Don Martin: In the heart of Liberal-owned Toronto, an unlikely Conservative rock star takes the stage
Campaign crowds can sometimes be fake news.
Organizers can falsify the frenzy by booking a room they know is too small and fill it to capacity to create the impression of a delirious crush of support.
Or you can pick a geographical location where your candidate’s support is deepest to showcase a disproportionately large audience as a typical rally.
But this Pierre Poilievre overflowing-audience phenomenon has me stumped, particularly after Tuesday night.
Keep in mind Toronto is political home to 25 Liberal MPs out of 25 available seats. This particular venue is in a riding where the Conservatives finished third in 2021 with just 12 per cent of the vote to a Liberal with four times the ballot count.
In what might’ve been a normal show of Conservative candidate appeal in a bingo hall south of Calgary, the leadership frontrunner attracted about 1,000 Torontonians to a brewery in the shadow of the CN Tower.
That suggests the majority of those attending had a long heavy-traffic commute from the suburbs, where the Conservative brand at least has a pulse, on a chilly windy night when staying home was a very tempting alternative.
Pierre Poilievre at an event in downtown Toronto on Tuesday, April 19, 2022. (Source: @PierrePoilievre / Twitter)
So what’s the cheerleading attraction?
Poilievre is a face nine Canadians out of ten still couldn’t pick out of a two-person lineup.
He is my MP and shows up at church basement dinners, community fairs and Remembrance Day services to a subdued nod of recognition from the locals.
Yet he struts into a 700-person filled-to-capacity hall with a few hundred more in the adjacent overflow room, a crowd one Conservative begrudgingly told me even Stephen Harper could not have attracted while serving as prime minister, and Poilievre is a rock star standing on Liberal bedrock.
For what it’s worth, with apologies to Buffalo Springfield, there’s something happenin’ here, but what it is ain’t exactly clear.
The Steam Whistle Brewing Company venue owner clearly doesn’t know what to make of it. They handed out a letter to attendees underlining that hosting the Poilievre campaign does not align the brewery with his controversial policy positions. That’s a first.
So, if it’s not a force of personality – and Poilievre seems a few litres short of the royal jelly needed to induce a mania – it must be his policies.
But even that’s a headscratcher.
He vows to knock away bureaucratic ‘gatekeepers’ to allow foreign professionals to establish here, not exactly the sort of policy true-blue Conservatives have been pushing to implement.
And then there’s his housing promise to cut through red tape holding back construction to unleash a building boom.
Couple of problems with that. Housing approvals are mostly a jurisdiction of municipalities, albeit under provincial control. How a federal government could reach through the provincial maze to cut red tape in city planning departments is a mission improbable, even if it uses housing grants to induce them to act.
Besides, the housing construction industry is already working to capacity, so unless a Poilievre as prime minister could produce thousands of provincially-trained carpenters, plumbers and electricians overnight, there’s no way to create a supply-boosting building boom.
Then there’s his veto on buying foreign oil by building pipelines to everywhere. But if a pipeline connection to east coast refineries cannot be built over Quebec’s objections, where does New Brunswick get domestic oil to process? Again, his rhetoric is divorced from reality.
But leadership campaigns are all about grabbing attention backed by faint promises of future action.
On that score, Poilievre is functioning at a far higher level than his seven opponents, half of whom have no business being in this race.
Plenty of problems could still pothole Poilievre’s road to the PMO, of course.
To keep his momentum going, Poilievre has to feed the seething anger at Justin Trudeau without stoking it too far so that it alienates the middle-ground electorate the party needs to win the next election.
It’s also likely that his Trudeau target will not be the Conservative’s main rival in the next election. The current prime minister is stale-dated and ready to be replaced by a more formidable opponent from anyone in the on-deck Chrystia Freeland, Anita Anand or Francois-Phillippe Champagne circle.
And the issues Poilievre is highlighting as Liberal attack material could well be resolved long before an actual election campaign. The housing market he seeks to expand is already showing signs of softening under rising interest rates, inflation could be back under control and we can only hope there are no pandemic-fighting mandates left for him to repeal in 2025.
But those are post-leadership challenges. First, he needs a win on September 10.
And in the here and now, it must be acknowledged that Pierre Poilievre is attracting impressive crowds to large halls in very unlikely locations. He is getting euphoric reactions from the base to his quip-filled policies, even if they are politically problematic. And his team is undoubtedly selling hundreds of loyal Poilievre memberships at every pitstop of the tour.
If this early romp lasts another month, Canada’s unlikeliest political rock star will be impossible to beat.
That’s the bottom line.
IN DEPTH
'Anger that I haven't seen before': Singh harassment incident puts renewed spotlight on politicians' security
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh's recent encounter with protesters at an Ontario election campaign stop, where he was verbally harassed, is casting a renewed spotlight on politicians' security, with Singh telling CTV News that he's witnessing a level of anger he hasn't seen before.

