Laying It Out: Poilievre has the problems down pat, but will he have solutions?

By Scott Schmidt on April 16, 2022.

Pierre Poilievre is an impressive politician, and he might just be the next prime minister of Canada.

His messaging, in so far as his ability to hit home on real-life struggles of everyday people, is spot on, and his delivery is masterful. This isn’t a setup to a punchline, and no backdoor insult is lurking — he’s killing it on the campaign trail. That’s a fact.

Packed halls in Alberta are one thing but Poilievre is getting big crowds wherever he goes, and while the older, lifelong conservatives are well represented, he’s garnering a lot more attention from young people than some would care to admit.

Never even mind that history would suggest the Liberals, in government since 2015 and not popular enough for a majority, are destined to be voted out soon. Even if time wasn’t already against them, Poilievre would be a looming threat.

Trudeau’s deal with Jagmeet Singh and the NDP might last until 2025 as intended, and a lot can happen good and bad to all major parties in the meantime. But Poilievre has found the perfect narrative at the perfect time and he’ll have no issues riding it through to the next federal election.

Why? Because, oddly enough, his narrative is quite literally that capitalism is bad for people, which is entirely accurate and a perpetual problem, so it’s going to linger.

While in Medicine Hat on Monday, Poilievre told a crowd of 600 the country’s economic and political systems were unjust and rigged against them. The next day he told the same thing to a Calgary crowd 10 times the size.

“When the people who build our homes can no longer afford to live in them, our economic system is fundamentally unjust,” he told the Calgary crowd.

Can’t argue there, Mr. Poilievre. Our economic system is unjust.

Speaking in Medicine Hat about dismantling the Canada Infrastructure Bank, he said, “It guarantees the profits of failing and incompetent construction companies and executives … Stop printing money for the government to spend and the wealthy to borrow.”

Wow, again, music to my ears. Our political system, long infiltrated by the wealthy, is manipulated to benefit the rich, and governments waste extraordinary amounts of money on corporate subsidies and lackadaisical oversight in order to see it through.

Capitalism is unjust and politics are rigged.

That’s not some union-loving socialist spouting off in a Trudeau-bought newspaper column saying that. That’s the likely next leader of the Conservative Party of Canada saying it, and he’s rolling it out on repeat at venues across the country.

Of course, using hardship to gain support on a campaign trail is nothing new, as we’re assuredly used to being told life isn’t as good as it should be. But while many before him have pointed out systemic issues which could use a bandaid, it’s not often a politician cites the very system we live under as the culprit (especially one from the CPC) and even if he doesn’t mean it, Poilievre is doing just that.

He’s also the only one doing it, and he’s also correct.

Inflation is ridiculous, wages are more stagnant than ever and homeownership is a pipe dream for the generations coming up behind us. The rich get most of the aid, most of the subsidies and all of the profit.

He’s telling us the system is the problem because it is “fundamentally unjust” — as in, rooted at its very core, capitalism is built to harm.

Now, setting aside the fact I’ve echoed the same sentiment for years, Poilievre is obviously not an anti-capitalist — he’s not even a let’s-fix-the-systemalist — and should he become the next prime minister, he’ll have to offer solutions to the problems he’s so impressively pointing out.

Sadly, those solutions are simply hollow rebrands of the same volatile fixes of old. Less money, more freedom and get that pesky government out of the way.

Poilievre takes something like inflation, which is nothing more than the measure of rising prices, and says it exists because Trudeau’s Liberals print too much money. Never mind inflation causing issues all over the developed world right now, which seems like a reach for even our “dictator” PM to pull off, Poilievre is saying too much money exists and it led to prices going up.

Think about that. He’s not blaming record inflation on global crises, or supply chains, or anything else on the list of reasons we’re normally given. He’s legitimately admitting prices went up because more money existed.

He’s saying profiteering is real and it’s a major issue, but he’s also saying it’s inevitable, so we should just have less money in circulation because companies will gouge prices if we add more.

It’s the same story with “freedom.” He talks a big game about government authority, and he no doubt means most of what he says. But when he talks about freedom he’s a lot less “unvaccinated should be able to travel,” and a lot more “red tape and gatekeepers hinder business.” In one breath he admits corporations are inefficient and greedy (even incompetent at times), and in the next suggests fewer rules to govern them.

Laying It Out is going to break down some of these problematic solutions more in depth over the next few weeks, from inflation and profiteering, to unfettered corporate freedom, to home ownership as an investment plan and why it leaves later generations behind.

We’ve talked a lot in this space about the systemic issues governments choose to exacerbate or ignore, about the injustices which leave people behind, about the wealthy and powerful who construct all of it for their own interests. Poilievre is now travelling the nation saying the exact same things, and it might just land him on Sussex Drive.

Of course, if it does, that’ll no doubt be the same day our similarities end.

Scott Schmidt is the layout editor for the Medicine Hat News. He can be reached by email at sschmidt@medicinehatnews.com

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