Don Martin on Pierre Poilievre's seven New Year's resolutions to top polls in 2023

Nik Nanos's biggest 2023 political predictions Pollster Nik Nanos shares his biggest political predictions for 2023, the effects of a recession and how the Liberal-NDP deal will fare.

Be it resolved that Pierre Poilievre needs help.

When a majority of the respondents with an opinion, even in truest-bluest Alberta, tell pollster Nik Nanos that the Conservative leader should be replaced, this while Poilievre’s still supposedly basking in his political honeymoon period, the alleged prime-minister-in-waiting clearly needs to embrace some New Year’s resolutions for a rise in public approval.

It should be noted that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had an even higher level of unpopularity in the same poll.

So, while insiders bet Poilievre is more likely to double down on controversial positions and policies than moderate them for the mainstream, here are seven New Year's resolutions for a more popular political personality to woo the voters he needs to win.

A COHERENT PUBLIC HEALTH, CARBON TAX POSITION

With cases the new Omicron variant being identified inCanada, Poilievre should support voluntary masking and advocate for booster vaccinations without resurrecting the boogeyman that it’s all lurching toward government-enforced mandates.

And Poilievre can’t simply champion the end of the carbon tax while green-lighting pipelines in every direction without a credible climate change counterbalance.

So far, he’s just belching hot air. If his ultimate goal is to become prime minister, Poilievre needs to divide his “official opposition’ role into less opposing and more positioning.

BACKTRACK QUICKLY ON NON-STARTER CAMPAIGN PROMISES

Yes, this means admitting he won’t actually fire the governor of the Bank of Canada.

Because, after all, he can’t be dumped without oodles of justification which is, so far, missing. Poilievre might also reconsider his opposition to replacement drugs in safe injection sites as ‘woke Liberal’ policy.

Even former Conservative senator and police chief Vernon White is writing off Poilievre’s jabs as uneducated ramblings.

CUT THE CONVOY CONNECTION

When Emergencies Act inquiry Commissioner Paul Rouleau rolls out his report next month, Poilievre shouldn’t gloat if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is found to have over-reached in invoking the Act and he shouldn’t trash talk the conclusion if it’s determined to have been justified. Accept the report as a reasonable wrap-up to a dark national experience and move on.

BE MORE OPEN WITH THE PRESS

This appears self-serving, but Poilievre should resolve to be more open with the parliamentary press gallery.

You don’t have to like or be chummy with the reporting mob, but accessibility is the hard part of being accountable. And even opposition leaders must be held microphone-accountable to be credible.

LISTEN MORE, TALK LESS

Poilievre should exercise his ears more and his tongue less.That means going beyond sycophantic MPs and bended-knee staffing for ideas and advice. Retired alumni like former interim leader Rona Ambrose, former deputy leader Lisa Raitt and true-blue but soft-hearted retired MP Larry Miller have the pulse of the regular-right and possess the political instincts to sell conservative policies to the mainstream. Listen and learn.

BE LESS MEAN-SPIRITED

Former leader Erin O’Toole wrote a thoughtful essay attacking those profane anti-Trudeau flags as a nasty reflection of democracy-destroying polarization.

Poilievre shrugged it off as understandable frustration with the government. O’Toole was right. The last thing Canada needs is a leader whose mindset appears determined to widen the political divide. And ditch the ‘Canada is broken’ line. The country is fine. It’s the government you aim to blame for breaking things.

SMILE MORE

Finally, smiling a bit more often wouldn’t hurt. That vintage Stephen Harper scowl only won elections because voters sensed gravitas in a Conservative leader they didn’t particularly like, but trusted just enough to earn their ballot. That’s not a belief widely shared about the official opposition leader right now. A friendly Poilievre personality upgrade might help him claim a better poll position for the next election.

That’s the bottom line….