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
Budget 2024 prioritizes housing while taxing highest earners, deficit projected at $39.8B
In an effort to level the playing field for young people, in the 2024 federal budget, the government is targeting Canada's highest earners with new taxes in order to help offset billions in new spending to enhance the country's housing supply and social supports.
'One of the greatest': Former prime minister Brian Mulroney commemorated at state funeral
Prominent Canadians, political leaders, and family members remembered former prime minister and Progressive Conservative titan Brian Mulroney as an ambitious and compassionate nation-builder at his state funeral on Saturday.
'Democracy requires constant vigilance' Trudeau testifies at inquiry into foreign election interference in Canada
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testified Wednesday before the national public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada's electoral processes, following a day of testimony from top cabinet ministers about allegations of meddling in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. Recap all the prime minister had to say.
As Poilievre sides with Smith on trans restrictions, former Conservative candidate says he's 'playing with fire'
Siding with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on her proposed restrictions on transgender youth, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre confirmed Wednesday that he is against trans and non-binary minors using puberty blockers.
Supports for passengers, farmers, artists: 7 bills from MPs and Senators to watch in 2024
When parliamentarians return to Ottawa in a few weeks to kick off the 2024 sitting, there are a few bills from MPs and senators that will be worth keeping an eye on, from a 'gutted' proposal to offer a carbon tax break to farmers, to an initiative aimed at improving Canada's DNA data bank.
Opinion
opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
opinion Don Martin: The doctor Trudeau dumped has a prescription for better health care
Political columnist Don Martin sat down with former federal health minister Jane Philpott, who's on a crusade to help fix Canada's broken health care system, and who declined to take any shots at the prime minister who dumped her from caucus.
opinion Don Martin: Trudeau's seeking shelter from the housing storm he helped create
While Justin Trudeau's recent housing announcements are generally drawing praise from experts, political columnist Don Martin argues there shouldn’t be any standing ovations for a prime minister who helped caused the problem in the first place.
opinion Don Martin: Poilievre has the field to himself as he races across the country to big crowds
It came to pass on Thursday evening that the confidentially predictable failure of the Official Opposition non-confidence motion went down with 204 Liberal, BQ and NDP nays to 116 Conservative yeas. But forcing Canada into a federal election campaign was never the point.
opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike
When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parliamentary report on Emergencies Act decision is 18 months past due — and counting
The erstwhile group of senators and MPs studying the federal government's invocation of the Emergencies Act over the "Freedom Convoy" was supposed to present its findings in December. December of 2022, that is.
Grandparents killed in wrong-way crash on Hwy. 401 identified
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
The kids from 'Mrs. Doubtfire are all SUPER grown up now, and we're not OK
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
Quebec man who threatened Trudeau, Legault online sentenced to 20 months in jail
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
Black youth face multiple barriers in accessing mental health care, experts say
Black youth in Canada face multiple barriers in getting access to mental health services — and health-care providers can make the situation more difficult, experts say.
Bystander livestreams during Charlotte standoff show an ever-growing appetite for social media video
Saing Chhoeun was locked out of his Charlotte, N.C., home on Monday as law enforcement with high-powered rifles descended into his yard and garage, using a car as a shield as they were met with a shower of gunfire from the direction of his neighbor's house.
Britney Spears 'home and safe' after paramedics responded to an incident at the Chateau Marmont, source tells CNN
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
Israel has briefed U.S. on plan to evacuate Palestinian civilians ahead of potential Rafah operation
Israel this week briefed Biden administration officials on a plan to evacuate Palestinian civilians ahead of a potential operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah aimed at rooting out Hamas militants, according to U.S. officials familiar with the talks.
TD worst-case scenario more likely after drug money laundering allegations: analyst
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
Local Spotlight
Twin Alberta Ballet dancers retire after 15 years with company
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
Here's how one of Sask.'s largest power plants was knocked out for 73 days, and what it took to fix it
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
Quebec police officer anonymously donates kidney, changes schoolteacher's life
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Canada's oldest hat store still going strong after 90 years
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Road closed in Oak Bay, B.C., so elephant seal can cross
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
B.C. breweries take home awards at World Beer Cup
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Kitchener family says their 10-year-old needs life-saving drug that cost $600,000
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.