OTTAWA—The Canadian political landscape is beginning to stir from its stupor. It’s about time. The Liberal Party is seeing a resurgence in the polls, buoyed by a leadership race that has injected a burst of excitement. What looked like an easy cakewalk into government for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre suddenly seems to have hit a brick wall of political competition.

Leadership campaigns can do that. They aren’t just about swapping faces. Done right, they can jolt life into a political party, reconnecting it to the voters. That’s why they matter. The question is: can the Liberals harness this new dynamism into electoral triumph? We don’t know yet, but here’s a thought: what’s preventing the other parties from shaking things up, too?

Take the Green Party. They are stuck in a state of inertia, and the recent green-dot-emoji rebrand can’t change that. Elizabeth May—now a permanent fixture at the helm even with the “co-leader” title—has presided over fleeting moments of success. While their 2019 uptick brought the party three seats, it was followed by leadership turmoil. Annamie Paul’s brief tenure culminated in an embarrassing collapse. If the Greens want to stay politically viable, they should undertake a genuine leadership change—not another PR disaster in disguise.

What about Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada? Once a rising force for those angry with the establishment, the PPC has flatlined. Losing ground to the Conservatives, its populist, libertarian stance has left many voters feeling alienated. With Bernier’s palpable absence from the national political conversation, the PPC appears out of sync with the electorate. It is long overdue for a rebranding—maybe with a change in leadership—to regain its relevance.

Then there’s Jagmeet Singh. The NDP should be the voice of progressive politics, pushing for bold policy goals and standing up for the working class. But Singh’s low-energy leadership has held the party back. His supply-and-confidence deal with the Liberals—designed to keep Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s minority government afloat—has left New Democrats without a clear vision or political purpose. 

Singh’s signature pharmacare promise remains underwhelming and unfulfilled, diminishing what could have been his legacy. In some recent polling scenarios, the NDP stands to possibly lose its party status in the next federal election. It’s time for a wake-up call. Perhaps it’s also time for a leadership review of Singh’s ability to pilot the party forward. Before it’s too late.

While leadership contests don’t guarantee victory at the ballot box, their impact cannot be overstated. Within the party, a race for the top spot refocuses its mission and boosts internal morale. For voters, it can attract new supporters by signalling that the party is serious about addressing concerns and unmet needs. It generates intuitive appeal and presence.

The current surge in Liberal popularity is not coincidental. It began as Canadians were feeling under siege by U.S. President Donald Trump. Those anti-American sentiments have since deepened. That should be a warning for Poilievre. His embrace of Trump-like negative campaigning worked in the past, but now makes him look stale and out of touch.

Yet, Poilievre appears determined to wade further into those waters. His new mantra of ‘Canada First’ sounds eerily similar to Trump’s ‘America First.’ As a policy approach, it adds nothing more than what Trudeau has already done and what Liberal candidates promised to do weeks ago. Where was Poilievre then, when Trump wanted to impose 25-per-cent tariffs on all Canadian goods? He was still beating the old “axe the tax” drum. 

Poilievre has now repackaged Trump’s narrative. Like Trump, he wants to cut international aid—a hallmark of Canadian foreign policy and national cultural tradition. That’s not putting Canada first. It’s an attempt to mimic Trump. It’s not what we need right now. As Trump’s threats keep mounting, Canadians want robust debate, not opportunistic marketing of copycat policies.

If the Liberals maintain their momentum, Poilievre could be in jeopardy. That would not be good for Canadian democracy. Democracy thrives when there are multiple competing options—when voters have evocative policy choices, and politicians are compelled by the circumstantial realities to rise above dogmatic speaking points and offer pragmatic solutions to real-world problems. 

Poilievre’s clock might be ticking faster than he thinks. His pivot to “Canada First” suggests that he doesn’t care. His campaign seems trapped as if in an echo chamber where the only thing worse than criticism is the possibility of real change. To avoid any sliding in the polls, though, he may have no choice but to change. Not by imitating Trump’s theatrics, but by offering a positive platform that unifies Canadians and promotes our shared values. 

Poilievre should consider an actual overhaul, not a repetition of reactionary jibber jabber. As Canadians, we deserve astute statesmanship and policy alternatives that make sense. All of them—Poilievre, May, Bernier, and Singh—should shift gears. Either that, or make way for leaders who can better reflect our hopes and aspirations and speak to our struggles.

A wholesale change in party leadership would be good for Canada. It might even spark a minor political renaissance. After all, nobody wants the Liberals to get a free pass, once again.

Bhagwant Sandhu is a retired director general from the federal public service. He has also held executive positions with the governments of Ontario and British Columbia.

The Hill Times

 

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