I have been reading some Conservative commentators on social media and they are stating that the policies being presented by the CPC have the potential to turn things around for them. One commentator even stated that they could take voters' mind off of Donald Trump.
As a Liberal supporter I really hope the Conservatives go with that idea. As the political animal that I am I believe it is nuts to make such an assertion.
This election is shaping up to be like the 1988 Free Trade election. The Liberals, the Progressive Conservatives and the New Democratic Party (Yes there were only three parties then.) all presented great and not-so-great policy proposals. As well, each party leader committed gaffes that would have caused them trouble in typical election campaigns. However, they were largely ignored because Canadians were riled up by the FTA between Canada and the US. For context this was the precursor to the NAFTA. The country was very divided on the issue and it dominated that election, squeezing out every other consideration.
This election is shaping up to be the Donald Trump election. That is, Canadians are riled up by his words and actions towards Canada and they are going to dominate the campaign. He seems to have looked away from Canada for now, focusing more on Greenland, but Canadians are not going to forget what he has been saying and doing to Canada by the end of the campaign. And that will be reinforced because Donald Trump is not going to stop talking or acting like a lunatic. He will be constantly in the headlines and that will remind Canadians of how much of a threat he is to Canada's interests on a daily basis.
Any political party that believes otherwise is setting themselves up for a fall. Canadians are justifiably anxious about how Donald Trump could impact their future and they are looking to the Liberals and the Conservatives (sorry NDP) to see how they are going to address the Trump threat. So far the Conservatives have ceded that ground to the Liberals and as long as they do nothing else they say or do will have a positive impact on their election chances.
I do believe that the Liberals can lose this election but only if the Conservatives begin to address that orange elephant in the room in a meaningful way. If they do not then in all probability this will not be a change election.
2 comments:
No doubt the big driver in our will be Trump and the altered world order. Even if Trump was out suddenly, we are left with a major world power which elected such a president - twice - and folded over and over to Trump and now Musk and the whole damn oligarchy. We can't ignore that the problem isn't just a bad president and won't dissolve when he leaves. America is largely deaf to the voices of other countries and has come to believe in its own myths so much that it fails to guard its own democracy and assumes it has a voice of command over other countries. Manifest destiny.
oh yeah...Conservatives aren't likely to win unless some other outside event turns things around suddenly. They have relied on the same hate/fear approach for so long they can't shift in time. They believe their own garbage and would find it near impossible to come up with actual, time-critical platforms, let alone speak of them with any credibility. Poilievre is a perfect example of this rigidity to the point of being a caricature.
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