Rahim Mohamed: The message that will win Pierre Poilievre the next election
“[Doing] a few things well, not a lot of things poorly” is the message that will make Pierre Poilievre the next prime minister of Canada; and, if it sounds familiar, that’s because it was also the message at the heart of the breakthrough 2006 campaign of Poilievre’s mentor Stephen Harper.
By the time of the writ’s dropping in late 2005, the Paul Martin-led Liberal government was knocked off course by the spiralling sponsorship scandal, plagued by infighting, and intent on imposing an expensive and byzantine national child care system on the provinces . Recognizing the desire of Canadians for a functional, drama-free federal government, Harper and his team emphasized a small set of priorities with broad buy-in among Canadians.
These priorities were clearly articulated to voters in the form of “five promises”: a federal accountability act; a two percent cut in the GST; reduced hospital wait times; monthly cash for child care; and tougher sentences for violent offenders. In addition to anchoring the Conservative brand, the “five promises” set the parameters of the policy debate, frustrating Liberal efforts to paint Harper as a right-wing extremist.
Saddled with a government that can no longer deliver basic services, Canadians will settle for competence. For all the invective that Poilievre has drawn in recent months, he still enjoys a longstanding reputation as a thoughtful and capable student of politics who’s pretty dang good at his job as a member of parliament. He must now return to his policy wonk roots if he wants to lead the Conservative Party back to power.
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