Beware The Pierre

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After years of suffering through endless “Axe the Tax” ads from Mr. Poilievre and the Conservative Reform Alliance Party, I couldn’t resist one little partisan poke from my side of the table. Consider it a safety warning to all who want to keep Canada Strong and Free, “Beware The Pierre” is our rallying cry!

WARNING: this is a long report. But if we are going to vote wisely on April 28, we should know who we are getting into bed with for the next four years.

One week from now, Canadians will have either elected a government that will be led by a Prime Minister of a free and sovereign nation, or a government that will be led by the man who would be Governor of the 51st State. It’s that serious.

We need to Beware The Pierre simply because he is such a successful politician. Mr. Poilievre lives and breathes the Reform Alliance ideology hidden under the banner of the latest reincarnation of the Conservative Party of Canada. This ideology is hardwired into his reptilian brain stem, beats in his heart, and sings in his soul. He believes.

Mr. Poilievre describes himself as a “True Conservative” but political journalists describe him as a “libertarian, populist, social Conservative.” For Canadians who may have forgotten, we used to have Progressive Conservatives. Then came the alienated gang from the west pushing their Reform Alliance agenda to Unite the Right. David Orchard of the federal PC swore never to give the Conservative name to that ideology, but was betrayed by an ambitious Peter MacKay. Thus was born the new Conservative Party of Canada.

Let’s go back to that alienated gang from the west, because that is the root of Mr. Poilievre’s idolatry of ideology. Since the age of 14, Pierre Poilievre has been a political animal, attending Conservative, Reform and Alliance Party meetings. He was selling memberships for the Reform Party at 16, and at 17 was a delegate to the Reform Party National Convention. At 19, he was leading protests against a student organization that had tried to prevent a Reform Party rally on campus.

This is no casual hobby. This is a full time job. When people say Mr. Poilievre has no work life experience, they are wrong. He was working full time and perfecting his skills as a political agitator for the Reform Party of Canada. As a Reform Party member on campus at the University of Calgary, he was in direct conflict with the Progressive Conservative student organization, calling them “unprincipled.”

As President of Calgary’s “Young Club” of Reformers, he clashed with none other than a young Patrick Brown, President of the Progressive Conservative Youth Federation. By 2002, Pierre aka Jeff aka Skippy and his colleagues were calling themselves “The Fight Club” and were now canvassing for Stockwell Day and the new Canadian Alliance. This is where his true  political skill begins to emerge.

Mr. Poilievre becomes an adviser to Stockwell Day while he works online to complete his BA. in 2002, he begins to work as Ezra Levant ‘s campaign spokesperson (yes, that Ezra Levant, the far right journalist now broadcasting Rebel News) in a bid to merge the Alliance and Progressive Conservative Parties. He then becomes Levant’s campaign spokesperson in a bid to replace Preston Manning, However, Mr. Manning withdraws from the race to allow Stephen Harper to step in and become leader of the new Conservative Party of Canada.

Every step of the way, Mr. Poilievre was able to move along the leadership chain, very cleverly shifting allegiance from one rising political star to the next, continually honing his political skills. Finally, in 2004, he became an MP and, along with Andrew Scheer, the distinction of being the youngest members of the Conservative caucus. After the 2006 election, Harper appointed Mr. Poilievre to become Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury Board. In this game of Snakes and Ladders, Skippy just kept climbing.

From there, through leaders Harper, Ambrose, Scheer, and O’Toole, Pierre Poilievre continued to survive and prosper. When O’Toole was ousted in 2021 (did he fall or was he pushed?) Mr. Poilievre campaigned for leadership of the Party promising that he would make Canada “the freest country in the world.”

Jean Charest and Patrick Brown were also running in that leadership race. Charest was attacked for being too “Liberal”, and a whistleblower claimed that Mr. Brown had violated campaign finance  laws. That accusation led to his disqualification. Former PM Harper stepped in to endorse Mr. Poilievre, and he became the next leader of the Conservative Reform Alliance Party of Canada on the first ballot. Little PP had finally made it to the top of his political pile.

To get to the next prize he would need to incite the madding crowd in the only way a populist politician knows: attack and dumb down. Columnist Karl Nerenberg noted in September of 2023, “Poilievre has decided to push emotional buttons rather than focus on anything so complex as the details of policy.” Mr. Poilievre began a litany of campaign slogans bearing an eerie resemblance to the Trumpian rhetoric south of our border. His “Canada is Broken” and “Canada First” mirrored Mr. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” and “America First” rhetoric.

The danger with “create a crisis” and nationalistic slogans like these is that they conveniently take up the airspace that should be devoted to positive action plans. “Nationalism is a great deflection from having actual policy discussions,” says economist Erica Ifill. She sees nationalism as a gateway to fascism and white supremacy. This is classic far right Republican electioneering.

