XPost: alt.politics, alt.culture.canada
Canada’s Conservative Leader Is Tossed From His Own Seat
Pierre Poilievre lost the vote for a constituency he has held for 21
years to a Liberal political neophyte. His populist approach may have
been to blame.
By Ian Austen
Source: New York Times <
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/29/world/canada/canada-poilievre-election-conservatives.html>
Reporting from the villages of Manotick, Greely and Osgoode, Ontario
April 29, 2025, 9:02 p.m. ET
When protesting truckers rolled toward downtown Ottawa and proceeded
to occupy the Canadian capital for four weeks, they got a welcome from
a man waving to them from a highway overpass, his hands covered in
knitted red mittens with white maple leaves on the palms.
The man was Pierre Poilievre, who would become the leader of the
Conservative Party and who until just recently was widely referred to
as Canada’s next prime minister. Soon he will have a new title:
ex-Member of Parliament.
In a stunning upset, voters in Mr. Poilievre’s district (or riding, as
it is known in Canada) turned him out of office on Monday. His embrace
of the so-called Freedom Convoy of 2022, appears to have played a
significant role in the defeat.
Voters in this part of Canada have memories of that time — and not
fond ones.
With Ottawa paralyzed, local businesses forced to shut down and
residents struggling to sleep amid the round-the-clock air horn
blasting, Mr. Poilievre brought coffee and doughnuts to the truckers,
who were protesting pandemic restrictions and the Liberal government
of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
On Tuesday, his support for the convoy, some leaders of which recently
received criminal convictions, was a recurring complaint among voters
in his district, Carleton.
“Populist politics is not for me,” declared one voter, Rick Pauloski,
who said he had supported Conservatives in the past.
The trucker protest was not the only explanation Canadians offered for
the candidate’s defeat.
Some said they did not trust Mr. Poilievre to deal effectively with
President Trump’s trade war with Canada and his vows to annex it as
the 51st state, given his echoing of the American president’s
language. Mr. Poilievre, too, has condemned “radical woke ideology”
and also promised to shrink government, cut foreign aid and in effect
eliminate public broadcasting.
Others said they had grown tired of Mr. Poilievre’s style of attack
politics, which he took to a level not previously seen in Canada.
“Canada is broken,” he would tell voters — at least until Mr. Trump ’s threats set off a wave of Canadian patriotism. Some voters also said
that as he rose to power, Mr. Poilievre neglected his local
constituency.
Mr. Pauloski said he was put off by Mr. Poilievre’s embrace of vaccine opposition, which set off the truckers protest. “The fact that he has
an anti-vaccine campaign really bothered me, because I’m a research scientist,” he said.
Even some who in the end voted for Mr. Poilievre said they had moments
of doubt.
Read it all here: <
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/29/world/canada/canada-poilievre-election-conservatives.html>
Looks like Canada is the new leader of the "Free World", since Trump
abdicated.
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web:
http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog:
http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk
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