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 attack was on full display on Vancouver Island recently as he crisscrossed the NDP lawn, rallying supporters in Nanaimo and posing for pictures with mill workers in Port Alberni. He also stopped at a steel mill and port in BC’s Lower Mainland 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.
Lehavim, who works for Mash Strategy, said it’s a populist approach that has so far served Poilever well.
“This is 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 [Poilievre] on a picket line,” said Anne McGrath, leader of the NDP Jagmeet Singh, 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.”
Poilievre clearly struck a nerve when he tapped into legitimate public anxiety about affordability, McGrath acknowledged, but his message was “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 will require “a lot of hard work and [a] 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 areas with mail.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poiliber says, despite the Liberal government’s claims to the contrary, most average Canadian families pay more in a carbon tax than they get in rebates.
Conservatives have a strong head in the polls
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.”
BC is a province deeply affected by the housing crisis as well as the opioid epidemic, both of which Feuilleber directly blames on two parties: 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.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said while it’s hard to see veteran NDP MPs Rachel Blaney, Carol Hughes and Charlie Angus moving on from politics, the party has “a lot of exciting candidates” ready to replace them.
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.
Richer said it’s time for the NDP to think about its relationship with working-class voters, many of whom have drifted away from the party since Jack Leighton’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.”
the house12:44Taking the temperature of the NDP
NDP agents say goodbye to Broadbent this past weekend, as the former leader and elder statesman is honored with a state funeral in Ottawa. Broadbent believed the NDP was most effective when it posed a political threat. But is that still the case? NDP strategists Mike McKinnon and Melanie Richer talk about the health of the NDP movement.
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.
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.
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