The problem with Poilievre

 As I was saying... The front-runner in the race to become the third leader of the Conservative Party of Canada since the defeat of Steve Harpoon in 2015 is Pierre Poilievre, who says that he is running not for the Tory leadership, but to become Prime Minister of Canada. 

The Canadian parliamentary system [Is dis a system? Mr Natural] doesn't work quite that way, since Canucks don't elect their prime minister directly, as Americans do their president. But no matter. M Poilievre promises to make Canada "the freest nation on earth" and urges Canucks to "take back control of your life!"

M Poilievre (the one on the left) chooses freedom from the overarching command and control of Emperor Trudeau's nanny state as the hill on which he will die. Or so he says. That's why he supported the Freedom Convoy. But for doing so he has been attacked by the leader wannabe, currently a distant second in the race, the once-and-future liberal Jean Charest.

John James "Jean" Charest is Yesterday's Man. He was elected to the House of Commons in 1984 as a Progressive Conservative, and served in several federal cabinet positions between 1986 and 1993. He became the leader of the PC Party in 1993 and remained in the role until he saw a better opportunity, and jumped into provincial (Québec) politics in 1998, as leader of the Québec Liberal Party. The Liberals formed the government in 2003, and M Charest held the office of Premier until 2012.

Now Jean Charest, or "JC" as his supporters call him, has risen from the political dead, and stalks the land, zombie-like, urging Conservatives to put "Progressive" back in the party's name, and save Canada from the evil conservative PP.

In fact, M Poilievre is no conservative, at least when it comes to social issues. He is pro-choice (read: pro-abortion). He does not propose to close Canada's porous border, or reduce immigration levels to a number which would be acceptable to most Canadians [like zero? Ed.] He does not promise to cut taxes and/or reduce out-of-control government spending. His pitch is "to make Canada the freest nation* on earth" -- sufficiently vague that it can be embraced by everyone from "moderate conservatives" to the rightist hard core.

And that's the problem with Pierre Poilievre. At the end of the day, he's still a professional politician, more interested in power than principle. After graduating from the University of Calgary, he founded (with a partner)  a company called 3D Contact Inc., which focused on providing political communications, polling and research services. He worked on Stockwell "Doris" Day's campaign for the leadership of the Canadian Alliance, a short-lived successor to the PC Party, and after Mr Day's tenure as Leader of the Official Opposition, worked for him as an advisor.

In 2004, at the tender age of 24, Pierre Poilievre was elected as Conservative Member of Parliament for the Ottawa-area riding of Carleton, and  he's been there ever since. He served in Steve Harpoon's cabinet from 2013 until the Tories got the boot in 2015, and now sits on the other side of the House as Bad Cop to the Good Cop of the two Fredos who've held the title of Leader of the Opposition.

One more thing. M Poilievre is not as French-Canadian as his name suggests. In fact he's not French-Canadian at all. The little bastard's biological mother was 16 years old when she gave birth to him, and is of Irish descent. Her father, whom  wee Pierre first met as an adult, was Irish-Canadian. [Sure and what's wrong with that?! Ed.]  

M Poilievre was born in Calgary, and adopted at birth by schoolteachers Marlene and Donald Poilievre. He was raised in Calgary and has never been heard to speak a word of French. *If he were even somewhat bilingual, he'd know better than to use the word "nation" in his campaign slogan, because in French, "nation" means a people, not a nation-state as is the meaning in English. So in multi-cultural Canada, particularly in la Belle Province, "nation" is a loaded word.

A good politician -- a professional politician -- is like a good defenceman in hockey. He'll go hard into the corner and do What Must Be Done, and emerge smiling, and occasionally licking drops of blood off his teeth. Winning is the name of the game for Pierre Poilievre. He talks the conservative talk right now, because he wants to win the Conservative leadership. But winning the party is not the same as winning the country, and if M Poilievre has to ditch conservative principles and policies for the sake of appealing to the moderate majority of Canadians, that's what he'll do.

Coming soon-ish: The other contenders for the Conservative leadership, and how I'd play it if I were [Sorry. You're out of space again. Ed.]