Poilievre clings tight to strange ideas

To Pierre Poilievre, everything is broken in Canada — and it’s all the fault of Justin Trudeau and the Liberals.

As the Conservative leader sees it, this country is a wreck, with inflation at a 40-year high, 35-year-olds living in their parents’ basements, food and gas prices soaring and crime and homelessness on the rise. His list of miseries list goes on.

Never mind that the clear evidence shows that in these troubled times, Canada is faring much better on the economic front than almost every other major industrialized nation. Poilievre, however, is still demanding answers from Trudeau to why the nation is in the state it’s in and what he’s going to do to fix it.

In truth, though, it’s Poilievre, not just Trudeau, who should be answering questions.

Indeed, as Poilievre uses slick videos to portray himself as a voice of reason and hope, he actually has done nothing to erase, or even moderate, his image as a cynical politician who shamelessly champions crazy ideas and wacky people.

Worse, Poilievre doesn’t even bother now to try to defend his most controversial proposals, which keep mounting with each passing week. This was evidenced by his refusal to answer questions from Ottawa-based reporters or even from business leaders after one of his speeches.

Here’s a sample of Poilievre’s latest troubling positions:

Last Sunday, Poilievre released a video titled, “Everything feels broken,” in which he calls for the defunding of supervised drug consumption programs supported by NDP and Liberal governments, especially in B.C., because they lead to “massive” increases in overdoses and crimes.

Narcotics policy experts have denounced Poilivere’s position as misguided and outright dangerous.

Also last week, cryptocurrency cheerleader Poilievre was noticeably silent as cryptocurrency prices collapsed and FTX, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, fell into bankruptcy.

In addition, as the public inquiry into February’s so-called “freedom convoy” protests winds down, Poilievre still defends his support for the demonstrators, but he now claims he didn’t support “anyone who behaved badly.”

And where does Poilievre stand on Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s ridiculous proposals to ignore any federal law she doesn’t like, or to keep the fees charged to visitors to enter the national parks in Alberta? Again, not a word.

Or why won’t he criticize Premier Doug Ford’s move to use the notwithstanding clause to trample on the right to strike of educational support workers — the type of worker Poilivere claims to support?

Then there’s Ontario MP Leslyn Lewis, who suggests the Liberals are using assisted suicide policies to kill off people.

In a Nov. 15 tweet, she said that Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) “is being used by the gov’t as social policy to save $ and rid society of people who the Liberals see as costly/undesirables.” Does he support this view?

Or does he unequivocably support Sarah Fischer, the new Conservative director of communications, who was and still is a full-throated supporter of the “freedom convoy” and who recently released a video in which she openly mocks Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s speaking style?

Or why does he still insist he cares for the welfare of working-class Canadians when he steadfastly opposes vaccine mandates, the federal dental plan for low-income children and the national daycare plan that would cost families as little as $10 a day?

What’s broken is not “everything in Canada” as Poilievre claims. Rather, it is the hope he will confront the crazies in his corner and ditch the worst of his reckless ideas.