What happened between Trump and Poilievre?

Is this the real reason Trump torpedoed Canada's conservative party leader Pierre Poilievre explained in this video? It makes a lot of logical sense.

Unfortunately Canadian people and conservatives are caught in the middle of a disrespectful treatment. Canada is sinking and we could have avoided it but for a stupid phone call.

Meanwhile in the Netherlands, 2025 edition

A lesson in why proportional representation is a bad idea and also, the Netherlands could also be drifting more conservative:

Quick Canada Update

For my American friends, Canadian conservatives have not given up. Not at all. The conservative party leader is plotting a comeback path, and starting not tomorrow, not next week; it's already started.

Canadian Election Disaster Trilogy

This is not the total disaster I had feared. Liberal, World Economic Forum golden boy Mark Carney was parachuted in to save the Liberal Party of Canada from the disaster known as Justin Trudeau. Notice he wasn't parachuted in to save Canada, but to save the Liberal Party. Pick your theatrical villain, this guy is it: 

Yep, that's him with the associate of you-know-who.

Sadly, Canada is full of uninformed people (due largely to our lock-step Leftist media), weak-willed cowards with a knee-jerk reaction to president Trump's tariffs.  

Going into the election, the Conservative party had a somewhat charismatic (in an understated way) leader unafraid to take on the media, unafraid to talk common sense. He was winning so much support, it looked possible that the Liberal party could be actually wiped out entirely. Less than four months ago, Conservatives were a certainty. Meanwhile the Liberals had historically unpopular Justin Trudeau. A global laughing stock of a leader.  After a decade people tend to tire of the incumbents, that's true anywhere not just Canada. 

There was a lot that went wrong with Canada's populist revival, and it was a perfect storm of sh@% that resulted in a Liberal 4th consecutive term, albeit barely. What happened? Three things mainly.

One - Too soon, too personal

Well the first problem was the Conservative party's strategy worked too well. Once Pierre Poilievre was elected leader of the party the strategy to demonize Justin Trudeau starting years before the election date worked. It worked so well, that along with Justin Trudeau's own contribution of ineptitude and horrible policies,  the Liberals approval ratings were near flatline. The problem though was twofold. Firstly they started way too early. The other problem; it was too Trudeau-centric. The Conservative popularity soared and Trudeau's waned abysmally as he deserved. But because this happened a year before the mandated latest election date, and because it was so closely tied to Trudeau, the Liberal party was able to jettison Trudeau and solve both problems at once.  A 'fresh' 'new' face cleared punted the problem for the Liberals. 

True, nobody wanted Trudeau, not even liberal voters. But he was no longer on the ballot. The Conservatives were a victim of their own early success. Liberals had time to present themselves, along with a compliant media as revitalized and different.  It's not true, as has often been pointed out, but it became the perception. Liberal voters flocked back to Liberal support, abandoning the other parties (mostly the NDP) they had drifted towards.

 

Two - I have to say it; Donald Trump

At one point probably 60% of conservative voters in Canada were very much pro-Trump for America. President Trump coming in and going after Trudeau with tariffs was a real miscalculation. Canadians didn't see it as an attack on the Trudeau they for the most part detested. They saw it as an attack on Canada. We've been a loyal friend to the United States for over a century. This about face made no sense. There are trade issues on both sides for sure, but we're not China.

Trump created a climate of fear in Canada that permeated the election cycle. It was now about Canadian sovereignty. That gave Pierre Poilievre a no-win hand to play. Endorse Trump and seem anti-Canadian to most of the country or talk tough and say Canada First. He had to chose the latter or get decimated in the election. But choosing the latter meant that he was just like the Liberals. This may have also been a strategic mistake. There was probably a third path; a path of reconciliation with America.  A path of let's address the concerns of both countries. But it would have taken an enormous campaign to get that message through and per point one; the Conservatives went through a lot of budget before the election even got started and probably couldn't muster the resources to carry that off.