At the same time, Poilievre continued with his relentless assault on anything Liberal and blamed all of the nation’s perceived woes on PM Justin Trudeau. “Axe the Tax”, “Build the Homes”, “Fix the Budget”, “Stop the Crime” were the solution to decades of Liberal mismanagement, according to Mr. Poilievre, who has yet to release his Party’s platform.. That is why we need to Beware The Pierre, the man who wants to stop the crime but keep the handguns.

More troubling than this was his close parroting of some of President Trump’s more controversial positions, Mr. Poilievre issued a rejection of “wokeness” and stated,, among other things, “We will restore the promise of Canada and our founding leader {John A. Macdonald}.”  He commented that he sees DEI programs as “garbage.” He feels that “Canada is broken.” Back In February of 2022, Prime Minister Trudeau warned that “Mr. Poilievre wants to “Make Canada Great Again”

The final straw, and unintended proof that Mr. Poilievre had fallen prey to Trumpian rhetoric, was when he began to brag about the sizes of his rally crowds in Edmonton, posting on social media that over 15,000 people attended the vent. He later told reporters “When was the last time we had a rally that big in Canada? I think to have 10,000 or 15,000 people at one political rally. this is a movement like we’ve never seen.” Candidate Trump also inflated his crowd sizes, Boys will be boys.

Mr. Poilievre later challenged that Mark Carney’s large crowds had been inflated by AI. That was rich, considering a Conservative commercial once aired featuring Poilievre with current campaign manager Jenni Byrne holding Stockwell Day’s grandchild and posing as an average Alberta family. CBC fact-checked Mr. Poilievre’s claim and found no AI manipulation. Mr. Poilievre wasn’t lying, he was simply suffering from rally crowd size envy.

Finally, on January 30, 2025 , columnist Dan Newman wrote about “Poilievre’s Trumpian Aversion to Intelligence” regarding his refusal to go through a Top Secret Security Clearance.  No one who is afraid of being checked out for a Top Secret Security Clearance should be anywhere close to the leadership of this country in this day and age. Full Stop.

I don’t think we’ll get any of this blarney from Carney. The way I see it

Skid Crease, CAJ

Canada’s Promise?

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The Conservative Reform Alliance Party candidate in my riding, incumbent Kyle Seeback, has recently been touting a Party line about “Bringing Home Canada’s Promise” This Common Scents Party claims, and I quote from their online site, that Canada’s Promise is: All who work hard get a great life in a beautiful home on a safe street protected by strong borders and military under our proud flag. Whoa! Did we just suddenly teleport to the land of make believe south of our previously unprotected border?

Fellow Canadians, old and new, you may want to read that “Promise” again. First, I can assure you it was never made to our First Nations. Secondly, I don’t ever recall that promise being recited in school, or taught in any citizenship class, or sung by Anne Murray or Celine Dion or Bruce Cockburn (still living), or Gord Downie or Leonard Cohen or Gordon Lightfoot (forever would not have been enough) in the verses of any song, I know a lot of people who worked hard their entire lives and ended up with a whole lot less that a “great life in a beautiful home, etc.” and still loved Canada. If Canada ever made a promise to any of us, it was this: “I will bring you long winters cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.”

The promise that all who come to Canada to live and study and work and perhaps raise a family in a welcoming community was a hope really. A hope that we could live in a country where, if we worked hard and contributed our skills, we would be respected and cared for, be protected by the laws of the land applied fairly to everyone, and that our government would endeavour to act in our best interests in times of peace and war. If we studied hard, worked hard, and cared for our communities, we would find adequate shelter, sustenance, safety. And maybe, just maybe, time to express our creativity, and find love and friendship In our communities.

Dear Mr. Kyle Seeback, you claim that Canada is broken and needs to be fixed, You claim that you can bring home Canada’s Promise. I think that you need to stop parroting Mr. Poilievre, and that Mr. Poilievre needs to put his glasses back on for a reality check.

You see gentlemen, despite the hype of your “create a crisis” press releases, Canada is not broken. The promise of Canada is alive and well and living in Dufferin-Caledon, standing right beside you in the person of Malalai Halimi, the Liberal Party of Canada candidate running to be our next MP. That’s a promise.

The way I see it.

When Members of Parliament Fail

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Canada just had a federal election. I live in Caledon, a riding so safe for the Conservatives that the locals claim you could run a dead cow as the CPC candidate and it would win. The Conservative MP recently re-elected in my riding of Dufferin-Caledon is Kyle Seeback. This parliamentarian occasionally pens a column in the local paper entitled “Report from Ottawa” which one would suppose would be filled with vital information for the riding’s citizens. Alas, the column would better be titled “Raving Partisan Rants from Ottawa” filled with plenty of wistful speculations and accusations but nothing of substance.

The title of his latest “Report” was “It’s Time to Return to Work, Justin Trudeau” bemoaning the November 22 start of the 44th session of Parliament and complaining that it “is one of the longest delays in recalling Parliament after an election.” Now, Mr. Seeback should be aware that when, as an MP which his byline indicates, he addresses Justin, it should be respectfully as Prime Minister Trudeau. Seeback then boasted that “A Conservative government would’ve recalled parliament much sooner. We’re ready to roll up our sleeves and immediately return to work in the House of Commons to address the priorities of Canadians.”

