2 days Ago By Chris Nelson, For The Calgary Herald
Today, the countdown begins on the federal Conservative party’s future in Calgary. Our city has long been the bastion of Tory support across this country. But how long are we supposed to keep voting for what looks increasingly like a bunch of losers? Unless current Leader Pierre Poilievre manages to use tonight’s English language debate to successfully reboot a prime ministerial campaign in which he recently seemed a virtual shoo-in, then maybe it’s time to cut them loose once and for all.
We probably would have done so already if there were credible alternatives on recent federal ballots. But the thought of voting for the Liberals or NDP, led by the likes of Justin Trudeau or Jagmeet Singh, was stomach-turning for many of us. Meanwhile, Canada’s newly unelected Prime Minister Mark Carney is equally as distasteful.
Yet, he’s rivalled Lazarus in the back-from-the-dead stakes. Recent polls show Carney likely to lead the Liberals to another decade in power — Liberal prime ministers tend to hang on for that long, once they get their feet in the door. That would be disastrous for our city.
We’d continue sending money to Ottawa and receive nothing but disdain in return. All that chatter about building new pipelines and fast-tracking infrastructure would vanish like a May snowfall, once the voting’s done. Not surprisingly, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was recently on the receiving end of a joke by Carney.
Can you imagine him poking fun at the premier of either Quebec or Ontario in similar fashion? Of course not. Reluctantly, though, you’ve got to credit the Liberals. Politics is about winning and, for the past 90 years, they’ve been in power for all but 25 of them.
They know how to win, even when not getting the most votes, as happened in the past two federal elections when Trudeau managed to hang on as prime minister despite trailing the Tories at the ballot box. If it happens again, it’s time to ask some serious questions about any future support for a Conservative party that snatches defeat from the jaws of victory with such regularity. They’ve tried the Liberal-lite variety with leaders Andrew Scheer and Erin O’Toole, before choosing the harder-edged Poilievre.
Now, he, too, is struggling. Sure, the craziness erupting under U.S.
President Donald Trump hasn’t helped Poilievre, but there’s a point when sheer bad luck doesn’t cut it as an excuse. Meanwhile, those various placeholders who represent Calgary in the House of Commons — on those rare occasions it meets — probably imagine they’re doing a cracking job. They are not.
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