President Trump inserted himself into a Canadian election in a way that hurt Conservatives' election chances. It may have been a deliberately gamble to help the Conservatives but if so, it failed. Badly. While addressing trade grievances and fentanyl issues are certainly important and admirable, this was ill-timed and will end up hurting working class and middle class Canadians who are suffering badly already thanks to their Liberal overlords. I know, I am one of them. The Canadian economy for ordinary Canadians is on the ropes. This could spell the death of Canadian middle class. 

Three - Jagmeet Singh

The clown of a leader for the New Democratic Party (socialists), Jagmeet Singh was so self-serving that for years he propped up Justin Trudeau, holding on as long as he thought was possible. If he had had any backbone, Canada could have held an election any time over the last two years. Didn't happen. He kept Trudeau in power long enough to give the Liberals time for an alternative. Singh earned himself enough tenure for a lucrative lifetime government but he lost his own seat in parliament in the election as a result. He decimated his own party to a rump in parliament with virtually no power anymore. And it cost Canada. If he'd been less a Trudeau lacky Canada would have had a conservative Prime Minister and his NDP party would have been better off too. His selfish and progressive ambitions have made Canada a country on life support.

There's your trilogy of reasons for the disaster. There's a trilogy of disastrous outcomes for Canada, we are stuck with more World Economic Forum leftist leadership. We have a squandered opportunity for conservative populism and for a reinvigorated relationship with the United States

Not all is lost

I started by saying this was not the complete disaster it could have been. It's true.  The Liberals do not have a majority government in parliament. Support from the ruined NDP party won't be enough to keep them in power now. They are subject to a non-confidence motion and a snap election at any time. The conservatives and the Bloc Quebecois (who don't like the Conservatives but detest the Liberals) will likely see to it that the government lasts 18 months or less. My gut says 9 - 12 months. People will have time to see Carney is every bit the villain that Justin Trudeau was. A conservative majority is still a looming possibility, perhaps merely delayed.

My fellow Canadians

Yes, I'm Canadian.  Yes, I'm pro-Trump. But I'm even more a conservative and anti-leftist.  Here's a well thought out argument as to why Canada needs to get back to common sense:

Danielle Smith, another great Canadian politician

It's not only Pierre Poilievre in Canada that is making sense.  Danielle Smith is the premier (governor) of the Canadian province of Alberta. Alberta is the Texas of Canada. She's a conservative and has been to see then president-elect Trump at Mar-a-Lago and was at the president's inauguration yesterday.

She's a very vocal critic of Justin Trudeau and his abject failures on many fronts. She's also been rightly critical of fellow conservative and premier of Ontario Doug Ford, who is a conservative in the RINO mold. She's someone who is going to be able to work with president Trump in a mutually beneficial way for both Alberta and the United States.  

Possible conservative senate seat...in California?

Former MLB first baseman Steve Garvey, could end up winning the senate seat for California vacated by Dianne Feinstein and upending the senatorial hopes of congenital liar Adam Schiff. But let's not get carried away here.  While he's likely to be on the ballot in November, he's less likely to win:

Reporter gets schooled on common sense

Reporters have to ask questions. They need to challenge those being questioned, otherwise they are not doing their job. But when they softball one side and truly challenge the other, they become partisan hacks.  In Canada, a conservative leader, and a grocer, debunk the reporter's assertion that Canada's carbon tax not only doesn't hurt inflation but, laughably, actually helps it.  The reporter cites a study of dubious quality and gets schooled with common sense. 

Canada's most populace province re-elects conservative government

This is a good sign for the coming midterms. Canada's most populous province, Ontario, one that federally has typically voted Liberal (think Justin Trudeau), yesterday re-elected a majority conservative provincial government.  Doug Ford was re-elected as provincial Premier.  It's a good sign.  Mostly.

For the first time in my political voting life, I did not vote in this election.  Doug Ford was as wacky as Justin Trudeau in calling the Freedom Convoy illegal and unacceptable.  While I'm happy the conservatives won, and I understand his position on the issue was a politically expedient one designed not to alienate a typically liberal province, the choice to slander those who were peacefully protesting a bad government decision was unacceptable to me.

