Juno News - September 10, 2023


Conservatives are optimistic about next election. Should they be？


Episode Stats

Length

4 minutes

Words per Minute

159.30974

Word Count

717

Sentence Count

35


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.200 I'm here in Quebec City for day two of the Conservative Party of Canada's National Convention.
00:00:06.380 Now, despite the fact that the Conservatives have lost the last three elections
00:00:10.120 and have gone through four leaders in that time,
00:00:13.440 plus Candace Bergen as interim leader and Ronna Ambrose as interim leader as well,
00:00:18.500 the mood here has been rather jubilant.
00:00:20.840 It's often been remarked by some of the participants that it feels a little bit like
00:00:24.060 an in-government convention in terms of the level of optimism that people have.
00:00:28.200 Now, a few things have changed. Not only did Pierre Polyev win the leadership last year
00:00:32.400 with a resounding majority on the first ballot,
00:00:35.440 a more commanding victory than any Conservative leader has had in the last few leader elections,
00:00:40.600 including Stephen Harper, by the way.
00:00:42.500 But more importantly, it also is very much noted that the Liberals are being decimated in polls right now.
00:00:49.300 Now, you have to take polls with a grain of salt, but pretty consistently over the last few weeks,
00:00:53.540 polls have been showing the Conservatives doing incredibly well.
00:00:56.220 A recent abacus poll this week showed the Conservatives at 40 percent.
00:01:00.400 The Liberals trailing, I think, 15 or 14 points behind that.
00:01:04.400 Now, obviously, this is difficult momentum to keep up indefinitely until another election,
00:01:08.660 which could be as long away as 2025.
00:01:11.740 But this is a little bit about why people are feeling so optimistic.
00:01:14.980 I spoke to Andrew Scheer about this, a former Conservative leader
00:01:17.780 and a very big champion of the Conservative Party now under Pierre Polyev.
00:01:21.600 Why are people here so hopeful?
00:01:23.360 This is an incredible atmosphere right now.
00:01:26.780 And, you know, we try not to get too hung up in the polls.
00:01:29.700 They go up and down.
00:01:31.100 But the thing that is so encouraging is when you look at the number of people
00:01:35.080 that have been coming out to Conservative events,
00:01:37.280 every delegate I've spoken to, every riding president says,
00:01:40.120 you know, when we do an event now, we're getting people who have never come out,
00:01:43.340 not just to a Conservative Party event, but a political event in general.
00:01:46.400 So Pierre's message of tackling the cost of living crisis that Justin Trudeau has caused
00:01:52.140 by bringing inflation down, lowering interest rates,
00:01:54.360 it's really speaking to the hurt that people are feeling.
00:01:57.140 In addition to the core principles, Conservative principles that he has stood up for,
00:02:01.620 getting rid of the carbon tax, protecting individual freedom and free speech.
00:02:05.500 So there's a lot of reasons why people are enthusiastic and optimistic.
00:02:10.240 Scheer's comments were echoed by other members of Parliament and delegates I spoke with.
00:02:14.420 I raised it with Deputy Leader of the Conservatives, Melissa Lantzman.
00:02:18.040 You know, with thousands of delegates from across the country,
00:02:20.760 every single riding represented in beautiful Quebec City,
00:02:25.160 that doesn't hurt with nice weather.
00:02:28.000 The vibe here is electric.
00:02:30.500 People are excited.
00:02:32.380 Look, it's not lost on you.
00:02:34.320 The poll numbers look good and that has an effect on people.
00:02:37.640 It means that all of the work that all of these folks do,
00:02:41.220 every single day on the ground, in their ridings,
00:02:44.420 is resonating and the message that we've been on track with for a number of years,
00:02:50.420 and particularly in the last year, is resonating with Canadians.
00:02:54.100 As you can hear there, obviously, people are very hopeful.
00:02:57.320 Now, the question will be,
00:02:59.040 what does the Conservative vision look like moving forward?
00:03:02.380 You'll see in my interview with Andrew Scheer,
00:03:04.100 that'll be coming out next week on my show,
00:03:06.240 we talked about the coalition that exists around the Conservative Party.
00:03:09.880 People from all these different groups, like social conservatives,
00:03:12.540 libertarians, fiscal people, foreign policy people,
00:03:15.860 that all have to come together and get along
00:03:17.680 under what's often referred to as the big blue tent.
00:03:20.720 Now, so far, it seems like we're not seeing those fault lines
00:03:24.380 or fractures within the party, certainly not at this convention.
00:03:27.460 So with a party that's unified, riding high in the polls,
00:03:30.060 an unpopular prime minister,
00:03:31.780 it is very much the case that the Conservative Party of Canada right now
00:03:35.160 thinks the next election is it's to lose.
00:03:37.480 Whether they're right or wrong, we will see in due course.
00:03:40.380 For True North from Quebec City, I'm Andrew Lawton.
00:04:00.060 Thank you.