $8,610 per child for families.
If he takes power, Pierre Poilievre has indicated that he intends to end this program, although in the provinces currently mainly run by Conservative governments, with the exception of British Columbia (NDP) and Newfoundland and Labrador (Liberal) .
On the subject, Minister for Family, Children and Social Development Karina Gould predicts that Pierre Poilievre will hit a wall if he keeps his promise to abolish this scheme.
“I love seeing Conservative Prime Ministers pushing for affordable childcare. It’s great because the same prime ministers were originally against this program. They recognize today that not only is this an excellent social plan, it is an excellent economic plan as well,” Ms Gould said on the sidelines of the Liberal Party Convention in Ottawa.
In your opinion, Pierre Poilievre could well see a coalition of the provinces, which the Conservative Party denounces in the next elections, if he does not repent on this file.
“The provinces will ask him why he doesn’t recognize the social and economic value of this program, why he doesn’t want women to have a choice about whether or not to go to work, why he doesn’t want families to do so, hundreds of them every month dollars in your pocket,” she said.