It’s not monocausal. His botched leadership of the CPC into its present dismal electoral prospects is one of them. His failure to maintain the confidence of his caucus is another, after the first couple left.
He’s the party leader; he owns their successes or failures- after all, that’s leadership, no? He has very clearly led them significantly farther from anything resembling success.
If you choose to believe his leadership is not a factor in shedding several MPs to cross the floor and bring PM Carney to a majority, that’s fine. My opinion, though, is grounded in a lot of evidence.
All fair and valid points Brihard.
On the surface I don't think I disagree you, but I don't know if I fully agree with you either.
I've already made my general opinion known, in that...
- If an elected MP wants to cross the floor to another party, they should have to resign from the party they are leaving & be re-elected as an MP in the party they want to go to in the byelection
- Otherwise you have ridings that voted for A, but got B instead because their own MP basically decided to ignore the votes of the very citizens in their riding who elected them as an MP in the first place.
(If their respective ridings wanted a Liberal MP to represent them, they would have voted for such in the election. But they clearly didn't want that, hence them voting for a Conservative MP to represent them instead.)
I think it's a slap in the face as far as democratic principles are concerned, but I respect that we don't see eye to eye on this issue
...
But you mentioned a few things that I think deserve further scrutiny...
- True, perhaps his leadership style isn't for everyone, and that has perhaps played a factor...
- And true, perhaps some of them want to accomplish something specific that they believe in, and they believe working under the LPC banner will help them further those goals moreso than being a Member of Parliament in an opposition with no power...
But let that last part sink in...
an official opposition with no power...
...
So the same political party that has tried constantly, for years, to pass pretty sketchy legislation via omnibus bills, that has more than doubled our national debt (we are now well passed that, and are on our way to triple the national debt)
That has engaged in blatantly criminal activity (we'll just use SNC Lavalin as an easy example here) and then fired their own Attorney General appointee for literally doing exactly what she's supposed to do...
Has passed all kinds of legislation & has proposed even more legislation that permits government censorship & government overreach...
And who has pissed away BILLIONS OF DOLLARS on stupid pet projects & government contracts that specifically benefit party insiders...
And now we have an opposition with no power to protect us.
...
Not because the citizenry voted for that or wanted that.
But because that same sketchy political party that is directly responsible for the last 11 years of Canada's clearly intentional "managed decline" has managed to bribe/persuade/entice people who had been elected to another party to say "F**k my constituents, their votes don't matter..." and cross the floor
(And while the NDP clearly destroyed itself when it's leader ignored the citizenry & kept the LPC in power just long enough for him to get his pension before he f**ked off - I can't help thinking the LPC was well aware they were slowly destroying one of the parties that could possibly threaten their agenda down the road)
Does this sound like a healthy democracy to you?
...
Pierre has been leader of the Conservative Party of Canada for almost 4 years. And prior to that he was still a very vocal, active, popular member of the party.
3 of the 4 MP's that crossed the floor have been with the party since 2015.
Our most recent national election was almost 1 year ago exactly (April 25, 2025)
If Pierre's leadership style is so off-putting, each one of these MP's could easily have ran for the LPC instead. But they didn't.
Anyways, all that just to circle back around to
@MilEME09's comment that Carney isn't interested in games.
Respectfully I have to disagree. There seems to be plenty of games afoot, both domestically and internationally.
