by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU E. CHISU, CD, PMSC,
FEC, CET, P. Eng.
Former Member of Parliament
Pickering-Scarborough East
The leadership race is over and a new leader is guiding the Conservative Party of Canada. I believe that in Pierre Poilievre, the Party has chosen a winner. A Conservative Party in search of its soul needs a young, energetic person with plenty of political experience, and in Pierre Poilievre they finally have one. With his sixty-eight per cent decisive victory on the first ballot in the federal Conservatives' leadership race, the party now has a generational opportunity to radically reimagine what Conservative policies could be palatable to the Canadian public.
"Tonight we begin the journey to replace an old government that costs you more and delivers less with a new government," Pierre Poilievre told hundreds of cheering Conservatives at a downtown Ottawa convention centre on September 10th when the results were announced. To his rivals' supporters, he said "I open my arms to you. Now today, we are one party serving one country."
Pierre Poilievre's victory sets the stage for him to take on the Liberal government when the House of Commons reconvenes later this month.
He ran a brilliant campaign that included promises to make Canadians the "freest people on Earth," fire the Governor of the Bank of Canada as part of a bid to deal with inflation, cut funding to the CBC and endorse cryptocurrencies. He also challenged what he called "gatekeepers" such as politicians, bureaucrats and agencies he accused of stifling the potential of Canadians.
Late in the campaign, he promised that if he became prime minister, he would enact a "plain-language law" to require government to publish information in straightforward language.
Now in his seventh term as an MP, Pierre Poilievre entered the leadership race with a video statement in which he said "governments have gotten big and bossy," and that COVID-19 has been a "political opportunity" for the Liberal government to attack small businesses, truckers and other Canadians.
"Trudeau thinks he's your boss. He's got it backwards. You're the boss," he said. "That's why I am running for prime minister, to put you back in charge of your life. Our destination is a Canada where the government is servant, not master."
During the campaign, Pierre Poilievre was endorsed by Mr. Harper - the first such endorsement the former prime minister has given in a leadership race since his government was defeated in 2015.
Noting Pierre Poilievre's decision to run for the Conservative Party leadership, I was convinced that he would win and would re-establish the grassroots conservative values of the party so badly trampled by the two previous leaders.
This conviction lead me to make a difficult personal decision in resigning from the Peoples Party of Canada (PPC) and rejoining the Conservative Party, because I found most of the ideas advocated by the PPC in Pierre's platform. Having known him for four and a half years as a colleague in the House of Commons, I was convinced that he would pursue these ideas with tenacity and would not be another weathervane leader.
Pierre Poilievre, 43, was first elected to the House of Commons in 2004. Under Stephen Harper he served in cabinet as democratic reform minister and employment and social-development minister. More recently, he was the finance critic for the Conservative Party, pressing the Liberal government on inflation - an issue that was central to his leadership campaign.
Pierre Poilievre's campaign featured rallies across Canada attended by large crowds. Midway through, his team announced that it had signed up about 311,000 members. This figure came out as the party announced that overall membership had grown to 678,702 from about 160,000, when the race began.
In Pierre Poilievre, the federal Conservative Party of Canada has found its most effective, electable leader since Stephen Harper. Someone who may defeat Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the next general election and relegate the federal Liberal Party to the political sidelines.
While one may be ambivalent about Pierre Poilievre's victory, it must be acknowledged that his straight-ahead march to his party's leadership was singularly impressive. In fact, it was one of the most masterful leadership bids in recent Canadian history.
Pierre Poilievre's overwhelming victory gives him total control over his party and caucus. There is no dispute about who is in charge, something a couple of his predecessors (see Andrew Scheer and Erin O'Toole) could never claim. This will allow him to focus on his primary task: preparing to defeat Mr. Trudeau in the next election.
He is a gifted communicator in both of the country's official languages. Many of the short, four-to-five minute videos he posted during his campaign were brilliant. One on the cost of housing in Canada was talked about for weeks.
While some of his most successful campaign talking points - the government's failure to effectively run airports and passport offices, the waste of time that is the ArriveCAN app, the infringement on "personal freedoms" that vaccine mandates pose - are not likely to be viable targets when the next election is held, other issues he focused on during his leadership run continue to fester.
When Pierre Poilievre zeros in on pocketbook issues, the Liberals know that the high cost of everything is not a problem likely to disappear in the near term. The mountainous debt the Liberals have racked up is not going to disappear before the next election either. These issues provide a feast Pierre Poilievre can dine on for some time.
Pierre Poilievre also has a not-so-secret weapon in his wife, Anaida, who introduced herself, and her husband, after his victory was declared. Born in Venezuela, she tells a compelling story about her family's immigration to Canada, where they started with nothing. She can describe the journey in three different languages. She is not shy of a microphone and seems like a natural campaigner. It's not difficult to imagine Pierre Poilievre appealing to the immigrant vote with her help.
Pierre Poilievre has his own unique story to tell as well. The son of an unwed teenaged mother who gave him up, he was adopted by a couple of French Canadian school teachers from Saskatchewan. So the Conservative Leader's upbringing stands in stark contrast to the silver-spoon childhood of the current Prime Minister, a fact voters are sure to be reminded of.
Having a French-sounding name will not hurt him in Quebec, nor will his fluency in French. In fact, it will be an enormous advantage during the French election debate. His wife having grown up in working class Montreal and speaking fluent French also helps. This is not Andrew Scheer the Liberals will be facing.
While a lot can happen between now and the next election, as things stand, Pierre Poilievre represents the best chance of regaining power the Conservatives have had in a long, long time.
Best of luck Pierre!
Bonne chance, Pierre!
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