Conservatives and liberals: the war on spices

Two weeks before the resumption of parliamentary work, the tone is intensifying between conservatives and liberals. The advance of Pierre Poilievre’s troops in the polls increased the partisan climate.

The glasses are gone. Pierre Poilievre swapped the tie for a t-shirt. At his conference, we noticed that he smiled more. The Conservative leader is still cracking jokes. Like when talking about his wife at the start of his speech Friday night: Why is this beautiful Quebecer with this square head missing his glasses? A little self-control to soften your image and appear less abrasive.

The message is unchanged and appeals to fear: The family saw their mortgage payments increase by $1,000 per month. He was not angry (…), he was just afraid of not being able to pay to keep a roof over his headhe described.

During his sweeping speech Friday night, the Conservative leader painted a picture of his Canada broken : cost of living, crime, reduced freedom of expression.

The Conservative leader with activists at his party’s convention in Quebec.

He targets Justin Trudeau and Yves-François Blanchet because they support the principle of carbon pricing, in particular. Justin Trudeau and the Bloc punish your job, take your money, tax your food and double the price of your housedid he declare.

The problem of crime comes up again and again. Justin Trudeau, it’s not the Labrador hunters who are shooting up downtown Toronto, it’s the violent repeat offenders you keep letting loosehe said.

Pierre Poilievre also expressed his dissatisfaction with the changes to passports made in May, including the loss of illustrations depicting the country’s historical moments in favor of representations of Canadian nature. He accused the Prime Minister of wanting erase our proud history.

The liberal answer

Declining in the polls, Justin Trudeau’s troops feel the need to continue attacking and responding to the conservative leader. Liberal ministers launched their response at the doors of the Quebec City Convention Center as conservative delegates gathered.

Their counter-offensive also relies on anxiety, which highlights the threat that the election of a Poilievre government could represent. Rising to the far right etc radicalization of the Conservative Party : Minister Soraya Martinez accused Pierre Poilievre of importing American policy to Canada.

The concern is to look at the conservative congress today, for example, the pro-life coalition. We can see the gun lobby. We see groups that don’t believe in climate change. This is a risk, a risk for the achievements of Quebecershe said.

The Liberal political lieutenant for Quebec, Pablo Rodriguez.

Minister Pablo Rodriguez returned to a classic tactic, taken from the liberal toolbox: accounting for conservatives and austerity.

(Pierre Poilievre) wants to cut, cut, cut, but we don’t know where. Will it be included in the elderly? Can it be dental care? Is it at the level of day care? he insisted.

Faced with dismal polls and Pierre Poilievre’s repeated attacks on the housing and cost of living crises, the Liberals felt the need to be combative. So much for sunny ways.

Solutions?

Both parties are betting that in these uncertain times, the most powerful lever is fear. Currently, slogans have more than concrete proposals.

Last Friday, during Pierre Poilievre’s speech, Canadians were not treated to many new and detailed ideas. Regarding the housing crisis, he just reiterated his intention to link the infrastructure financing of the municipalities to the construction of new houses in their territory. Note that the Liberals have already linked part of the federal funding to building new homes.

When it comes to the environment, the Conservative leader wants to encourage businesses to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by investing in green technologies and removing barriers to the implementation of projects such as hydroelectric dams and wind turbines. , and make green mineral. But the means and targets remain unclear. How, for example, will it offset the impact of the elimination of the carbon tariff on the CO emissions balance sheet?₂ are you canadian

More than 2,500 people have registered to attend the Conservative Party convention in Quebec, according to party officials.

The Liberals, for their part, have struggled to shed the image of a government trying to catch up on housing issues and the cost of living. After eight years in power, the burden fell partly on their shoulders. Canadians hoping for a concrete plan from Justin Trudeau, after the recent Cabinet retreat in Charlottetown, saw no new proposals.

The idea put forward by the ministers to impose a cap on the number of foreign students in the country, in order to relieve the need for housing, mainly led to criticism from Quebec and from some university directors at the moment.

There is greater pressure on the government currently in power to quickly present concrete solutions to Canadians. In the opposition benches, Pierre Poilievre is undoubtedly betting on waiting until he is closer to the election before presenting a complete strategy.

According to the latest Abacus* survey, 58% of Canadians believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.

In the search for solutions, voters for now must be content with partisan rhetoric from the two main parties. Will the months leading up to the next election campaign be driven by emotion or by a debate on public policies?

After spices, will Canadians be treated to a battle of ideas?

Procedure:

*The survey was conducted among 3,595 Canadians by the Abacus Data panel and was conducted from August 29 to September 4, 2023 using an online questionnaire.

As an indication, a probability sample of this size has a margin of error of +/- 1.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.