2 weeks Ago By Rick Bell
The fork in the road couldn’t be clearer than it is now. You ask Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to sum up this ballot battle and he will say it’s about change. He is betting enough Canadians agree so his party can form the next government.
For Poilievre, he’s talking big change. A completely new direction. Change after 10 years of the Liberals.
Change after the long, lousy record of the Liberal government. Poilievre reminds people of the fact a lot of the same Liberal politicians and Liberal hacks are still around, ready to pick up where they left off. He will talk about the cost of living, the cost of housing, public safety and fighting crime, making the economy stronger, taking the handcuffs off major creators of wealth, such as oil and gas.
On the other side, Liberal Leader Mark Carney is the new coach of an old team. There has been no cleaning house. Far from it.
Just look at the Liberal lineup. Carney is the guy for people who don’t want change and there are more of those sorts than you would think. The Liberals haven’t gone from nowhere to somewhere in no time flat because Canadians said: You know, those Liberals and that Carney fella are really going to shake things up in Ottawa.
On the contrary. There are far too many Canadians who don’t want to shake anything up in Ottawa. Many Liberal supporters do not want change.
They have done very well, thank you very much. They could be boomers who have made their money, worked in the days of good pensions and bought homes cheap, only to see them priced into the stratosphere through no effort of their own. These people won the lottery.
What’s the problem? Almost three years ago to the day, Poilievre spoke to this scribbler and talked about privileged people who have enjoyed a bonanza “while the working class has been demolished.” The Conservative leader called it “Robin Hood in reverse.” “The economic model is taking from the have-nots and giving to the have-yachts.
” The Liberals under Carney look like they have the have-yacht vote pretty well sewn up. Carney is for those who aren’t worried about the price of groceries but want to talk about U.S.
President Donald Trump. All Trump, all the time. Many of these folks believe Canada might cease to exist because of Trump.
Some even believe the U.S. Army could one day just march across the border.
They can afford to obsess over Trump to the exclusion of kitchen table issues because they do not have those issues and you should see their kitchens. These people are making their way into election stories. You know, the couple retires early, has a fashionable address in Toronto and one in Palm Springs and now has to decide whether they should sell their sweet desert digs stateside because they can’t stand Trump.
Oh, the problems some people have these days. Carney talks about Trump every day. On Good Friday, the morning after the federal leaders’ English debate and Carney is up at the microphone in Ontario where the polls say he and the Liberals are popular.
Carney begins speaking by going on about ...
you guessed it ...
Trump. We hear all his greatest hits just like on the old K-tel records the boomers remember from their youth. You know, Trump wants to break us so America can own us.
The U.S. wants our country.
America is threatening Canada’s very sovereignty. Oh yes, Canada as the 51st state! The key election question for Carney is who will stand up to Trump. The answer is Carney, the international banker, the smartest person in any room.
Carney used the same golden oldie lines in the debate of leaders Thursday night. By the way, those folks endlessly dissecting the ins and outs of a debate between leaders are playing a parlour game where most Canadians have better things to do. On Good Friday, Poilievre is back on the campaign trail talking about saving people money, bread and butter issues.
In fact, he holds up a loaf of bread. The Conservative leader mentions seniors, single mothers, low-income Canadians. He doesn’t mention anyone in Palm Springs.
“I choose change,” says Poilievre. It is said the polls are tightening. A couple of commentators, who are no doubt voting Liberal, sounded like they were hoping Trump would say something crazy in the next week to seal the deal for Carney.
Instead, let us depart with the words of one of the supporting cast. It is Yves-François Blanchet, the leader of the Bloc Québécois in The House of Commons, saying to Carney: “You can’t fill people’s minds with nonsense.” Oh yes, you can.
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