How to Defeat Poilievre’s Politics of Abandonment
In Pierre Poilievre, Canada has a radical free market zealot whose policies will be disastrous for the poor, working and middle classes.
Indeed, if the Conservatives are victorious in the next election, Poilievre will be the most right-wing prime minister in our modern history. Think the gutting of social welfare from the Paul Martin budgets of the early 1990s meets a supercharged dismantling of the fiscal capacity of government à la Stephen Harper.
Poilievre, to the credit of his communications team, has managed to dress up his right-wing program with populist rhetoric that resonates during a time of rising economic insecurity. But scratch the surface and the neoliberal playbook of slashing social spending, tax cuts for business and the wealthy, and abandoning people to market inequities is plain to see.
All of this provides plenty of potent talking points for those who oppose Poilievre’s bid to lead the Conservatives into power in the next election.
So here’s a memo to progressives who prefer to frame the contest as one based on likeability. Poilievre’s personality is flawed by a petty mean streak, we’re told. Voters just don’t feel warmly towards the cold fish. He knows it and that explains his latest ads projecting a friendly family guy. What if his PR blitz makes the public forget he’s a jerk? |Read more https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2023/09/08/Defeat-Poilievre-Politics-Abandonment/|
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