Even many of the federal Conservative Party leadership candidates are supporting a repeal of the Trudeau COVID mandates, which was the impetus for the Freedom Convoy.   I'm pretty sure that I'm not alone in my thinking that Premier Doug Ford was being politically expedient when he badmouthed the Freedom Convoy rather than standing up for their concerns.  The basically status quo election had a miserable voter turnout for Ontario provincial elections, roughly 44%, representing the worst provincial election turnout in the province's history.  

I'm glad the Conservative Party won.  The alternatives were either a liberal or an outright socialist.  So the least bad option prevailed. Good.  But not great.  The best sign is that the mood of Canada is not rabidly liberal and it probably carries over into the United States as an existential truth at the moment. 

Tone deaf Premier of Ontario

Say it with me --  "I will never vote for the conservative party of Ontario as long as Doug Ford is the head of the party."  This man is the most disappointing leader I have ever seen.  With Justin Trudeau you expect stupidity.  Doug Ford was elected as a conservative but has been governing as a frightened child. 

Finally! A conservative job site!

In reaction to the everything Left Big Tech and the woke businesses comes Unwoke.hr - a conservative job site.  We need more of these types of responses to Big Tech; Parler instead of Twitter is another good example.  But there is not enough of it yet.  We need more.  And trust me - these companies will thrive.

Trudeau's last days?

Today there is a national election in Canada.  Justin "black face" Trudeau has been plagued with scandals (from political interference in business, to multiple black face incidents, to ministers leaving due to his treatment of women in the political party), but he has somehow managed to rebound in the polls over the last month.  There is a chance that the Conservative Party of Canada could re-emerge victorious after one term of Liberal leadership but the polling all indicates a tight race between the Conservative and Liberal parties.  

All the other political parties have reverted to form as minor players with minimal representation.  But here's the problem - for Conservatives to win, they must win an outright majority of seats.  The NDP, a truly socialist party, and the Green Party would be more than happy to align with the Liberals to thwart a conservative minority government.   Should the conservatives win less than 50% +1 seats in parliament, it's very likely Canada would have a coalition government between the Liberals and NDP (and the Green Party if necessary).  The Bloc Quebecois will not win many seats but an alignment with conservatives is unlikely in any scenario other than where it would give a slim minority and make the separatist party the power brokers in the next parliament.  other party the PPC, which is a populist/libertarian leaning party might align with the conservatives but it's not clear they will win any seats at all.

I think like with the 2016 election in the U.S., the polls are off and while the Liberals might win a majority (a long shot), a minority (possible), or the Conservatives could win a majority (also a long shot) it's more likely the Conservatives win a minority and are ousted by a Liberal-NDP coalition.

As much as I hope these are Trudeau's last days, and they should be, I think sadly, they aren't.

The takedown continues

Why this is not a rallying cry across the interwebs I do not know.  The take down of conservatives continues with TrumpFanNetwork on YouTube shut down for "copyright infringements". Yeah, that's what's really going on.

Via Tim Pool:

This is scary stuff. We need a wing to shelter under. Parler is great but it's not it, at least not so far. The WhiteHouse portal for complaining seems, so far, like a dead letter office. Jordan Peterson's new alternative is not here.

They are fighting a war against conservative opinion and no one is organizing on our side.  Time is running out.  

Forget Jussie Smollett, where is the outrage over Hayden Williams?

A violent attack on a conservative Hayden Williams at the U.C. Berkeley campus based it appears, to be on purely political hatred.  The immediate outrage that accompanied the seems Jussie Smollett fake attack by the mainstream media seems to be lacking in this case.  Clearly there's a double standard at play.

Midterms Matter: For Nevada Senate, please support Dean Heller

Current polling puts Dean Heller's liberal Democrat and frequently, ethically flawed, false claim purveying challenger ahead of the incumbent Senator.  When you have a choice between a true homegrown Nevada-first senator and this, the choice should be obvious - common sense or this:

Despite that she holds a narrow lead over Dean Heller and she has been raising and spending more money than him.  In order to get elected she has resorted in the past to having been as evasive as possible.  Obfuscation is not a desirable quality in a politician and electing that sort will definitely lead to buyer's remorse in voters.

