Fear and loathing on the Conservative campaign trail

Fear and loathing on the Conservative campaign trail

After blowing the roughly 30-point lead they had over the Liberals just three months ago, the Conservative Party of Canada appears to be imploding on the campaign trail. Over half a dozen CPC insiders vented their frustration to the CBC, which is reporting that the Conservative campaign is “highly disorganized” and “a mess” with less than a month to go until the election on April 28.

Among the many allegations cited by Conservative Party sources are:

The U.S. trade war is not being treated as the central, ballot-box issue that it is, leading to party leader Pierre Poilievre making a number of policy announcements that are not resonating. One of these, in B.C. last Friday, had particularly poor optics — a crime-fighting announcement at a sawmill that is about to be impacted by this week’s expected implementation of U.S. tariffs.

All decisions have to go through Poilievre’s chief strategist Jenni Byrne, who, along with Poilievre, are said to refuse any campaign advice from outside their tight-knit group, which also includes members of Byrne’s lobby firm (outside the campaign period). Byrne and this inner circle reportedly have a “weird fixation” on minor issues like how Poilievre’s crowd sizes are being reported in the media.

A number of sources also describe the environment of the Conservative campaign as being ruled “by fear,” citing “aggressive behaviour,” “frequent yelling and belittling” and “bullying” by people at the top.

Veteran Conservative strategist Kory Teneycke, who was Doug Ford’s campaign manager during the last three Ontario elections, publicly called out the poor management of the federal CPC campaign last week. He subsequently told the CBC that “Poilievre is acting too ‘Trump-y’ with his pet names for political opponents and sloganeering.”

Between these allegations and criticism from a senior Conservative strategist — as well as Doug Ford himself allegedly refusing to help Poilievre in his campaign — CPC insiders now fear more than the projected punishing federal election loss. They fear “a civil war” within the conservative movement in Canada. ■

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