Big crowds turning out for Poilievre suggest a very different kind of Conservative leadership race
CBC
In the last two Conservative leadership races, the supposed front-runners stumbled before reaching the finish line. This time, however, the front-runner is only showing signs of gaining ground.
Swelling crowd counts and MP endorsements aren't ironclad guarantees of success, but they certainly don't hurt. And Pierre Poilievre — with his populist appeals to frustration with government "gatekeepers" and calls to make Canada "the freest country on earth" — is doing well on both those measures.
Poilievre has tweeted photos of rallies in British Columbia and Ontario attended by hundreds of people. His visits to Calgary on Tuesday and Edmonton on Thursday are expected to draw more big crowds.
"They're unprecedented in a leadership [race]," said Melanie Paradis, a veteran of the two previous Conservative leadership races who served as former leader Erin O'Toole's deputy campaign director.
"He has a compelling narrative. It's important to credit that."
The theme of Poilievre's campaign is freedom. His rallies target government policies that he argues restrict those freedoms — everything from vaccine mandates to carbon taxes to government policy on inflation. Poilievre promises that if he becomes prime minister, he'll put a stop to all of it.
His supporters praise Poilievre for being an unapologetic conservative. Many like his willingness to bluntly criticize and even mock the Liberals.
Detractors worry he'll deepen divisions within the party and the country. Some have gone as far as to warn of the "Trumpification" of the Conservative Party if Poilievre wins.
Recent Conservative leadership contests haven't been kind to perceived front-runners. Maxime Bernier was expected to win the leadership in 2017, only to be knocked down by Andrew Scheer.
In 2020, Peter MacKay was widely viewed as the front-runner because he'd held a series of high-profile cabinet posts and helped to found the modern Conservative Party. He lost to O'Toole on the third ballot.
Poilievre benefits from some key differences between this race and the last two, said Paradis.
In 2017, Paradis said, the party was out of practice when it came to running leadership races. It allowed the race to drag on for more than a year, she said, which robbed it of a sense of urgency. It also had a field of more than a dozen candidates, which divided the attention and resources of party activists.
In the last race, leadership contenders had to grapple with pandemic limits on the size of gatherings, which undermined outreach efforts. Now, Paradis said, many Canadians are excited to spend time with others.
Poilievre also has the advantage in caucus endorsements. More than 50 MPs are publicly backing him, compared to just 11 MP endorsements for candidate and former Quebec premier Jean Charest and six for MP Leslyn Lewis, who's running for the leadership for a second time.
A new study suggests that a colony of sea birds nesting on Cape Parry in the N.W.T. could face increasing threats related to increased Arctic shipping traffic and environmental change.
Albertans — predominantly members of the South Asian community — gathered at the Venice Banquet Hall in northeast Calgary for a town hall Saturday to address concerns around extortion and crime, with provincial and federal elected officials in attendance.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says his party's focus on affordability "is what unites all Conservatives," as the Tories grapple with another MP crossing the floor to join the Liberals — bringing them one seat shy of forming a majority government.
Toronto, York and Peel police are increasing their presence in the Jewish community during Hanukkah after the harrowing attack at Australia’s Bondi Beach on Sunday.
Another round of wintry weather is moving through Nova Scotia and P.E.I. on Sunday and will continue into Monday, with more snow and gusty winds, followed by frigid temperatures.
Hundreds of Londoners showed up at CBC's annual Make the Season Kind holiday event on Thursday in support of the London Food Bank.
The crisp weather didn’t stop the hundreds of people who took part in the annual Mummer’s parade in Bowring Park, St. John’s Saturday.
Wake Lloire loves how slow letter writing is, from composition right to its arrival at its final destination by mail. It's like a "little time capsule."
Experts are constantly warning the public to be on guard for new and increasingly convincing scams, but police say the holiday shopping season is especially fraught with risk.
A surgeon who used to work at Flin Flon's hospital says residents in the northwestern Manitoba city have been left in a precarious situation after more than five years without general surgery services.
Moubarak Bokhit Ali's memories of his home country of Sudan are punctuated by flashes of violence.
The man behind the Moose Jaw health centre that has claimed “a 100 per cent success rate in stopping the progression and in restoring function of people with ALS” says a recent CBC story about his company is evidence that he is seen as “a direct threat to the ALS drug industry.”
The Neighbour to Neighbour Centre’s trans and non-binary grocery program, which offers free food and household products to community members once a month, began with a simple question: how do we get free menstrual products to trans people without being awkward?