In an unusual move, former Prime Minister Stephen Harper has invited himself into the leadership race of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) to confirm what everyone knows: he hates Jean Charest.
Or rather, Mr. Harper supports free spirit Pierre Poilievre.
This exit is worrying for conservative activists and dissatisfied liberal voters who still hoped for a refocusing of the CCP. In his video message, Mr. Harper extolled the qualities of his former minister, whom he presented as the “most eloquent and effective” critic of the Trudeau government. In his eyes, Mr. Poilievre was interested “in the economic issues that matter”: the slowdown in economic growth, the debt, the inflation, the shortage of labor and housing. He also spoke of Pierre Poilievre’s desire to “repair the institutions that have let Canadian families down.”
There are serious reasons to be concerned about the economy. This will undoubtedly be one of the major themes of the next electoral cycle in Canada. However, Mr. Harper’s assertion clashes when we know that the Trudeau government has multiplied initiatives to support the middle class over the years, driving up the debt burden to unprecedented heights of $1,049 billion for the financial year 2020-2021. Canada’s COVID-19 Response Plan alone cost nearly $1 billion, including $164 million for emergency wage benefits (CERB and CEWS). Unless Stephen Harper’s prophecies predict an unlikely CCP leftward shift, it’s hard to believe the Liberals have failed families. The Liberals have above all abandoned fiscal prudence, in times of crisis as well as in times of prosperity.
There is something disturbing when a figure as influential in the conservative movement as Mr. Harper presents Pierre Poilievre as the bearer of “solid conservative values adapted to today’s realities”. Mr. Harper ignores Mr. Poilievre’s convoluted economic positions. Two of his former ministers, Lawrence Cannon and Peter Kent, both of whom support Jean Charest, have highlighted some of Pierre Poilievre’s foolish and irresponsible positions.
This touts cryptocurrencies as a bulwark against inflation, without taking into consideration that they are subject to great volatility and that they are not guaranteed by central banks in the event of a crisis. He is also threatening to dismiss the Governor of the Bank of Canada, to whom he makes full responsibility for the complex economic situation in which most Western countries find themselves after two years of health emergency. Pierre Poilievre undermines confidence in Canadian financial and banking institutions, among the most regulated in the world, to seduce a segment of the electorate who feel they are among the left behind. Not to mention the fact that he blindly supported the so-called Freedom Convoy, despite the movement being instrumentalized by the far right.
Such is the state of the modern Conservative movement in Canada. Its figurehead believes that the path to victories goes through the gathering of victimized and revengeful voices who feel betrayed by proverbial elites obviously disconnected from reality. The Conservatives are unlikely to broaden their electoral base with Pierre Poilievre’s vision. They will willingly participate in their political marginalization, with the consolation price of the moral certainty of being right.