Poilievre and Trudeau draw battle lines for next election

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The battle lines have clearly been drawn for the next election; that became clear in Question Period on Monday.

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As the House of Commons resumed, Pierre Poilievre and his Conservatives demanded a carbon tax election, while Justin Trudeau claimed the Opposition leader doesn’t care about Canada or Canadians.

Down in the polls, the Trudeau Liberals have clearly decided that the way to cling to power is with hateful and nasty attacks on the party currently beating them.

“After nine years of NDP-Liberals, taxes, up, costs, up, crime’s up, time’s up, and now he wants a 300% carbon tax hike all the way up to 61 cents a litre,” Poilievre said, as Question Period began again.

“Why not let Canadians choose a common-sense Conservative government that will axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget and stop the crime now?”

We all knew that question was coming. What wasn’t known was how the Liberals would try to frame the Conservatives going forward. Now we know, as uncaring and lying partisans just out for themselves and their rich friends.

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In other words, the standard Liberal attacks on Conservatives. It doesn’t matter that it’s all lies; it’s worked in the past, and Trudeau’s Liberals desperately hope it will work again.

“If the leader of the Opposition spent any time listening to Canadians over the summer, he would have heard that they need solutions, they need answers to the challenges they’re facing. That’s not what he’s offering. Indeed, he doesn’t care about Canadians. He just cares about himself and his own political interests,” Trudeau said.

Time and again during Monday’s Question Period, Liberals claimed that the Poilievre Conservatives would cut program after program, gut health care and raise the retirement age. None of the claims made by the Liberals are actual policy positions of Poilievre’s Conservatives, they are just made-up claims, which is why it was amusing to hear one of Trudeau’s ministers say she’s worried about disinformation in Canada.

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The Liberals are the biggest purveyors of disinformation in Canada right now.

They do seem to have whipped themselves into a frenzy though, enough to believe they have a fighting chance in the next election. The Liberal caucus spent last week in Nanaimo, B.C., being told that Trudeau is staying, that he has a shot to win the next election, that he is the party’s best option.

According to the Toronto Star, Liberal MPs were even shown clips from the Rocky movies to motivate them and shown parts of Al Pacino’s inspirational speech in the football movie Any Given Sunday.

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I laughed when I read that and thought it couldn’t be true, it’s too ridiculous. The author of the piece though is highly plugged into the Liberal caucus; the move also fits with what I’ve heard elsewhere.

Months ago, I heard from a Liberal contact that Trudeau was telling people that it’s just like 2012 when he feels he was underestimated before the boxing match against Patrick Brazeau. The better comparison for Trudeau might be that it’s 2015, and just like Stephen Harper didn’t know voters were done with him, Trudeau doesn’t realize it now.

For the last year, polls have given the Conservatives a double-digit lead over the Liberals.

In the three polls conducted since Jagmeet Singh ended his coalition deal with Trudeau, the lead has solidified, with Ipsos putting the Conservatives 19 points ahead of the Liberals, Leger 20 points in front and Abacus 21 points. Abacus even puts Liberal support at just 22% nationally and at just 25% in Ontario — numbers that will lead to a wipe out of the government if they hold.

Leger finds 47% of Canadians want an election to pick a new government, while Abacus finds that on the issues that matter most to voters – the economy, cost of living, housing and healthcare – more voters believe the Conservatives have the best answers to the nation’s problems.

Trudeau was either putting on a brave face Monday or is clearly in denial about reality.

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