Prime Minister Mark Carney showed both grace and calculation in his decision to call a by-election as soon as possible so that Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, deprived of his seat in the House of Commons by the unexpected good sense of voters in his former Carleton riding, can remain leader of the Opposition and a resident of quality subsidized housing in the nation’s capital.
For those of us who would have liked to see a little justice for those guilty of campaign malpractice at the highest level, to borrow a phrase, this is a small disappointment. In a more just world, Mr. Poilievre would have been given an opportunity to wander in the political wilderness eating locusts and wild honey long enough to contemplate the many errors of his ways.
Alas, we’ll just have to settle for his brief election-night humiliation. Mr. Carney has generously chosen to be merciful and grant the Conservative leader a mulligan, something that would never have happened had the shoe been on the other foot.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith provides as excellent illustration of the modern Conservative approach to such a situation. She refused to call a by-election for Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi when former premier Rachel Notley resigned her seat in Edmonton-Strathcona at the end of December. She continued to ignore the need for a by-election when Mr. Nenshi was nominated as a candidate in the riding on Jan. 22. And she has refused to call a by-election ever since. She will likely do something soon only because the law demands she do so.
At least in the case of Mr. Poilievre’s stumble, we can enjoy the limited schadenfreude of knowing he is going to have to suffer through one or two visits to Battle River-Crowfoot, where a low-profile MP was found who could be told to volunteer to make way for the leader. The vast riding northwest of Calgary was once home to herds of dinosaurs and, if you go by political affiliation, arguably still is.
As a big-city boy with sophisticated tastes, I am sure Mr. Poilievre will find Castor, Acme, Oyen and Tofield (the subject of a famous Alberta joke about a guy who lost a toe there) a dreary prospect after many years basking in the bright lights of Ottawa.
But he can take comfort from the fact that in our Westminster Parliamentary system there is no requirement for him to buy a house in the riding (or anywhere, really, as long as he can live rent-free at Stornoway) and the fact that it is literally the safest Conservative riding in the Dominion. That may not be evidence of the sagacity of its voters, but it gives the place a mention in Canadian history.
Notwithstanding the way Conservatives would have conducted themselves, Mr. Carney’s generosity is the right thing to do, and I for one at least believe the prime minister is doing it in the right spirit, the unlikely hope that the Opposition party will play an honourable role in solving the gravest economic crisis of the postwar era. Therein lies the grace.
“I will ensure that it happens as soon as possible,” Mr. Carney told reporters yesterday. “No games. Nothing.”
But it is also clear that the result of last Monday’s federal election shows that Mr. Poilievre is more of a liability than an asset to the Conservative Party of Canada and allowing him to return to the House of Commons quickly is a kinder, gentler version of Napoleon’s famous dictum that one should never interfere with an enemy when he’s in the process of destroying himself.
Mr. Poilievre, whose near success was achieved by casting himself as the Antitrudeau, rapidly lost his limited appeal the instant the real Trudeau departed the scene. If he doubles down on his strategy of constantly declaring Canada to be broken in three-word rhyming slogans, the Liberal suspicion is that his popularity, such as it is, will slip further.
Mr. Poilievre’s statement accepting Damien Kurek’s “offer to resign” suggested not much has changed. “Damien’s selfless act to step aside temporarily as a Member of Parliament shows his commitment to change and restoring Canada’s promise,” he said. “I will continue to hold the Liberal minority government to account until the next federal election, when we will bring real change to all Canadians.”
Had the Conservatives been led by former leader Erin O’Toole, a decent person largely untainted by MAGA ideology, it is said here the CPC would have won handily on April 28, notwithstanding the replacement of Justin Trudeau by Mr. Carney.
This year at least, Canadians were not willing to hand the keys of the country to a leader with a Trump-like agenda of revenge on a long list of people and groups despised by his party’s extremist base.
Mr. Carney’s calculation is that Canadians will continue to be put off by Mr. Poilievre. The risk he is taking on behalf of all of us, of course, is that many of our compatriots may be used enough to it not to be as bothered the next time there’s an election. We shall learn about this in the fulness of time.
Who imagined right-wing Canadians would be furious at the king?
The online MAGAsphere convulsed with fury again yesterday upon the news King Charles will visit Ottawa on May 26 to deliver the Carney Government’s Speech from the Throne.
Readers will forgive me if I express some personal satisfaction at this development, having asked in February what the hell had become of our head of state. “One would think, wouldn’t one,” I ruminated at the time, “that in a grave national crisis, a real head of state would speak up for the state of which he was head?”
In the face of the threat of a Trump takeover of Canada, I went on, “even a short visit would be nice, with a few anodyne platitudes tossed around.”
So now that His Majesty has come through for Canada, if only symbolically and not for long, let me say a hearty God Save the King! I imagine this won’t be the last time he’ll be called upon to stand up for Canada.
I have already explained why a constitutional monarchy is a better way to solve the problem of the need for a head of state in a democracy than most of the available alternatives – particularly the one south of the Medicine Line.
But the Internet is an unforgiving place, especially when the folks refusing to do the forgiving are MAGAfied Conservative supporters obsessed with the woke, the culturally Marxist, and the otherwise diverse. King Charles’s willingness even to pose in a photograph with Prime Minister Carney, let alone read a Liberal government’s Throne Speech, appears to have thrown many of them into a paroxysm of republicanism.
If you doubt me, just read the comments beneath Mr. Carney’s tweet yesterday morning.
I can remember a day when young reporters at Canadian newspapers were warned never to say anything mean about dogs or the sovereign, because readers just wouldn’t stand for it. Apparently this is no longer the case.
I am not at all certain this indicates we are living in a better world. If Canadians are prepared to give up on the monarch, can the pups be far behind?