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Lee Neville's avatar

Great article Deirdre - question for you - is this interregnum period for PP best be seen as a lull in the storm of any oncoming Con party leadership battle?

As a party, they are horribly cruel to their leaders and any weakness is blood in the water to churn the circling sharks - this sleepwalk byelection isn't going to re-gin the party as its table stakes to just get him back into the house.

I'm grabbing a cold one and a hot bowl of popcorn to watch - its going to be fascinating to watch the Cons circle the wagons and starting firing to the inside.......

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Deirdre Mitchell-MacLean's avatar

Thanks Lee! I would say it is a lull — especially since his approvals are likely to continue slipping. I don’t know that anyone will just let him wait it out to see if Carney becomes as unpopular as Trudeau so he has a better chance.

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Cath Millage's avatar

I believe that comparing the Harper times with this Poilievre time is like comparing oranges to apples. The Trump factor is riding shotgun to the fact that Poilievre's style of politics, and particularly his political persona, is anathema to millions of Canadians and particularly women of all ages and stripes. The country has spoken but sadly, the Cons are not yet listening. They instead are following Einstein's definition of insanity. Also, Harper was defeated because he lost the support of millions of the true Progressive Conservatives, (my entire extended family being one tiny example), because he began the americanization of Canadian politics. We didn't like it then, and we especially despise it now. ❤️🇨🇦

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Deirdre Mitchell-MacLean's avatar

It wasn’t so much about the time but that there’s an unwritten rule that when a leader does something good for the party, they get to decide when to leave. However, the last person to be afforded that in the CPC was Harper. If Scheer didn’t get it, and neither did O’Toole, then what’s to stop them coming after Poilievre?

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Deirdre Mitchell-MacLean's avatar

Unless they’re giving up on Poilievre for now.

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David Regehr 🇨🇦's avatar

Deirdre, thanks for that insight. These are interesting times....

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Deirdre Mitchell-MacLean's avatar

You're welcome, David :) It's been a bit of a rollercoaster for me as well. I went from "oh, he'll be fine." To "Is he okay?" To "I don't think he should get comfortable."

I blame Danielle Smith for taking my attention away from it haha -- every time I checked back in it looked worse!

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Cassandra Pollock's avatar

They were not PCs under Scheer

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Deirdre Mitchell-MacLean's avatar

Nor Harper.

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Cassandra Pollock's avatar

Notely had already decided to retire from politics and even if the AB NDP had won was only going to stay on for 4 years before stepping down so she actually did not step down because the party lost she was stepping down win or lose

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Deirdre Mitchell-MacLean's avatar

Right, but the point was that she had support to stay on after the first loss because no one blamed her for the loss; she would have been challenged even if she hadn't chosen to step down after the second loss.

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