Pierre Poilievre had a bad week

Conservative leader needs to get facts straight

For all of us, some weeks are simply better than others. Just ask Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.

Last week was not a good week for him. If he thought it was, he has my sympathy.

I mean, it can hardly have been encouraging to hear journalist Andrew Coyne tell Canadians on CBC’s “At Issue” panel that what you said about Canada, Ukraine and the carbon tax “is all substantive nonsense.” It’s not as if Coyne is some raging lefty. He is, after all, generally considered supportive of conservatives — although clearly not always of Conservatives.

Then, on that same show, to hear Chantal Hébert, among Canada’s most respected political commentators, say that it is going to be “very hard” for your party “to sell a leader who turns out to be an intellectual booby” must have been downright disheartening. In truth, Poilievre has to be feeling some degree of confidence right now. He’s well ahead in the polls. If the election was held tomorrow, he would probably form a majority government — but, as he is finding out, a week can be a long time in politics.

Last week, Poilievre and his party voted against the new Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement. His reason? “I really think it speaks to how pathologically obsessed Justin Trudeau is with the carbon tax that, while the knife is at the throat of the Ukrainians, he would use that to impose his carbon tax ideology on these poor people.”

He told reporters, “The last thing they need is a carbon tax when they’re trying to rebuild from war and from this illegal invasion by Russia.”

The agreement between Canada and Ukraine does mention, in passing, promoting “carbon pricing and measures to mitigate carbon leakage.” However, it turns out that Ukraine is developing an emissions-trading system all on its own in order to smooth its way into the European Union.

A representative for the Ukrainian embassy in Ottawa said the agreement “does not include any specific instruments on decreasing the carbon footprint, including specific taxation instruments.”

You would think that the Leader of the Opposition would have known this. It appears that it is not Justin Trudeau who is obsessed with the carbon tax, but Pierre Poilievre with both it and Justin Trudeau.

When a car exploded on the Rainbow Bridge border crossing at Niagara Falls last Wednesday, Poilievre went about setting Canadian’s minds at ease by rising in the House of Commons at 2:25 p.m. to ask the prime minister for an update on what “the media” has reported as “a terrorist attack.” He reminded Trudeau “that it is the principle responsibility of government to protect the people.” It turns out that the explosion was not a terrorist attack, but a tragic accident.

Questioned about this the next day by a reporter from The Canadian Press, Poilievre unrelentingly went after the reporter for past inaccuracies in a CP story. Then he defended his use of “a terrorist attack” because that is how it had been reported on CTV.

But CTV did not carry the story until 2:40 p.m., 15 minutes after Poilievre asked his question of Trudeau.

It should be the principle responsibility of the Leader of the Opposition to get his facts straight before suggesting Canada is under terrorist attack — even if he has heard it on Fox News.

(Memo to Mrs. Poilievre: don’t use the words “carbon tax” or “Trudeau” in front of the children when Pierre is in the room.)