To succeed, the Conservative Party must apply time-honoured principles to new challenges.
Pierre Poilievre is the undisputed front-runner in the CPC leadership race.
However, that is no guarantee of victory.
With the CPC brass choosing an extremely long time-table for the upcoming leadership race (it will take place in September), they have ensured that potential Poilievre opponents have a long-time to organize against him.
Some suspect this is a way for the CPC establishment – who are seen as more O’Toole-linked than the membership and many MPs – to try and stop Poilievre or weaken his chances.
Additionally, the announcement of the long leadership race makes it more likely that Jean Charest will be running, and much of the establishment media will line up behind him in an effort to stop the Conservative Party from actually representing conservatives.
Going forward, we can expect to see a lot of articles pushing the narrative that Charest and other candidates are more ‘electable.’
Of course, that is exactly what the establishment media said as Erin O’Toole went back on his initial promises and tried to turn the CPC in a more Liberal direction, and we all saw how that turned out.
So, it is important to counter that narrative.
The fact is that Pierre Poilievre gives the CPC the best opportunity to win, and here are six reasons why:
Providing an alternative worldview
In order to defeat the Liberals, an argument must be made as to why they no longer deserve to be in power. But that isn’t enough. An argument also has to be made for why they should be replaced with the Conservatives.
This requires the presentation of a coherent worldview that provides a clear alternative to the Liberals.
In the last election, the Liberals & Conservatives both campaigned on carbon taxes, many more years of budget deficits, and even more restrictions on law-abiding gun owners, as O’Toole flipped under pressure.
That left the country without much of an alternative.
As a result, both the Liberals & CPC lost votes overall, and the only party that actually got more raw votes was the PPC.
By contrast, Pierre Poilievre has long been articulating an alternate worldview to the Liberals. Poilievre is campaigning on smaller government, sound money, and individual freedom. He is doing so as the Liberals move in a more and more authoritarian direction and continue to expand the size and power of government. This will create a clear choice for voters.
Social media savvy
Success on social media is now a prerequisite for someone seeking to form government. That’s especially true for conservative politicians, who must fight not only against the Liberals but against the establishment media – much of which is now financially reliant on government money.
Poilievre has built a large social media following, and is able to communicate well in soundbites that spread online and bypass the establishment media to get his message directly to voters.
Public speaking skill
If you watch the average political speech from 70 years ago, or 50 years ago, or even 30 years ago, you can see how public speaking is a dying art.
While I noted above that Poilievre speaks well in soundbites, he also is able to speak well in long-form remarks. Some of his speeches in Parliament on sound money and the role of government have lasted about 10 minutes, and seemed to be conducted without substantial notes. Poilievre manages to break down subjects like inflation and money printing in such a way that a wide-ranging audience can pick up on what he his saying, without leaving out critical information.
The ability to speak well in long-form and in soundbites is quite rare, and it would make Poilievre a formidable candidate in the general election.
Historical understanding
In the aforementioned longer-form speeches by Poilievre he often spoke about how events in the modern era are linked to history.
For example, when he spoke about inflation, he talked about how ancient emperors debased their currency by slowly reducing the percentage of gold or silver in coins, in order to surreptitiously rob their Citizens of their wealth.
The ability to link current events to historical events is important, since it is closely linked with the ability to tell stories that explain the world around us. That can be a powerful way to both explain and persuade.
It also makes it possible to apply time-honoured conservative principles to modern problems, without abandoning core values.
Political toughness
When the Freedom Convoy was gaining momentum, the establishment media did everything they could to demonize them. They likely expected that politicians would just go along with it – even the Conservatives – as the establishment media usually sets a narrative and expects the political class to give in and go along with it.
Yet, Pierre Poilievre was willing to push back:
This is the kind of political toughness that will be required for whomever leads the Conservative Party, since the establishment press will go after them relentlessly.
After all, the media is now largely government run/government dependent as mentioned previously, meaning their financial interests are closely linked to the Liberals staying in power and continuing to take our tax dollars and use them to fund media that has been declining in viewership and influence.
Being able to reject the initial media narrative, and having the strength to push back is essential.
Reaching out to young Canadians
As we’ve noted before in regards to public opinion on the convoy and restrictions, there has been an incredible shift in how young Canadians are aligned on the political spectrum.
Young Canadians were the most supportive of the convoy, and the most supportive of ending restrictions, two positions that are seen as being associated with the ‘right’ of the political spectrum. This is a big change, considering that young people tend to align with the left in surveys on political issues.
Further, young people are now paying a serious price when it comes to money printing & inflation, with more and more young Canadians being locked out of having any opportunity to own a home or start building a financial future.
Poilievre has been speaking about this, making the link between the challenges facing young Canadians and Liberal big-government policies/central bank money printing.
This provides the Conservatives with the opportunity to re-shape the political spectrum, depriving the Liberals of the youth vote that has been instrumental to their wins.
For these reasons, Poilievre gives the Conservatives their best chance to win the next election, whenever it takes place, and the party would be wise to keep that in mind.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube
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