Don Martin: A nasty fracturing surfaces as the Conservative leadership race kicks off
Two political polar opposites are on a collision course for the Conservative leadership - and the winner could be the leader of the Liberal party.
Moderate, extremely experienced, dignified but largely forgotten four decades after entering the federal fray, former party leader and Quebec premier Jean Charest will officially enter the race in Calgary on Thursday, no doubt sporting a Stetson.
He faces the daunting challenge of beating Pierre Poilievre, a right-wing firebrand with two years of junior Harper cabinet experience whose primary skill seems to be unleashing devastating clips and quips at his hapless rivals.
Put them together in a brass-knuckled brawl and you have a nightmare clash for the Conservative party – and perhaps a dream matchup for the Liberals.
But consider the ‘prize’ offered in the winning of this leadership.
The Conservative caucus is hopelessly divided into hard right, middle right and moderate factions, its membership is laden with too many anti-vaxxers and convoy cowboys while some MPs are holding grudges from previous leaders, right down to who was on the guest list to drain the wine cellar at Stornoway.
That’s a deep longer-term fracture for a party that’s supposed to be a writ-drop away from forming a government to replace the weary Liberals under a lacklustre leader.
If Charest wins, which seems doubtful without a lot of membership sales help from the likes of potential rival Patrick Brown, he will confront a fence-mending mission impossible that could make his post-referendum Captain Canada reunification effort look like child’s play.
He will face more than a few MPs and their assorted bloodhounds who have already declared him unfit to lead the party for being too left. Some of them may need to be evicted to find a home in the People’s Party under increasingly-unhinged Maxime Bernier.
But that’s the easy part. The Progressive Conservative party he led in the mid-1990s no longer exists, right down to having the "progressive" label stripped from its name. His policy preferences will not easily fit with the drift the membership wants to take - and even that direction will have to be changed to attract a general election victory.
As for Poilievre, he’d better be a helluva chameleon. He will have to shift from proudly standing with the trucker convoys and worshiping every extra barrel of oil production to bonding with the middle-road, climate-fretting Ontario voters he’ll need to win a general election. Spoiler alert: It’s hard. Ask Erin O’Toole.
And he will have to learn to play nice in a caucus where he’s considered an unfriendly force of difficult personality.
All told, there’s the risk any leadership result will put the Conservatives into a crash and burn election followed by another decade of walking in the wilderness.
But, but, but . . . there’s also the possibility of a Liberal collapse which could give the Conservatives a cakewalk into the prime minister’s office under any leader with a pulse.
Trudeau is increasingly surrounded by nagging troubles, from his botched handling of the truckers’ convoy to consumer pain at the pumps and an energy crisis in Europe which has cabinet fighting over climate change versus filling the Russian energy sanctions vacuum with ramped-up Canadian oil production.
A fed-up throw-the-bums out election is not entirely out of the question.
Yet handed this golden opportunity to drive regime change, the Conservatives seem fixated on fighting over who has truest blue blood to be leader instead of debating important questions of the party’s fiscal, environmental and health care directions.
But there’s another sharp contrast between the two titans as they start this prolonged battle.
Being someone who carries no social Conservative baggage, has a climate change record and delivered effective deficit reduction in Quebec, Charest is the candidate Liberals desperately hope will lose.
And unless there’s a kinder, gentler version of Pierre Poilievre than the one I’ve observed for eight years, the Liberals are salivating for him to win.
As one insider told me, Poilievre as Conservative leader would be an arrogant and mean version of Jason Kenney, minus a government.
So with Charest’s entry in two days, the stakes are becoming extremely high for the government-in-waiting party. Deep divides are being drawn between yesterday’s moderate man and an untested MP’s hard-right Tory turn.
With the leadership vote still six months away, it sets up the risk of a lose-lose Conservative scenario – and another Liberal win.
That’s the bottom line.
IN DEPTH
Jagmeet Singh pulls NDP out of deal with Trudeau Liberals, takes aim at Poilievre Conservatives
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has pulled his party out of the supply-and-confidence agreement that had been helping keep Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's minority Liberals in power.