Settled debate or not? Canadian politicians weigh in on U.S. Supreme Court abortion rights leak
The stunning leak of a U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision on abortion rights seized political attention in Ottawa on Tuesday. In the House of Commons, MPs' persisting differing views were on display after a symbolic push to affirm abortion rights failed, and the Conservative caucus were told not to comment on the leak.
Where the six Conservative leadership candidates stand on key policy issues
Six candidates are officially on the ballot to become the Conservative Party's next leader. In holding rallies, appearing in media interviews, and preparing for the soon-approaching party debates, each contender has started to trickle out details of their platforms. Here's a snapshot of where the candidates stand on the economy, housing, climate, defence and social issues.
Liberals' deal with NDP will keep Trudeau minority in power for 3 more years
The federal Liberals and New Democrats have finalized an agreement that, if maintained, would keep Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government in power until June 2025, in exchange for progress on longstanding NDP priorities. Trudeau announced Tuesday morning that the confidence-and-supply agreement has been brokered, and is effective immediately.
Meet the six candidates on the ballot to be the next Conservative leader
Conservative Party members will be electing their new leader in September. Six candidates have secured their place on the ballot, after meeting all of the party's eligibility requirements. Here's a snapshot of who each candidate is, their political histories, and what kind of campaign they're running.
Opinion
OPINION | Don Martin: Premier Jason Kenney deserved a better death
There's a lesson for Canada's political leaders in the short life and quick death of Jason Kenney as premier of Alberta, writes Don Martin in an exclusive opinion column for CTVNews.ca.

OPINION | Don Martin: Ford on cruise control to victory in Ontario while Alberta votes on killing Kenney as UCP leader
It's becoming a make-or-break week for two Conservative premiers as their futures pivot on a pair of defining moments, writes Don Martin in an exclusive opinion column for CTVNews.ca.
OPINION | Don Martin: This is the candidate who stole the show in my view
In an exclusive column for CTVNews.ca, Don Martin weighs in on the Conservative leadership debate highlights and fumbles in Edmonton on Wednesday night.
OPINION | Don Martin: The thunder of overreaction as Rolling Blunder wheels toward Ottawa
As was the case with the Freedom Convoy, it’s the organizers of Rolling Thunder who are giving the event's modest purpose some ominous overtones, writes Don Martin in an exclusive opinion piece for CTVNews.ca.
OPINION | Don Martin: In the heart of Liberal-owned Toronto, an unlikely Conservative rock star takes the stage
Conservative leadership frontrunner Pierre Poilievre is attracting big crowds to large halls in unlikely locations. And if his early romp lasts, he'll be impossible to beat, writes Don Martin in an exclusive opinion column for CTVNews.ca.
ANALYSIS & INSIGHTS
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Huawei 5G ban delay wasn't tied to efforts to free Spavor and Kovrig, Mendicino says
Canada's Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino insists the once unknown fate of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig was not why the government delayed its decision to ban Huawei technologies from Canada's 5G network.

Thunderstorms kill 5 in southern Ont., knock out power in parts of Que.
As the May long weekend kicked off, a massive thunderstorm in southern Ontario and Quebec brought strong wind gusts that knocked down trees, took out power and left at least five people dead.
Russia presses Donbas offensive as Polish leader visits Kyiv
Russia pressed its offensive in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region Sunday as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the outcome of the grueling conflict would determine whether his country's fate lies with the West or under Moscow's domination.
Toronto investigating first suspected case of monkeypox
Health officials in Toronto say they are investigating the first suspected case of monkeypox in the city.
Biden says monkeypox cases something to 'be concerned about'
U.S. President Joe Biden said Sunday that recent cases of monkeypox that have been identified in Europe and the United States were something 'to be concerned about.'
A 'relieved' Jason Kenney says he won't run in the UCP leadership race
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says he will not be running in the race to pick a new leader of the United Conservative party.
Putin's invasion of Ukraine an 'act of madness,' former U.K. PM Blair says
The United Kingdom's former prime minister Tony Blair says Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine is an 'act of madness.' In an interview on CTV's Question Period airing Sunday, Blair said Putin doesn't appear to be the same man he knew in the early 2000s.
Flu cases on the rise in Canada despite expected fall
The federal government is reporting a sharp rise in influenza in recent months, at a time of the year when detected cases generally start to fall in Canada.
Albanese elected Australia's leader in complex poll result
Australians awoke on Sunday to a new prime minister in Anthony Albanese, the centre-left Labor Party leader whose ascension to the nation's top job from being raised in social housing by a single mother on a disability pension was said to reflect the country's changed fabric.