Dean Heller, meanwhile has stood up for common sense;

Since coming to the U.S. Senate, Dean Heller has passed more than 100 different pieces of legislation into law including his proposals to protect Nevada’s 300,000 military veterans, support small businesses, boost the state’s tourism economy, and fight vile crimes such as human trafficking.

Senator Heller needs your support in this critical election.  Please support his efforts; volunteer, donate or at least check out his positions on his website.  And by all means - vote.

Thank you.

Ontario Canada goes conservative

A quick follow-up to yesterday's post on conservatism vs. liberalism vs. socialism in Ontario, Canada.  As I suspected, our ruling Liberal party was decimated.  As I suspected, our Hillary-Clinton-sounding-but-way-left-of-Bernie-Sanders NDP socialist party came second, and our conservative leader, tagged as our version of Donald Trump, won a majority government in provincial parliament.

He's pro-business, he's in favor of lower taxes for the middle class, he's hugely anti-government-waste.

I'm looking forward to four years at least of respite from the growth-choking liberal policies that have torpedoed our province.  In his victory speech, Ford did not disappoint:

In an emotional victory speech, Ford thanked his supporters and vowed to make Ontario “once again the engine of Canada.” He also paid tribute to his late brother, former Toronto mayor Rob Ford, who died of cancer two years ago.

“I know that my brother Rob is looking down from heaven,” Ford said, as the crowd erupted in cheers. “He is celebrating with us tonight.”

Ford said his election marks the beginning of an era of economic growth “the likes of which this province has never seen before.” He also reiterated some of his marquee campaign promises, such as cutting gas prices and reducing taxes for middle-income families.

“Tonight we have sent a clear message to the world: Ontario is open for business,” he said, before pivoting to address those who didn’t vote for him.

“In those who didn’t support us, I will work even harder to earn your confidence.”

Maybe instead of dealing with our Prime Minister, Donald Trump should deal with this guy. 

Happening Now: Conservative vs Liberal vs Socialist in Ontario

My home province of Ontario (Canada's most populated province) votes today for a new premier (our version of governor).  After 15 years of Liberal party hegemony, fraught with scandal, corruption, inefficiency and some truly bad policy, voters are looking for a change.  Unlike the U.S. we typically have three viable options - the Liberal party (think Bernie Sanders), the New Democrats (think left of Bernie Sanders) and the Conservatives (which vary from people as conservative as Hillary Clinton, all the way over to Ronald Reagan).

Thankfully voters have finally had enough of the Liberals.  The provincial conservative party (sadly named the "Progressive Conservatives") held a strong enough generic lead to form the next government but in a snap leadership race months before the election (due to a sudden, not-so-surprisingly-ill-timed #MeToo-type scandal for their leader) they chose to elect the brother of former Toronto mayor Rob Ford (of crack mayor fame), as their leader.

He has no such scandal associated with him but he is not the most telegenic candidate.  He's been portrayed as Canada's version of president Trump by the media here.  They have attempted to smear him and his party.  Yet he clings to a slim lead in generic balloting.  The Liberals have not made a comeback - and risk garnering so few votes they may no longer qualify as a party if you can believe it. 

But this is going to be a change election.  The only other choice for change is the New Democrats (NDP) - the true socialists.  They have surged with a candidate who ironically speaks yells an awful lot like Hillary Clinton.  See for yourself.

She's also rude and exudes a sense of entitlement:

Just, wow. And apparently just HORRIBLE at basic math:

All that, said I expect our mini-Trump to win a majority government in provincial parliament as his votes are not so concentrated as the NDPs which will solidly over-perform in some areas, just as Hillary Clinton did in California, which did not help her one bit either.   Conservatives deserve to win because they are offering common sense.  They are listening to voters.

I'll report tomorrow on how it turned out.

