Riddle. Who wrote this tweet: “Canada has a Fascist Psycho as Prime Minister and a Nazi as Deputy Prime Minister. They recently gave themselves extraordinary powers to crush peaceful dissidents”? Answer: This is not Pierre Poilievre, the aspiring Conservative leader.
No, this is Maxime Bernier, leader of the People’s Party of Canada. The post got 7,300 likes in English, over 700 in French. I want to inform you of this simply to indicate that, compared to Bernier, Pierre Poilievre has the air of a moderate. And that gives us an idea of the extension of the Canadian political spectrum, which makes more and more room for the right of the right.
The bettors say today that the next Conservative leader will be either a Jean Charest representing the centrist wing of the party, or Pierre Poilievre. The latter has already garnered the most support in the Conservative caucus (about forty) and the first internal polls credit him with a good head start. According to Abacus, among conservatives, Poilievre is perceived twice as positively as Jean Charest and half as negatively. (It’s Quebecers who weigh down Mr. Charest’s figures: 47% have a negative opinion, compared to 20% who have a positive opinion.)
Poilievre’s popularity was therefore not dented by the sympathy he expressed for the occupiers of Parliament Hill. He applauded them as patriots even though their organizers were officially calling for a putsch to replace the elected government just a few months ago. On Twitter, Poilievre used the hashtag #TruckersNotTrudeau to refer to “peaceful, cheerful and intelligent Canadians fighting for freedom and against fear on Parliament Hill.” His position was unambiguous: “I’m proud of the truckers and I’m on their side. »
It is not completely impossible, if the gods of the situation smile at him, that the fiery Poilievre will be Prime Minister of Canada within three years. On the Ukrainian crisis, he presented on several platforms a position which has the merit of originality and clarity. A downside: its application would have led Europe and the West into a major recession.
His recipe? Cut off all Russian gas and oil supplies. He thus accuses several European countries of having been “weak” and of having “shut down” in front of Putin. Indeed, even the sanctions that prevent Russian banks from using the Swift system were written in such a way as to allow the continuation of transactions for the purchase of Russian petroleum products. For the simple reason that, if we cut off this supply, we would deprive Europe of 40% of its natural gas, Germany, 66%. Enough to tip the European economy into the abyss and cause energy prices to explode all over the planet. (Which Mr. Poilievre explains in one word: #JustInflation. I suggest instead: #PutInflation.)
For months, Americans and Europeans have been trying to find ways to overcome a possible Russian decision to cut off its deliveries, for example by increasing world oil production elsewhere and by considering alternative scenarios. Germany has just announced that it will try to completely deprive itself of fossil fuels within 13 years. Poilievre wants this done for 13 days.
Let’s say, in short, that if Pierre Poilievre had said this kind of thing as Canada’s representative during the few virtual G7 meetings held since the start of the Ukrainian crisis, he wouldn’t have made many friends.
The Conservative candidate takes advantage of this, as does Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, to say that Canadian oil and gas offer a ready-made answer to the European problem. Poilievre in particular defends a $10 billion Newfoundland gas extraction and liquefaction project, called Bay du Nord, which could be delivered to the Europeans, to the greater good of the Canadian economy and the greatest chagrin. Russian oligarchs. It stands. But Putin’s tanks will have had time to get to Portugal before the first Canadian gas ship is in sight of the European coast.
Nevertheless, Poilievre promises, if he becomes prime minister, to pulverize the environmental rules introduced by Trudeau for new projects. It all hangs together, he writes: “Simply put, my government will remove the bureaucrats who block projects, so that our workers pocket their paychecks and our energy propels our allies against tyranny.”
This Poilievre proposal is fairly representative of the kind of intellectual shortcut he has become a champion of. He can be counted on to produce this kind of prose repeatedly. Attentive, we note that, for the moment, he has not exceeded the limits of excess that Maxime Bernier now crosses with regularity. Ex-chief Andrew Scheer, who supports Poilievre, did so recently, writing that ” Trudeau is the greatest threat to freedom in Canada “.
Poilievre is in this wake, as evidenced by this obviously very worked sentence of his declaration of candidacy: “the government tries to muzzle anyone who dares to criticize, in particular with laws which control what you watch or say on the Internet. Using [la] COVID as a political opportunity, the Trudeau government is attacking our small businesses, truckers and workers. Furthermore, it targets honest hunters and farmers while letting criminals and arms dealers do what they want. You have to get up early to squeeze so many sophisms into so few sentences. Obviously, Pierre Poilievre is an early riser.
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