“Trumpification” of Conservative race gift to Liberals

No less a Conservative than a former Cabinet Minister and anchor of The National, Peter Kent nicely put the cat among the pigeons recently in a tough tweet on the performance of front runner Pierre Poilievre:

“…Still plenty of time in the leadership campaign for moderate conservatives to resist the Trumpification of the Conservative Party of Canada.”

At the height of the Freedom Convoy horrors, I wrote:

“But the future danger is more in right wing ideologues connected with and encouraged by their US counterparts who have proven they can delude large numbers of particularly young citizens angry at government for ignoring their sense of hopelessness and a shrinking future into mounting other mass demonstrations.”

Poilievre, known for shouting “Freedom, not fear. Truckers, not Trudeau,” as the convoy rolled into Ottawa, is tapping into this anger and seems to be drawing large crowds of the disaffected who will shout freedom on cue. Some wait for him to appear on Fox News.  And the fact that he openly supported the freedom convoy disqualifies him from office according to his principal rival for leadership of the Conservatives,  Jean Charest . To which Poilievre quickly replied that Charest’s work for the controversial Chinese telecom giant Huawei disqualifies him – which then Charest said he would ban in Canada!

The Liberals are feasting on these kinds of deep divisions which the ongoing leadership race will only exacerbate. Whoever wins, clips from open warfare between candidates which may break out in televised debates will provide material down the road for campaign ads.

The interesting political dramas to watch comes if Liberal fortunes continue strong in three years, providing Justin Trudeau the excuse to resign at the peak of his career to “spend more time with family”. They will be very much on his case after the endless crises he has survived. This will open the door for a strong female successor in the form of Chrystia Freeland.  Make no mistake a weakened and fragmented Conservative party is a real possibility, and this more than anything else could ensure the future of the “natural governing party”!