Rivers: Canadians Chose Merit

By Ray Rivers

April 30^th, 2025

BURLINGTON, ON

OPINION

Be careful what you ask for.  Mr. Poilievre had wanted a ‘change’ election and the voters in his riding made his wish a reality.  According to his Liberal opponent, Bruce Fanjoy, Poilievre had taken his constituents for granted while Fanjoy worked hard for their support.  That this is the kind of rural riding which typically supports the Conservatives makes the Tory leader’s loss all that much more noteworthy.

Poilievre is an impressive speaker but having spent all his ammunition taking down Justin Trudeau became gob-smacked when it came to the main campaign issue, Donald Trump.  But then nothing in his resume has equipped him to deal with the tariff challenge.  Mr. Poilievre has spent his life out of the real world, either as a politician or a backroom political operative.  Even Trudeau had held a real job as a teacher, by comparison.

On Tuesday Canadians chose someone with the kind of experience they felt was needed to lead the country through this existential crisis.  Recognized as an accomplished and successful corporate leader, Mr. Carney had headed up one of the world’s, largest pension investment companies with over US$900 billion in assets.

Mark Carney: An Oxford trained economist.

An Oxford trained economist, Carney successfully played a leadership role in the fight against  inflation and recession – Canada’s economic crisis of 2008 and the UK’s BREXIT transition.   But perhaps just as important is his professional association with world leaders including those in the UK, France, and even the US president.  In the end Canadians voted for competence –  qualification and experience.

For the most important job in the land – CEO of Canada – Canadians voted for merit.

The word on the street is that the Tory leader will seek another riding, likely in Conservative safe Alberta but not until a by-election can be arranged.   His caustic voice will not be missed in Parliament in the meantime.  Also missing from the Commons will be the NDP leader Singh, who placed third in his own riding, and has decided to call it quits.

This election has demonstrated the challenges of third parties in our first-past-the-post electoral system.  The NDP had been a merger of the socialist CCF with Canada’s organized labour movement.  That is a potentially powerful political alliance given that nearly one in three workers in Canada is covered by a union contract.

But labour has become an unfaithful partner for the NDP.  Mr. Poilievre is one of those Conservatives who relates better to the workers than their bosses.  Following in the footsteps Donald Trump, he spent considerable effort attracting the blue collar vote.  It is an interesting scenario that would see a right wing politician appealing to the blue collar crowd.  Somehow tax cutting proposals, intended primarily for the well off, have became an issue the working person could get behind.  And of course there were the vacuous promises about affordability.

And his efforts paid off.  Fourteen Canadian labour unions and organizations, including several police associations, rewarded the Tories with their support.  They even won ridings in labour rich Windsor and Hamilton.  The Liberals have also benefitted from labour union support over time, and the largest labour union in Quebec opted to endorse the Bloc in this election.

Elizabeth May – the only Green in the House of Commons.

The Green Party had it’s platform stolen by Justin Trudeau back a decade ago and in the end only Elizabeth May managed to be elected, largely on her personal popularity.  The libertarian People’s Party has never won a seat, even after running candidates in most ridings across the country.

With the other opposition parties now in relative disarray, the Bloc has suggested something like a truce – to give the Liberals at least a year in order to keep Trump from crashing through the border.   The Greens lost their co-leader and the NDP have lost both their leader and their formal party status.  They will need to assess their relevance as political parties at this time – and whether they might better serve their supporters as a wing or movement within either of the two main parties.

Pierre Poilievre: nothing in his resume has equipped him to deal with the tariff challenge. 

It’ll take time to see if Mr. Poilievre comes back or ends up as just another disposable leader in a party frustrated in it’s ambition to become Canada’s natural governing party.  Meanwhile, Mr. Carney will have his hands full fighting for Canadian unity against a mischievous US president while dodging grenades from the disgruntled partisan separatists in Alberta.

These western separatists, representing the wealthiest provinces in the union, are threatening to leave Canada only because they hate Liberals.  If only there were a Conservative party leader who could knock some sense into its huge western base.  But then, that might help the new PM in his efforts to unite the country?

Ray Rivers, a Gazette Contributing Editor, writes regularly applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking.  Rivers was once a candidate for provincial office in Burlington.  He was the founder of the Burlington citizen committee on sustainability at a time when climate warming was a hotly debated subject.   Ray has a post graduate degree in economics that he earned at the University of Ottawa.  Tweet @rayzrivers