Canada New Political Player

The Conservative Party of Canada is wearing new clothes in the form of Pierre Poilievre. Political ‘experts’ are already predicting he will be a threat to Justin Trudeau, the sitting Prime Minister.

Maybe. Maybe not. The main threat for Pierre Poilievre is his own party.  He might not stay long on that seat, judging from previous Conservative Pary leaders. Hello and goodbye, before making any indelible mark on Canadian politics.

The threat for Justin Trudeau is for being around for too long, even to the extent of nurturing the idea of running again in the next federal election. He must quash it immediately because of the snap election he called in 2021.

His intention was to get a majority government in parliament and not rely on the NDP for a prop. Voters were not amused, so they showed him who is the boss.

The main threat to any politician’s present and future is tradition or ‘how we do things around here’ mentality. The Prime Minister called the snap election because tradition allows it. Members of Parliament (MP) betray voters and jump ship to the party that campaigned against, because it is tradition.

The Liberal Party and the NDP led by Jasmeet Singh have a working relationship of: you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours, because tradition allows it. Singh pushed for dental and housing relief for Canadians who don’t earn much. He got it. The Prime Minister included it in his inflation relief package.

The threat for both Trudeau and Pierre Poilievre is doing things the way they were done yesterday. It led to the death of the Green Party of Canada after its treatment of its leader Annamie Paul in the 2021 election.

What matters is today, and most political leaders don’t know what time it is, because they rely on political tradition.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.