On Monday, Stephen Harper proudly descended from his Olympus of former Prime Minister Forever in Republic Reserves. On twitter, He published a video supporting his dolphin Pierre Poilievre in the leadership campaign of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC).
In doing so, he voluntarily torpedoed Jean Charest’s campaign, which had stalled anyway. Like Jarnac’s swipe at the former Quebec premier, it’s difficult to get more underhanded.
It must be said that Mr. Harper has never made lace. We also knew he favored Poilievre, his protege from the same Alberta, on the far right. Its performance is nonetheless spectacularly inelegant.
For Jean Charest it is the coup de grace. He therefore limited himself to saying that Stephen Harper made a “personal” decision. The reality is that Mr. Charest knows very well that this election is political and ideological.
Just as he knows that for a sizeable segment of Conservative troops, this papal bull by Mr. Harper, former founder of the PCC – fusion between the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party – automatically becomes gospel word.
hyper partisan pit bull
Apparently, the dominant “Harperian” wing in his form is also looking for a bipartisan, Poilievre-style pit bull who he thinks would be capable of politically stripping liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Pierre Poilievre, a mock Trumpian, easily trades debates on ideas for invective against his opponents. Starting with Jean Charest, his main rival for the lead.
For Mr. Poilievre and his followers – including the truckers of the so-called “Freedom Convoy” – Jean Charest’s mortal sin is that he was leader of the former conservative “progressives” and leader of the liberals in Quebec.
Jean Charest would be too far to the left of the ideological chessboard. Like what the ridiculous doesn’t kill.
In his video, Stephen Harper praises his ex-minister Pierre Poilieve. He presents him as “the most eloquent and effective liberal critic of Justin Trudeau in our party”. His “conservative values”, he implicitly emphasizes to Jean Charest, are “solid”.
A coming schism
“That’s why,” said Mr. Harper [Poilievre] found strong support within the caucus and among current party members. […] This is how we will win the next federal election.”
But unless Pierre Poilievre transforms into a purring kitten and a new centrist convert after his predictable leadership victory, the CCP will first expect schism.
Slowly or quickly he will expel the remaining crumbs of the progressive conservative wing from the PCC, leaving all the ground to Harper’s hard right, Poilievre’s version.
Like the Canadian Alliance’s “Back to the Future,” only more radicalized.
When that happens, liberals can sit back and relax. For nothing will be further from the political reflexes of a vast majority of Canadians than the aggressiveness and Trump-style populism of Pierre Poilievre.
The election of Pierre Poilievre as head of the CCP would nonetheless confirm that Canada, too, is not immune to the troubling rise of the far-right across the West.
