As the federal election moves forward to its April 28th voting date, there is one leader of a party who is increasingly portraying himself as Canada’s version of a mini-Trump. That leader is Pierre Poilievre of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC). His discourse prior to the election call has on several occasions been similar in content and tone to that of Donald Trump. He spoke of Canada being broken; of “woke” predominance among the current Liberal government and the New Democratic Party (NDP); of a need to be tougher on crime; of Canada’s need to “drill-baby-drill” when it comes to fossil fuels, most notably in crude heavy oil found in Alberta.
In recent weeks, Poilievre appears to be even more aggressive, primarily due to the recent polls which show that the Liberal leader, Mark Carney, is now leading: including being the preferred candidate for the position of Prime Minister. This is a major shift from prior to the election and the resignation of Pierre Trudeau as PM, when the Conservatives had a twenty plus lead in the polls. However, along came Donald Trump and his tariffs against Canada and all that changed. Carney has a business, economic and international finance background. This has led Canadians to believe that Carney can better negotiate some sort of new trade deal with the Trump administration. In addition, many Canadians are now comparing Poilievre to a mini-Trump because of the Conservative policies and the ongoing slogans surfacing in his campaign.
Most recently, Poilievre has pushed for tougher measures as they pertain to sentences handed out by the courts under Canada’s Criminal Code. This included the idea of arbitrary “three strikes” vis-à-vis convictions, whereby one’s prison term will be automatic and potentially longer. However, one only has to study the consequences of this approach in California where its use clogged up the justice system for years and resulted in extreme over crowding in its prisons. The situation was so bad that many non-violent prisoners had to be released as a result of COVID 19 and the danger of widespread infection in these crowded facilities. Get ready to build new prisons!
Next, is Poilievre’s pledge to use the “notwithstanding clause” in the Canadian constitution (Section 33) to allow longer sentences for multiple murderers, something that the Supreme Court of Canada had in 2022 ruled against as a violation of an offender’s Charter rights. Politically, this represents a groundbreaking promise and he would become the first prime minister to invoke the clause while in office. As one expert noted, the extraordinary use of the “notwithstanding clause” would occur not in crisis situations, not judiciously, not after massive public debates and so on, but due to a majority government which for its own political reasons is playing to its base. Sounds like something that Trump would do. Both Liberal Leader Mark Carney and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh rejected using the notwithstanding clause. In order to protect established rights, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, more than 50 organizations, human rights advocates and legal experts have openly urged all federal party leaders to commit to a public consultation on the notwithstanding clause within six months of forming a new government. Without extensive prior-consultation within Canadian society at large, the clause’s federal use would establish a potentially perilous precedent with its first-time usage at the federal level.
Poilievre also appears to want to give carte blanche to the Canadian oil and gas industry to expand its production and exports in order to offset the American tariffs and grow the industry. This of course would mean rapidly expanding pipeline construction from Alberta to the west coast, speeding up environmental reviews and consultations with indigenous peoples in the territories through which pipelines would go. However, while this would certainly benefit the oil and gas industry in Canada
, one has to ask whether and by how much Canadians will benefit. The Conservative base in Alberta
will certainly benefit, but how about the rest of the country? In addition, many in the Conservative party tend to be “climate change” deniers. Sounds familiar!
All in all, Poilievre’s campaign has clearly had elements of Trumpism reflected in its content: something not lost on many Canadians. Let’s face it, Trump is not too popular in Canada at this moment, and his unpopularity is definitely echoed in this election.
FROLITICKS 