BristolUK

Pierre Poilievre campaign slogan - Next Stop, Oblivion.

He was in this part of the world over the weekend and I got to hear some of him on CBC radio. My god he sounds just like Trump.

No great surprise really, given the support of Sandy Hook conspiracist Alex Jones.

I know Trudeau's 'niceness' gets a bit wearing but be careful what you wish for.

Almost Canadian

I doubt Trudeau will be able to make history but I accept I may be wrong.

I have to admit that I love the way that Poilievre deals with "journalists."

Atlantic Xpat

As in avoids questions and scrutiny?

I think he's a loathsome little turd. I mean Trudeau is objectively terrible as well but my goodness Pollievre is nasty.

Almost Canadian

I was appalled by how bad the political TV journalism was in Canada when I first arrived. There didn't seem to be any real probing of whatever politician was saying and they seemed to offer little more than a microphone for the politician to say whatever they wanted to say. Nothing much has changed in the time that I have been here.

I don't need my representative to be likeable (although that would be a bonus) I need them to be competent. I don't see much evidence of that anywhere in Canada.

BristolUK

In my early years here I was surprised to see the attack ads on TV. I rather expected something more in line with the Party Political Broadcasts on behalf of... all nice and polite.

And then in New Brunswick the Liberals and Conservatives seemed to be the opposite of what I expected with the Liberals proposing to sell of NB Power to Quebec and being in favour of Ambulance fees while the Conservatives were abolishing them.
What I expected was soon restored. I thought the Conservative Premier, Higgs, did really well back in 2020 but all downhill since.

CanadaJimmy

It is confusing how Liberals in provinces are often more right leaning, like the BC Liberals were (now BC United). The current BC NDP government is more moderate and centre-left which you would expect of a liberal government. It sort of depressingly shows how since the 80s everything has shifted to the neoliberal right overall.

Also reminds me how the conservative solution to climate change was to introduce a carbon tax as introduced here by the right-leaning BC Liberals. The idea is instead of heavy and complicated bespoke regulation across industries, let the market handle it, with the federal version (and the updated BC version) giving a rebate back to low income earners. But now conservatives are against the carbon tax too apparently, Poilievre repeatedly misrepresents it.

I didn't mind Poilievre at the beginning, with him being 100% right with his position on the housing crisis, but he is incredibly slimy and dishonest and I absolutely would never vote for him. Also to give credit to the Liberals and the BC NDP, they have responded well to try and get more housing built. I don't think it will be enough to save the liberals at the next election though, and Trudeau is disliked as a leader, even though he's not really responsible for any of this as the liberals operate government in a very technocratic way.

JonboyE

What was his position on housing that was 100% right?

CanadaJimmy

That we need to build more and that bureaucracy, over-regulation and other factors have created a supply shortage.

Tumbling_Dice

How does Poilievre sound like Trump exactly?

BristolUK

The delivery style. A little bit game show host.
Like "What about that person/policy/idea then" (in the tone of a question)...and immediately something to ridicule them or it so there's no room for the idea to be considered, just that it's ridiculous and not even worth thinking about.

Almost Canadian

I have to admit that I really, really, don't understand the Federal Government's policy on the carbon tax issue.

If it is designed to motivate people to change their habits, how does that work if "...more than 80%..." of Canadians receive more in rebates than they pay in tax?

I get the argument that, if you have two options: one that pollutes more and one that pollutes less, making the one that pollutes more more expensive may motivate people to use the less polluting one. However, people can't choose choose how they heat their homes in most parts of Canada.

I would like to hear how the various governments are going to recover the funds lost from the tax paid on vehicle gas when everyone is forced to switch to electric

JonboyE

Thank you. I was worried I had missed something.

A bit of history. When the Liberals won power in 1993 they faced a huge deficit left by the Mulroney government. One of the actions the Chretien/Martin government took to help with eliminating this was to get the Federal Government out of housing. They thought the private sector could adequately supply the housing that Canada needs. It might have been a good policy then, but 30 years later has proved to be very wrong.

The private sector is motivated by money. There is money to be made in building high-end houses and condos. There is very little money to be made in building housing that lower income people can afford. Add to that, there is very little money to be made operating rental apartments for low income tenants. For housing, the free market does not deliver. It needs government intervention to create the housing the country needs.

I can easily think of two ways the government could get involved:

a) underwrite the capital needed to create housing for moderate and low income people. Bank financing for construction is beset by restrictions and regulations, and is expensive. Secure finance at moderate interest rates could make marginally profitable construction projects viable.
b) introduce refundable tax credits for construction of moderately priced homes. Similar to the Scientific Research and Experimental Development tax credits. These have been effective in stimulating investment in business, and I think could be equally effective in construction by providing a return on otherwise unprofitable ventures.

And, of course, we need more tradesmen/women.

Agreed we need to build more housing. No s**t ! Bureaucracy, over-regulation? Maybe, but it is minor in the scheme of things. "Other?" Well, yes. But the other is more government involvement which does not sit well with Tory ideology and has not been suggested by Poilievre as far as I know. It seems to me to be campaigning by soundbite (which he is good at) rather than serious government.

dbd33

We are in alignment!

Tumbling_Dice

I have to confess I was not expecting a reasonable answer. So many stupid people attach the "Trump" label to anyone who happens to be conservative.... but he is, of course, only the second tier after good old Adolf.

It has to be said, all three of the party leaders are pretty abysmal. I have no idea what Jagmeet Singh actually stands for. He seems to live in a parallel reality and is politically inept. Those dental care and pharmacare programs will be claimed by the liberals. Did he not observe what happened to the LibDems post coalition?

Trudeau is corrupt, incompetent and a failure by his own standards. And if you want to critique someone's presentation style, I give you Trudeau and Freeland. Trudeau can't even engage with a question on the same basis it is asked. I used to enjoy Freeland's articles when she was at the likes of Reuters - can't believe that condescending, high pitched screech you hear in the House is from the same woman.

Poilievre, despite some cringy performances like you reference, at least seems to have some contact with the reality facing the public. At this stage, he does I guess just need to keep banging those basic messages but, at some point, he will have to put some detail out there. It will be interesting to see if he does. I might even vote for him if it seems reasonable.

dbd33

Do you have specific examples of Trudeau's corruption, something like Mulrooney and Airbus or Chretien and his golf courses?

I see no point of contact between Poilievre and reality.. He's had a sheltered life and now consorts with fringe characters. He's not a politician one would ask to guess the price of bread and milk but to guess what bread and milk are used for.

He also seems short, not so much Trumpist as Trumpette.