Poilievre says Liberal leadership aspirants are 'just like Justin'
CBC
From coining "Justinflation" to saying Justin Trudeau is "not worth the cost," Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has been unafraid to target the prime minister directly in his messaging.
But following Trudeau's bombshell resignation, it will now be a different Liberal leader facing off with Poilievre in the federal election, which is likely to be held sometime this spring.
Already, the party has shifted its messaging — with Poilievre's account tweeting an image of potential Liberal leadership contenders, including Dominic Leblanc, Mark Carney, Chrystia Freeland and others, with the caption "they're not the solution – they are JUST LIKE JUSTIN."
A senior Conservative source told CBC News we can expect more of this messaging in the weeks ahead.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer shared a similar message.
"We're about to have a leadership race where all the candidates have either voted for or been the chief architects of Justin Trudeau's terrible policies that have inflicted so much misery. So we're going to continue to highlight that regardless of who the Liberal leader happens to be," said Scheer.
He made pointed jabs at several contenders, including Carney, who the Conservatives have labelled "carbon tax Carney" (despite the former Bank of Canada governor distancing himself from the levy in May), former B.C. premier Christy Clark, and former deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland.
None of these people have officially launched campaigns, although Carney issued a statement on Monday night saying he would be "considering this decision closely" over the coming days.
Garry Keller, a former chief of staff to Conservative cabinet minister John Baird and interim leader Rona Ambrose, said Conservatives were looking forward to running against Trudeau, due to his miserable polling numbers.
The Liberals have lost the last six byelections.
"Would they have liked to run against Justin Trudeau? Of course," said Keller, now vice-president at StrategyCorp. "But at the end of the day, the Conservatives don't control who their opponent is going to be at the next election. You can only control what you can control. And that is your message."
The senior Conservative source says the Opposition will be looking for opportunities to highlight the closeness between potential leadership contenders and Trudeau.
For example, on Monday, Trudeau said that Freeland "has been by my side for close to 10 years now. She has been an incredible political partner for just about everything we have done."
A clip like that could be used against her if she were to be named the next leader, the source said.
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