Soon, Canadians will reflect on the period in Canada between former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s prorogation of Parliament in January 2025, to the end of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s summer vacation this Sept. 15 — far from the reality of an in-session Parliament — as a sort of Canadian political furlough.
The grass grew tall and went to seed, immigration numbers surged as a river might over an unmaintained levee, a new and inexperienced Prime Minister Carney spent months flitting about the globe on summer break, chanting his slogans — build, build,
build!
— and making the occasional display of low-altitude-elbow meekness beside a comparatively domineering U.S. President Donald Trump.
Not much happened, besides Canada’s ongoing decline. Immigration: up. Housing starts: down (in Ontario). Trump: walking all over us. Tariffs: bad, if you can keep track. Ukraine summit:
Carney not invited
. Canadian morale: in the toilet — until now.
Pierre Poilievre, and the Conservative party, are back. So back.
Following
his landslide by-election victory
in the Alberta Battle River-Crowfoot riding on August 18, Poilievre —
sans his former campaign manager Jenni Byrne
—immediately went on the offensive.
Free speech, immigration, and gender ideology: Poilievre is going there in a way he hasn’t previously.
The man so many of us thought would be the next prime minister of Canada, before Carney won has, clearly, been considering his losses and exactly how he can regain the enormous polling lead he held during the torturously extenuated finale of Trudeau’s reign.
Early polling results are promising
.
An Abacus Data poll
, that ran Aug. 15 to 19 and surveyed 1,915 adults, found that the Conservatives have regained a slight lead over Carney’s Liberals.
“If an election were held today, 41% of decided voters would cast a ballot for the Conservatives, up one point. The Liberals sit at 39%, down four points since early August. The NDP holds at 7%, Bloc at 7%, Greens at 2%, and PPC at 2%,” according to Abacus Data.
As reported in the Post, “Most of the interviews were conducted before the Air Canada flight attendants’ strike and the Carney government’s attempt to legislate them back to work, as well as before Poilievre’s byelection win in Alberta.”
The results “also preceded Carney’s decision on Friday to withdraw counter-tariffs on some U.S. goods.”
The Abacus Data poll was also, of course, conducted before Poilievre 2.0 emerged. His lead will no doubt widen by the day. For it’s not just a change in strategy we are seeing from Poilievre — it’s a change
to
the exact strategy that his base had longed for after Trudeau’s resignation in January.
On Aug. 21, three days after his re-election,
Poilievre posted this to X
: “A nurse with a spotless track record gets fined and suspended for pointing out there are two genders, and for praising world renowned author & women’s rights advocate
@jk_rowling
. This is authoritarian censorship. We must restore free speech and free thinking in a free country.”
I nearly fell off my seat. The post referred to my case against the BC College of Nurses and Midwives, and a recent, ludicrous penalty decision by a panel that found me guilty of “unprofessional conduct.”
With Poilievre’s post, the unacceptable erosion of free speech and women’s sex-based rights in Canada have been mainstreamed as critical issues by the leader of the official Opposition. Hallelujah.
Later that day, I received news that Poilievre wanted to call me. We spoke. I hung up feeling more hopeful for Canada than I have in years. Political calculus aside, he is a man who understands the issues and has an earnest desire for our country to return to a greatness that has been a stranger to Canadians for years.
Poilievre’s post on my case went viral: 27,000 likes and more than 2.5 million views — the very definition of “striking a chord.” Detractors — both of Poilievre and of those of us fighting for freedom — were enraged and predictably went into attack mode. However, their accusations of bigotry and intolerance have lost nearly all cultural purchase.
We are entering a new era of conservative politics in Canada.
Days later, Poilievre doubled down on his support: “Stop censoring professionals. Restore free speech,” he posted, sharing a
Post article
penned by my lawyer, Lisa Bildy, on the way that professional regulators are threatening Canadians’ free speech.
He has made similarly strong statements on immigration.
“New data just out shows Liberals are also on track to overshoot their already-high targets for new permanent residents of 395,000 for 2025, with 207,000 issued so far as of June 30
th
,”
he posted to X
.
Much like the days of calling women “bigots” for standing up for their rights have passed, so, too, have the days of calling those critical of unsustainable and poorly-managed immigration “racist” passed. Poilievre, this past week, has made sure of that.
It’s clear, now that it’s easy to poo-poo comparisons between Poilievre and Trump — whose previous election campaigns were temporally associated — that Canada’s new conservative movement is not about populism or deepening the vast political divide between citizens. What Poilievre is selling, today, is a return to the promises of what a wealthy, western, democratic nation should be offering its residents: freedom and prosperity. A promise that the Liberals have not only broken, but mangled to an unrecognizable pulp.
National Post
