Predicting the election at this mid-campaign point may be a fool’s folly, but Carney and the Liberals maintain a very healthy lead in every poll since Carney became leader of the Party.
Carney doing right
Carney may be politically inexperienced, but he’s campaigning like a seasoned pro. No major snafus; deflecting or managing tough media questions like foreign interference in the election; plausible or believable campaign promises; very open to media questions. Carney has to be given credit for running a campaign that is safe, promising and voter acceptable. He’ll win, hands down. The question is by how much, and that depends on Poilievre’s campaign tactics.
Poilievre is doing in wrong
Easy to criticize Poilievre for poor campaigning based on the polls continually showing the Conservatives trailing from day 1 of Carney becoming leader. When Trudeau was still around, the Conservatives held as big a lead as 20+ points in the polls. Once Carney became leader, that number has dropped steadily to where the party now trails by 5-6 points, depending on whose poll you view.
No matter. It looks like fate, more than fact, is maybe doing Poilievre in. “Canada is broke” sounded very hollow, if not shallow, when T****’s economic warfare attached Canada. Poilievre had to join the PRO Canada defence, abandoning his ‘broke Canada’ campaigning.
Poilievre, political nerd
Poilievre offers nothing that appeals to voters, as he does not have the right stuff to become the next government of Canada. When he offers reasonable campaign promises, he sounds like he’s late to the game. He has no basis for an attack on Carney, not employment experience, not business experience, not real-world experience. He’s been a political nerd all his life, from college days. Never ever doing anything that might make him credible as a real-world person. He’s a political nerd, nothing more.
Poilievre will be lucky if he gets 120 seats. In fact, that is dreaming for the Conservatives if they recognize they are going to lose.
Questionability of Jagmeet Singh
Singh’s closest encounter with the halls of power was when he was in coalition with Trudeau on medical policies. Since then, his true colours have shown — PALE.
Singh will be lucky if he gets even close to 10 seats. He will likely get much less.
Why? Canadian voters consider it unlikely that the NDP will ever form the government. Hence, a vote for the NDP is throwing the vote away.
However, there is another view to consider in why Singh will never win substantial votes, though it teeters on the edge of racism. Singh is another culture to many voters.
When push comes to shove, Singh is a hypocrite. Quebec legislated restrictions on religious symbols in public forums, not in schools, not in business, and not in public offices. Quebec passed the legislation. Singh should read the writing on the wall. That kind of legislation might have legs in the rest of Canada, and Singh wears his religious status with pride and with style. It is not subdued and subtle; rather, it is in your face, “I am proud of it,” and I am wearing it with pride…yellow, pink, blue, green, whatever, but no subdued grey. I am sikh and proud of it. I can practice my religion and promote my culture as I wish. I am Canadian and can appear anyway I want…and I choose to appear Indian or Asian above what most Canadians would see as ‘regular Canadian.’
Skip the accusations of being racist. Many Canadians will never admit to this kind of view publicly. Behind closed doors, biased views. A senior Montrealer verbally assaulted Singh for his appearance. The man was voicing what many Canadians would say if it were not politically incorrect to do so.
Behind closed doors, we believe in freedom to practice any credo to which we adhere. Trudeau Sr.’s words haunt us still, no right to Canadians’ bedrooms. But publicly, dress like the rest of us, like the prairie farmer, the maritime in the Atlantic region or the mountaineer in Vancouver. But it better not be a hijab, a yamalka or a habit. Blue jeans and a sweatshirt, regular Canadian apparel. It sounds absolutely silly, but it is the norm that many Canadians have publicly admitted. Singh needs to accept it even though he is politically correct in his stance on apparel.
The other parties
Please. The joke stops here. They may believe they stand for something constructive and valid, but in the real world, they are as politically acceptable as Howdy Doody, Kermit, or the Cookie Monster.
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