Any challengers face a tough fight against Poilievre, who starts from a position of strength.
As reported yesterday, Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre will soon be announcing a run for the Conservative leadership.
While much of the establishment media has ignored Poilievre up until now, he has an incredibly strong chance of winning.
Here are three reasons he starts as the front-runner:
Connection to the Conservative base
The Canadian Conservative base doesn’t want someone who tries to appease or pander to the biased establishment media. The Conservative base wants a fighter. And a quick look at Poilievre’s Twitter and Facebook feeds shows he has a willingness to fight back. That’s exactly what Conservatives are looking for.
Mastery of modern communication
One of Justin Trudeau’s biggest strengths as a politician is his dominance on social media. Trudeau is able to generate tons of Retweets and shares on his content, which gives him a chance to get his message out far and wide. Combined with the fact that the establishment media loves to do the bidding of the Liberals, and Trudeau holds sway over a powerful media machine.
Andrew Scheer was never able to generate the presence on social media to counteract that, but Pierre Poilievre has shown a tremendous ability to generate emotional reactions on social media. Those reactions range from extremely positive among core Conservatives, to extremely negative among Liberals, but that ability to generate a reaction is exactly what’s needed to confront the Trudeau machine.
Ability to bridge Conservative divides
The Conservative Party is facing some serious potential divisions, with some arguing that Scheer lost because he was too socially Conservative, while others argue that he should have been more socially Conservative.
Poilievre has the potential to bridge that divide, as many Conservatives across the party support his tough approach and willingness to fight. At the same time, Poilievre is not seen as someone who is very socially conservative, but neither is he seen as someone who is ‘Liberal-lite.’
As a result, the party would be expected to unite rather successfully under his leadership. And the fact that he starts with the support of prominent Conservatives like John Baird and Jenni Byrne bodes well for him.
These are the three big reasons why Poilievre starts as the front-runner for the Conservative leadership, and any potential competitor will face a tough challenge in dislodging him from top-tier status.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – Twitter
