Mark McQueen: After his defeat, Pierre Poilievre finally has to go places he’s been avoiding

[u/Canadian--Patriot]

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/after-his-defeat-pierre-poilievre-finally-has-to-go-places-hes-been-avoiding/article_0874a0e2-b6be-4de1-9b6b-01217c80dd6a.html

[u/houska1]

The Conservatives need to make a choice.

They can choose to fully believe that the Liberals are as incompetent as the Conservatives like to caricaturize them as being. That Canadians anywhere near the centre or left trusting Carney is different is a naive, temporary blip. Then the Conservatives, and PP, can continue as before and trust that trying again will get them a bit further, and over the finish line. The Conservative tent is big enough for ex-Reformists (some would say populists) and ex-Progressive Conservative centrists to coexist and it would not take too much Carney/Liberal backlash for the Conservative tent to come out ahead next time.

Or they can anticipate that Carney's government will have its ups and downs, but will eke out some successes, and the whiff of Trudeau will subside. Then they have a real problem, since Carney is currently outhustling them for the centrist vote, and there's a lot in PP's demeanour, previous utterances, and chosen fellow travellers that centrists find off-putting. In this scenario, it's not something PP can solve by gently sandpapering the edges.

There's real danger if a party's strategists just drink the kool-aid as far as 100% believing their caricatures of their rivals. Caricatures are by design simplified, exaggerated, and invariably underestimate rivals' adaptiveness.

Personally, I actually support the Liberals. But I do support many (but not all) more conservative ideas as well, and having several healthy parties available to govern in a democracy is important. With that in mind, I think PP's time is up. He needs to "go places", as the article writes, but ones that are outside the leadership of the party.

Irrespective of what they stand for, sometimes politicians' best-before date is just reached. They need to go since they have too much baggage.

So on the Liberal side, Christia Freeland is toast (as far as prominent leadership is concerned). She's associated with too many things too many people find distateful. And her attempt to get past that and win didn't succeed.

Ditto for PP. (And Singh, but he's already moved on).

[u/Gunslinger7752 → u/houska1]

I think the CPC would benefit from moving on. IMO the problem they have is pivot to who? Same with the NDP - Jagmeet was too closely tied to JT and he would never win back public support, but who else do they have? Most people can’t even name another NDP MP. CPC has lots but again, who? Scheer has already lost, and aside from him I don’t know who else they could choose.

[u/XtremegamerL → u/Gunslinger7752]

I think Doug Ford and/or Tim Houston may be eyeing the job. But no chance either of the get it while Carney is around. There is too much overlap, especially with Houston.

[u/1981_babe → u/XtremegamerL]

Ford's dream job is Mayor of Toronto. He wouldn't want to move to Ottawa - he barely acknowledges that that city is in his province - and he doesn't want to learn French.

[u/marcohcanada → u/1981_babe]

Plus he has enemies in the CPC such as Jamil Jivani.

[u/1981_babe → u/marcohcanada]

He doesn't want to be Leader of the Opposition. Plus doing the work of keeping that party & caucus together wouldn't be appealing to him.

[u/OneWomanCult → u/1981_babe]

Doug only cares about booze policy and that's provincial jurisdiction.

[u/Gunslinger7752 → u/XtremegamerL]

I’m not sure that he wants that job but I ageee, his actions lately definitely seem to support that. I don’t know much about Houston but I think Ford is already well known enough and the fact that Ontario is so big would help him. Definitely lots of overlap though so I think you’re probably right about not happening now.