'Not the result we wanted': Trudeau responds after surprise Conservative byelection win in Liberal stronghold
Conservative candidate Don Stewart winning the closely-watched Toronto-St. Paul's federal byelection, and delivering a stunning upset to Justin Trudeau's candidate Leslie Church in the long-time Liberal riding, has sent political shockwaves through both parties.
'We will go with the majority': Liberals slammed by opposition over proposal to delay next election
The federal Liberal government learned Friday it might have to retreat on a proposal within its electoral reform legislation to delay the next vote by one week, after all opposition parties came out to say they can't support it.
Budget 2024 prioritizes housing while taxing highest earners, deficit projected at $39.8B
In an effort to level the playing field for young people, in the 2024 federal budget, the government is targeting Canada's highest earners with new taxes in order to help offset billions in new spending to enhance the country's housing supply and social supports.
'One of the greatest': Former prime minister Brian Mulroney commemorated at state funeral
Prominent Canadians, political leaders, and family members remembered former prime minister and Progressive Conservative titan Brian Mulroney as an ambitious and compassionate nation-builder at his state funeral on Saturday.
Opinion
opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
opinion Don Martin: The doctor Trudeau dumped has a prescription for better health care
Political columnist Don Martin sat down with former federal health minister Jane Philpott, who's on a crusade to help fix Canada's broken health care system, and who declined to take any shots at the prime minister who dumped her from caucus.
opinion Don Martin: Trudeau's seeking shelter from the housing storm he helped create
While Justin Trudeau's recent housing announcements are generally drawing praise from experts, political columnist Don Martin argues there shouldn’t be any standing ovations for a prime minister who helped caused the problem in the first place.
opinion Don Martin: Poilievre has the field to himself as he races across the country to big crowds
It came to pass on Thursday evening that the confidentially predictable failure of the Official Opposition non-confidence motion went down with 204 Liberal, BQ and NDP nays to 116 Conservative yeas. But forcing Canada into a federal election campaign was never the point.
opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike
When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.
CTVNews.ca ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½
NEW Health data collected from Indigenous Peoples in Canada has a dark history. One Indigenous company is turning that around
Software company Mustimuhw Information, which develops medical records systems built on a foundation of Indigenous traditions and values, is allowing health providers to capture data informed by cultural practices.
Hezbollah handed out pagers hours before blasts, even after checks: Reuters
Lebanon's Hezbollah was still handing its members new Gold Apollo branded pagers hours before thousands blew up this week, two security sources said, indicating the group was confident the devices were safe despite an ongoing sweep of electronic kit to identify threats.
Cognitive decline reduced by MIND diet, especially for women and Black people, study finds
Following the MIND diet for 10 years produced a small but significant decrease in the risk of developing thinking, concentration and memory problems, a new study found.
The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.
An Ontario man says it is 'unfair' to pay a $1,500 insurance surcharge because his four-year-old SUV is at a higher risk of being stolen.
Federal firearm buyback program has cost $67M, still not collecting guns after 4 years
The federal firearm buyback program has cost taxpayers nearly $67.2 million since it was announced in 2020, but it still hasn't collected a single gun.
No, these viral purple apples don't exist in Saskatchewan
If something looks too good to be true, it might be. That's the message from Saskatchewan horticulturists after customers have come into their stores hoping to buy purple apple trees this month.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has lost 205 firearms since 2020, including machine-guns
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has lost 205 firearms since 2020, including more than 120 handguns and at least five fully automatic weapons like machine-guns.
Influencer couple denies leaving kids alone on cruise
For most people, dinner on a cruise ship is a time to relax. But when influencer couple Abby and Matt Howard decided to kick back with a dinner à deux, they ended up kicking up a storm.
Local Spotlight
They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.
Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.
The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.
It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.
A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.
David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.
Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.
A daytrip to the backcountry turned into a frightening experience for a Vancouver couple this weekend.