Whoa there, Kyle. First, the “if we’d won we would have recalled parliament sooner” is analogous to the old saying: “If my aunt had had  testicles, she would’ve been my uncle.” Secondly, thanks to Erin O’Toole’s waffling on mandatory vaccinations, your party isn’t even prepared to re-enter the House because of the Conservative anti-vaxxer MP’s who refuse to either reveal their vaccination status or get vaccinated in the first place. You’ll all have to roll up your sleeves to get a shot before you get to work for Canadians. One of the top priorities for Canadians is for government to do everything possible to get this COVID-19 pandemic under control, so get out and push, or get out.

Please, MP Seeback, tell us how you plan to do that so that we can get back to some sense of normal in both our humanity and our economy. Let us know how your party plans to cooperate with the other parties in Parliament to ensure this happens as efficiently and honestly as possible. All we have heard so far is that the CPC plans to be “The Party of NO” ready to shoot down any Liberal bills intended to get us out of this pandemic and back to life and work.

The recent federal election was intended to give Canadians a chance to clearly indicate the direction of their political compass for the next four years. Alas, the $600 million dollar gamble (taxpayer monies which would have been better spent fulfilling the “to do” list from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission) produced a minority government that looks a lot like the previous one. Minority governments can work beautifully, but only if all the parties involved come to the table ready to work with collaboration towards consensus on the actions that will benefit all Canadians.

“If we had won” is a vain fantasy Mr. Seeback. Your Party lost. You actually had less of the popular vote than in 2019 and are down 2 seats in 2021. Now, let’s make sure Canada doesn’t lose because of your right wing Conservative Party’s obstinate and antagonistic stance toward anything centre left. If Canadians had wanted the CPC to lead the country, you’d be the governing Party right now. You’re not. Quit whining and get back to work Kyle Seeback. On November 22nd we’ll see who has their sleeves rolled up.

The way I see it.

***

Skid Crease, Caledon

Aren’t politics ironic, don’t you think?

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Irony, by common definition, is the expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect. As students of English Literature, we learned that dramatic irony occurs when the reader knows what is going on, but the characters in the poem, novel, play do not.

Political irony is a little different. It occurs when politicians say or print or graphic something that is the total opposite of who they are and/or what they do or have done. The effect is not humourous but it does tend to emphatically highlight their hypocrisy.

Two examples will suffice to illustrate this concept clearly. The WE Charity controversy that dominated the media for much of 2020 was created by the Conservative and NDP parties for the sole purpose of tarnishing Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party of Canada. Although all of the spurious accusations against the government and its leader were found to be groundless by the the federal Ethics watchdog, the WE Charity was destroyed.

This was an international development charity and youth empowerment movement founded in 1995 by human rights advocates Marc and Craig Kielburger. They started it on a dream when they were teenagers, and it brought inspiration, opportunity and global success to youth around the world for over 25 years. In the summer of the pandemic when students desperately needed employment, the Conservative led attack against WE crushed the dream and their program to provide projects and grants to post-secondary students across Canada.

Less than a month after the dust had settled on the WE controversy, we received a full colour brochure in the mail from our local Conservative Party of Canada MP, Kyle Seeback. It had his smiling face on the front cover beside the banner headline “Opportunities for Youth” … too little, too late Kyle.  That’s political irony and hypocrisy in action.

 

The second example is closer to home. On November 26, 2020, Caledon Regional Councillor Annette Groves voted against her own Town of Caledon at the Region of Peel. The subject of the vote was a motion to reduce Caledon’s Regional Councillors by 2 and add 2 seats to Brampton’s delegation. Her colleagues in Caledon were totally blindsided. At a time when Caledon’s population is expected to grow exponentially over the next ten years, losing representation at the Region made absolutely no sense at all.

At a Special Session of Council streamed live on November 30th, Ms. Grove’s actions and the passing of the motion were widely condemned by citizen delegations and Councillors alike. The next day in our Canada Post mailbox, I received a full colour three-page fold out brochure. There on the front page was Ms. Grove’s smiling face beside the banner headline, “Dear Friends and Neighbours.” That’s political irony and hypocrisy at its finest.

With friends like these, we don’t need enemies. But we may need a lesson in media literacy to remind us that all that glitters is not gold. Those happy smiling faces and weasel word headlines are designed to lure us into the lie. Remember carefully the words of warning in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet:

O’ serpent heart hid with flowering face! Dove-feathered raven, wolfish-ravening lamb.Despised substance of divinest show! Just opposite to what thou justly seem’st.

Yes, when political irony is in play, put on your sunglasses, look past the glitter, and pray we don’t get fooled again.

The way I see it.

***

Skid Crease, Caledon

*images from politicalbrochures.com