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.
Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer is asked by reporters how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation affects the Conservatives’ election strategy. Scheer added that the Liberal leadership race doesn’t change what the Liberal Party is offering in terms of policies.
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.
Plans to trigger an election on hold
Scheer was speaking from Parliament Hill, where the Conservatives were hoping to use a committee meeting to try to force a confidence motion to topple the Trudeau government.
For now, that plan has been scuttled.
When Trudeau prorogued Parliament until March 24, he effectively blocked the opposition parties from triggering an election by voting non-confidence in the government until the end of March at the earliest.
In the meantime, Canada is staring down a tariff threat from president-elect Donald Trump, which would see a 25 per cent blanket tariff on Canadian exports — risking throwing the economy into a recession.
Trump vowed to implement the tariff when he’s inaugurated on Jan. 20.
In an interview with author and psychologist Jordan Peterson, Poilievre said the best interests of the country outweigh the troubles of the Liberal party — and for that reason, delaying the election for a Liberal leadership is damaging to the country dealing with the tariff threat and an affordability crisis.
“Forty-one million people are not obliged to wait around while this party sorts out its shit,” said Poilievre. “These guys could have gotten rid of Trudeau a year-and-a-half ago.”
While the Liberals pick a leader, Conservatives campaign
The Liberal infighting could present an opportunity for Poilievre’s Conservatives, Keller said.
Though there is no official campaign date set, Poilievre has already spent a lot of time on the road, touring places like mills, mines, factories and farms.
In his interview with Peterson, Poilievre said he held 600 events over the past year. With Parliament prorogued, he’s expected to start touring again — all while Liberals remain paralyzed by a leadership race.
The Conservatives are also massively out-fundraising the Liberals. Keller said he’ll be watching how they deploy that money on ad buys in the coming weeks.
“I think in some ways, the Conservatives have to be really excited about the opportunity to have a bit of an open goal to try to score as many points and continue to communicate their message to Canadians,” he said.