Is Fox being parceled out?

News Corp HQ

If the downside of conservatism is being averse to change, even good change just because it's change, then as conservatives we need to be aware of that creeping into our thinking.  Innovation is change.  President Trump represents change, so it's not universal.

But apparently Disney is in talks to buy 21st Century Fox, which is of course related to Fox (News Corp) and therefore Fox News and as a conservative who appreciates Fox's take on news events it has me worried. Rupert Murdoch founder of Fox is getting on in years and his son's do not (at least wholly) support the political leanings of their father. Is News Corp going to be the next to be sold to say NBC for example?

Paranoid? Maybe, but when there is no other game in town on the conservative side then a little paranoia is probably healthy. That's not to say there are not dozens of quality conservative alternatives to Fox News; in fact Fox is not my first "go to" for news. Nevertheless it's undeniable that Fox is the only conservative-leaning media source that has the reach of it's mainstream media rival giants CBS, NBC, and ABC specifically.

And it's not to say that News Corp will be next. But if it is, conservative media will suffer a significant blow and I'd argue that the Right should start preparing for an alternative bid or developing an alternative outlet to Fox News. Regardless of possible paranoia that's just good planning. Even the Titanic had a few lifeboats.

No Canadian Trump

Kevin O'Leary, Canada's version of Donald Trump so far as politics and celebrity goes, has withdrawn from the leadership race for the Conservative party of Canada;

Kevin O’Leary is dropping out of the Conservative leadership race and endorsing Maxime Bernier because he says he can’t win a general election due to lack of support in Quebec.

In a stunning move that will rock the race and solidify Mr. Bernier as the sole frontrunner in the May 27 vote, Mr. O’Leary says he will now put his time and effort into electing Mr. Bernier as leader and helping him beat Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in 2019.

So long as ultra-liberal Justin Trudeau is defeated in 2019, it doesn't matter. Unfortunately in Canada Trudeau still is the one that has the celebrity cache.

Disengagement

Now that we have a Republican congress and senate, along with a Republican president and an overwhelming majority of Republican statehouse and state legislatures, you'd think complacency would be okay for a bit.  From a conservative voter perspective, we were probably all hoping for a set it and forget it government. President Trump and Congress would obliterate all resistance and do what they are expected to do.  As people, conservative voters could get on with their lives, and as far as governance goes, a benign disengagement would be perfectly fine.

Sadly not so for a number of reasons.  The left is as shrill and outlandishly ridiculous as they have ever been.  The left, consisting of Democrats, protesters and a violently hostile media with no pretense of objectivity or rationality left, are one reason that disengagement is not an option.  Another reason is the Republicans.  Now with a president Trump, the issue is not the same as if there were a president McCain or Romney or Jeb Bush.  They're way too middle of the road to preside over a Gorsuch nomination for the Supreme Court vacancy.  The SCOTUS would be just as likely to end up with a Stevens 2.0 as an Alito 2.0, probably more likely in fact.  Trump has stayed true to his word on the campaign trail so far.  Free Trade aside (and arguably he's not turned his back on real free trade at all), conservatives should be thrilled with the presidency and disengaged not from politics but perhaps just from the mainstream media.  

But there is the Senate.  There's still a John McCain, and Lindsey Graham.  There's still a Murkowski.  There's a lot of softness and that alone makes the set-it-and-forget-it conservative dream era not currently possible.  As voters and potential town hall participants it's important to keep their feet to the fire and not allow them to go squishy or else face being primaried in their next election cycle.  In fact, the looming 2018 midterms present a powerful opportunity for the GOP to truly consolidate their hold on power and winning a filibuster-proof majority is a high priority.  In order to get their the president and the Republicans in congress must have a track record of successfully delivering on promises and priorities.  To do that, voters have a responsibility to keep their REpublican representatives on script rather than going rogue and messing things up.

Disengagement?  Not an option, not now, not ever.  Not for conservative voters, not for Trump supporters.  The left, like rust, never sleeps, so neither can conservatives.