Achi news desk-
Conservative Leader Pierre Pouillet’s path to power may be in prosecuting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s last eight years in government, but his path to victory is painted NDP orange.
Appealing to working-class voters in rural and northern ridings — like those held by the New Democrats across British Columbia and the Liberals in northern Ontario — is part of what Puliver sees as a winning formula.
That offensiveness was on full display recently as he crisscrossed the NDP’s lawn on Vancouver Island, rallied supporters in Nanaimo and posed for pictures with mill workers in Port Alberni. He also stopped at a steel mill and port in BC’s Lower Mainland as part of his tour to rub shoulders with workers, photos of which lit up his social media.
“We see Pierre Poiliber, the leader of the Conservative Party, on the shop floor and in the factories,” said Eli Blades, a strategist who worked on his 2022 leadership campaign in B.C.
Blades, who works for Mash Strategy, which produces the party’s slick digital videos, cited a recent speech he gave to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade — an invitation Poilievre took 18 months to accept.
It was his first appearance before a corporate audience since becoming leader in 2022, not out of spite — “It’s not about my view of business; I like business,” he said — but because Ottawa’s “absolutely useless” corporate lobbyists were too focused on the good elected officials.
Instead, the Conservative plan is a “bottom-up free enterprise agenda,” he said, vowing to end the days of self-interested CEOs and politicians working together solely to advance their own self-interests.
“When I’m prime minister, if you want your policy agenda to push forward, you’re going to have to convince not only me, but the people of Canada that it’s good for them.”
Blades said it’s a populist approach that has so far served Poilyver well.
“It’s a transition that the conservatives, I think, made in a very correct and strategic way,” she said. “We see the floor in front of the stage.”
The shop floor, of course, is traditional New Democrat territory — home to a critical voting bloc that the NDP isn’t about to surrender without a fight.
“You never saw him on a picket line,” said Anne McGrath, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s principal secretary and former national director of the party.
“You can go to shop floors and look at things on shop floors, but when push comes to shove and workers need support from their political leaders, we’ve never seen him there.”
Poiliber clearly struck a nerve when he tapped into legitimate public anxiety about affordability, McGrath acknowledged, but his message is “simplistic.” So is the choice before voters, she said.
“They have the big, loud megaphone voice of the Conservatives and Pierre Poiliber, or they have the constructive and positive proposals and actions they can expect from the NDP.”
A sale that would require “a lot of hard work and (a) clear message,” not to mention appealing to voters, she added. The NDP has already begun ramping up its attacks on the Conservatives and flooding traditionally friendly territories with mail.
Their battle looks like an uphill battle — not only is Fauliber’s message sharp and resonant, but conservatives are flush with cash, said Melanie Richer, Singh’s former communications director.
Poilievre’s populist approach has helped the Conservatives smash fundraising records — funds vital to the leader’s aggressive public schedule and to appeal to new voters, such as those who typically vote NDP.
So far this year, he has held 16 rallies and other meetings, six of them in ridings held by the NDP, compared to eight for the Liberals. Through 2023, his first full year as leader, the ratio was 12 NDP, 19 Liberal.
Blades said she believes Poilliber’s success with typical NDP voters in places like BC is the result of “ground-breaking messaging” that Singh, she says, “could never authentically achieve.”
This is a province that is deeply affected by both the housing crisis and the opioid epidemic, both of which Peuilber directly blames on two factors: the federal Liberal government and its BC NDP counterpart.
While critics dismiss his crusade against the consumer carbon price as an exercise in sloganeering and misinformation, supporters see it as an optimistic message, Blades said — even in B.C., where a provincial carbon price has been in place for years.
It also can’t hurt the conservative capital the NDP is bleeding committee members. Six MPs have already left or said they won’t run again, including three just last week — one of whom was Charlie Angus, a 20-year member of the party in northern Ontario.
It’s time for New Democrats to think about the party’s relationship with working-class voters, Richer said, many of whom have drifted away from the party since Jack Layton’s death in 2011.
“We just don’t connect with them,” she said.
Richer urged the party to be more vocal about the role it played in securing Liberal commitments on national drug and dental care schemes through its supply and confidence agreement with the government. So far, efforts to do so have borne little fruit.
She pointed to Manitoba, where NDP leader Wab Kinew secured a historic election victory last year by addressing public anger “and giving people hope instead.”
Poilievre’s office did not respond to a request for comment on whether a Conservative government would maintain a federal dental care program. He also did not commit to medication.
“I do think we need to start sending a more aggressive, hopeful message,” agreed Kathleen Monk, a campaign strategist and former Leighton communications director.
“Things can get better… we have a vision to do that.”
At the same time, she added, the New Democrats must convince Canadians not to believe Poilévre’s claims that he is “fighting for little people.”
Union leaders say the Conservative front-runner borrows the language of the working class but actually poses a threat to organized labour, citing his frequent support for back-to-work legislation over 20 years in parliament.
The party has worked hard to restore its image with unions, with its MPs backing a Liberal bill — spurred by the NDP — to ban substitute workers during lockouts and strikes at federally regulated workplaces.
Renja Nauta, a former Conservative staffer who is now director of the Labor and Economy Program at Kardos, suggests that politicians must also be aware that Canada’s working class has changed.
While unionized blue-collar workers still make up part of the working class, he says there has been a decline in unionization rates.
Nauta said the working class has shifted to include more service jobs, including those of women and new immigrants, and now includes people who work as Amazon delivery drivers or hair stylists.
Many in working-class jobs have a post-secondary education, he added.
“These are the distinct people who… as the politicians say, who did everything they were supposed to do, and still can’t move forward.”
The next federal election must be held on or before October 20, 2025.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on April 7, 2024.
With Mickey Djuric bags in Ottawa
