A person needs to start at the state of the political landscape before the election of Donald Trump to fully understand the scale of Conservative decline within such a short time frame. Pollsters had the Conservatives up by 20 plus percentage points bolstered by the hugely unpopular Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Trudeau’s arrogance and fixation on ideology far removed from the every day struggles of Canadians made the prospect of a liberal return to power simply untenable. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre had been very effective during COVID of holding the liberals to account on policy while spelling out contrasts in policy. It became clear that Poilievre was a serious man of intellect building momentum toward victory.
However; the November 2024 election of Donald Trump changed everything. Suddenly, there was a requirement to build policy around a Canadian response to U.S. tariffs and articulate a message of how Canada would protect its sovereignty around innuendo from the White House that Canada should become the United States’ fifty-first state. Enter Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Fox News’ favourite guest Kevin O’Leary. Suddenly this dynamic duo was going to negotiate on behalf of Canadians in Trump’s private residence prior to Trump’s inauguration during a leadership vacuum federally given the resignation of Prime Minister Trudeau. Canadians outside Alberta were aghast.
Ironically, Trudeau’s finest hour of Prime Minister was articulating a response to the infamous White House meeting between Trump, Vance, and Zelensky asking viewers to “make sense” of what transpired. Poilievre was nowhere to be seen because he had forgotten where so many Canadians get their news – the CBC. You see…he decided that he wasn’t going to show up and play on a taxpayer subsidized news organization out of principle. Older Canadians not tuned into “social media” or political rally hype were left perplexed. Repulsed by Trump….these steadfast voters became concerned that Poilievre may have had some semblance of affinity toward Trump like policy and even outright fear that there was an ear to fifty first state rhetoric.
Poilievre had one last opportunity to use the word “Trump” in order to help Canadians understand the Conservative platform toward the new division between the nations at the English election debate but failed. While Mark Carney referenced Trump as the theme of his closing remarks, Poilievre finished with a reference to himself of how he rose from a modest background insinuating that others could do it too in the spirit of hard work amidst a climate of conservative policy.
Finally, advanced election polls were already open and the Conservative were yet to unwield their platform officially highlighted by a whopping 15 per cent tax cut. Imagine what those advanced voters must have thought afterward? Were the Conservatives grasping at straws?