Pierre Poilievre did not get elected. And I don’t mean just as Prime Minister. He did not get elected in his own riding that he represented for more than 20 years. He no longer has a seat in the House of Commons, which means he must move out of his home in Ottawa that is reserved for the Leader of the Official Opposition. You may take issue with my categorization of the election results as terrible for the Conservatives. In which case, ask yourself this question: Did they win, or did they lose? Framing the election results any other way is a coping strategy.
I don’t exactly know why this happened, but we’re gonna do the next best thing and guess.
If you want to convince someone, you must address their way of thinking head-on. You can’t just ignore why they think differently than you and shove your narrative down their throat. When did Poilievre try to convince voters? I must have missed it. Speeches at rallies are not designed to change minds, nor do people attend rallies to have their minds changed. Doing podcasts with right-wing YouTubers who purposefully ask you softball questions to increase your popularity is not helpful.
The campaign hid Poilievre because they did not want any bad publicity, almost as if they thought it was their election to lose. Whether it was during media scrums or interviews, every easy question asked of Poilievre was a missed opportunity for him to answer a difficult question that could’ve actually changed someone’s mind. The Conservatives did everything in their power to minimize risk but if you don’t take risks… you will stay where you are and unsurprisingly, the Conservatives remain losers.
As the election was underway, I admit I did not know much about Carney, but I saw him pass the stress test many times. The stress test is whether a candidate can answer challenging questions from reporters before they are elected to command our military and negotiate with world leaders. Though not always perfect in his approach, Carney confidently answered questions head-on, charismatically, and at times with a sense of humour. Apart from time restrictions, he did not control the number of questions (nor the kinds of questions) asked of him, and allowed follow-up questions.
Contrast that with Poilievre, who (1) only took questions from reporters that were selected ahead of time by his campaign, (2) did not allow follow-up questions, (3) refused to answer more than 4 questions at any given press conference, and (4) did not allow reporters to purchase a seat on his plane and bus, which reduced journalistic presence.
More importantly, Poilievre’s answers often sounded like he was trying to recall from a carefully memorized script. There was nothing exciting about what he was saying. He was relying on the frustration that Canadians held for Liberals. He repeatedly recycled the same talking points and buzzwords that did little to captivate the audience. For example, watch the interview below.
The campaign tried to control what they did not have control over, and ultimately failed. They tried to control how Canadians would think by controlling what they saw, in an election where Canadians needed more information, not less.
Here are a few more indicators of just how controlling Poilievre’s campaign was.
Conservative Candidates Aren’t Talking to the Press. That’s a Problem.
The Globe and Mail’s Laura Stone asked Poilievre if his speeches are meant to motivate his supporters or create new ones. Now, rallies are not exactly meant to convince undecided voters (the audience is virtually all Conservative voters), but the question is still relevant to his campaign’s messaging strategy. Watch below and tell me if Poilievre answered the question to your satisfaction.
Poilievre’s wife often sat next to him during interviews, answering questions and offering insights. That’s cute, but why? You would only do this if you thought Poilievre had a serious problem with female voters. And even if that was true, it’s still a bad strategy. The fact of the matter is that Poilievre’s wife was not on the ballot, and we did not need to hear from her nearly as much as we did. All air time should have been allocated to Poilievre.
Jagmeet Singh announced that he would step down as NDP leader. Why doesn’t Poilievre do the same? Some Conservatives may claim Poilievre has earned the right to make that decision. No, he has not. Canadians, including his own riding, literally just said that they do not want him to become Prime Minister. How do you not win an election after “the lost liberal decade”? There was a serious underlying problem in Poilievre’s candidacy, and his campaign team made it worse by hiding their star candidate.
P.S. I don’t care about Poilievre’s past relationships. He is happily married to his wife. But why in God’s green earth was Jenni Bryne, Poilievre’s ex-girlfriend of 11 years, his campaign manager? Am I the only one who sees a problem with this? Source: here.
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