Pierre Poilievre won the Conservative leadership race with more support on the first ballot than any previous leadership candidate for the Conservative Party or its predecessors. It was a big win.
His first week, though, did not go so smoothly after one Quebec MP, Alain Rayes, quit caucus, citing Poilievre’s tone and style of politics as the reason. That the party had to subsequently apologize for text messages sent to party members in Rayes’s riding asking them to call his office to voice their displeasure made Rayes’s point for him.
Meanwhile, at a Liberal caucus retreat in New Brunswick, Justin Trudeau announced new measures meant to provide relief from inflation — an issue Poilievre has been hammering the government over for months. Jagmeet Singh of the NDP was quick to claim credit.
So it’s been a bit of a week.
To discuss it all, I’m joined this week by the CBC’s Aaron Wherry, Shannon Proudfoot, reporter with The Globe and Mail and Supriya Dwivedi, Director of Policy and Engagement at the Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy, and Senior Counsel for Enterprise Canada. Supriya is also the co-host of the Seriously Podcast.
As always, in addition to listening to the episode in your inbox, at TheWrit.ca or on podcast apps like Apple Podcasts, you can also watch this discussion on YouTube.
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Episode #60: Pierre Poilievre, Week 1