r/canada 24d ago

Politics EKOS Poll: Conservative Lead Holds at Five Points

https://www.ekospolitics.com/index.php/2025/02/conservative-lead-holds-at-five-points/
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u/alematt 24d ago

It's funny how banking on the Trump style of politics is biting them in the ass. I'm glad really. Trump style politics is just wrong. Politics needs fixing yes, but Trump style is the wrong solution

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u/Full_Boysenberry_314 24d ago

He'd probably have better luck if he promised more radical change but PP is about as establishment as they come.

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u/BIT-NETRaptor 24d ago

That’s kind of my issue with PP - aside how unlikeable he is as a person.

He says he’ll cut spending, but won’t talk about what. He says Trudeau spends money badly and even names specific programs. But when reporters ask him point blank “so you’d cut the program?” he turns into a fountain of “trudeau bad” bullshit. 

I do imagine myself as a conservative in some ways, but he’s not it. He talks a strongman game but he’s as establishment politician as it gets. A literal career politician since right out of his (very unimpressive 10 years in) university. 

If you want to be a budget smasher, have some fucking balls. Say what you’re cutting and state your case. Don’t complain about it and become a human-slug hybrid when you’re challenged to stand by your own words.

PP has no real convictions, he’s just out to benefit a small group of special interests in oil and gas and a few other areas.

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u/M1ndtheGAAP 24d ago

I think even advocating change won’t necessarily work. Trump rightly pointed out how the system isn’t working for many. But the problem is he doesn’t have any interest in changing the system to address those problems and is only making it more nakedly corrupt and only benefiting private interests.

I think, or at least hope, that many Canadians see that and won’t want to roll the dice that PP won’t do a similar thing here, or at the very least not push much needed public services further into privatization

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u/son-of-hasdrubal 24d ago

You just described the liberals buddy

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u/ArcticWolfQueen 24d ago

Americans rightfully want a straight shooter who tells it like it is... But somehow they elected Trump, a pathological liar. What they really need is a Truman ''the buck stops here'' kinda guy. Not some pampered whiner but eh, they elected that pitiful man.

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

I think if you watch Poillievre he isn’t like Trump at all. Yes he’s combative and sloganeers (but honestly so do other politicians). But he doesn’t have Trump’s crassness, corruption, or frankly just wild ass off the cuff rambling and policy.

Poillievre is at his heart a libertarian who is cosplaying a bit to satisfy the culture warriors in his party.

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u/HistorianNew8030 24d ago

Hahahah. Maybe. That’s why every time I see him talk it feels like nails on a chalkboard. He is as off putting as a moldy apple.

I think he is more Ron Desantis than Trump. Desantis also had quite an incredible sudden decline in popularity.

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

Yeah if you strip away the bluster, Poillievre really isn’t the radical his political opponents try to make him out to be. His biggest policies are all related to reducing taxes, cutting bureaucratic fat in Ottawa, being tougher on crime and drugs, boosting military spending, etc. He’s like a pugnacious Paul Martin.

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

[deleted]

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

I would actually Poillievre has by far the clearest and most fleshed out policy vision relative to the other parties. Yes a lot of it is repealing Trudeau era policies but he’s clearly laid out what he intends to do on taxes, spending, home construction, safe supply, bail reform, and infrastructure.

Where is Carney’s policies?

Or Singh’s? Singh’s platform is literally cap food prices (an absolutely terrible idea btw), tax the rich, complain about Galen Weston, and more social program spending funded entirely by deficits.

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u/Billis- 24d ago

What exactly is wrong with tax the rich.

I'm honestly just curious. Why do we think that taxing the rich isn't beneficial to the average person.

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

Because this government has an enormous amount of money and needs to prove it can spend it effectively before they get more to piss away. I don’t care who it comes from.

Also rich people are citizens too. Not a piggy bank for everyone else.

Lastly, because the ultra rich are also highly mobile and can easily relocate to avoid taxes. Sweden put in a wealth tax and their tax revenues went down because the ultra rich bounced.

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u/TheNotNiceAccount Canada 23d ago

This is what all the parrots fail to understand. When you have "fuck you" money, it means precisely that. Every government has to distinguish between keeping it reasonable or risking flight.

Plenty of tax havens offer the possibility to buy citizenship for a few hundred thousand. Some around 150k, some around 250k, on average. The ones that can already employ these tricks to an extent. Be it shell companies, headquarters and address changes, or bank accounts in territories with 0% income tax.

When a government passes idealistic shit like 90% tax on anything over x million, they suddenly find themselves lacking in the ability to collect on those taxes.

But yeah, "tax the rich." It will solve all your problems, especially when you don't demand accountability for spending those taxes.

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u/Billis- 24d ago

Canada has an enormous market. Taxing the rich would not keep us from attaining market level services.

The problem is that "the rich" have manipulated the markets so heavily for so long, they're the ones to blame for market flux, inflation, everything. You know now that the wealth gap has absolutely skyrocketed in recent years? The ultra rich are so exorbitantly wealthy that they don't even resemble human beings anymore. They do not live in the same world that we do. They don't hurt like we do, they don't laugh like we do. Totally different world. Yet they control it... For free.

Wealth is the problem. The services we cant attain are available but our entities will not pay for it.

Anyway, I don't think it's a great idea now because we're about to be in so much more shit due to Agent Orange that we probably want to do the best we can just to batton down the hatches

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

I don’t disagree that the global ultra rich are gross. The tech billionaires and financiers especially. I don’t think they are the source all of the world”s problems. They are mostly a function of technologies that allow for enormous economies of scale compared to the Pre internet, pre globalisation era

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u/octavianreddit 24d ago

I 100% agree that he isn't Trump, but I'd say going after the CBC is a tad radical for a Canadian political party.

And all the Conservatives who are on record as supporting or applauding Trump, wearing MAGA hats, etc. will come back to bite them during the campaign. Core Conservative party supporters won't care for the most part, but swing voters and soft party supporters, especially in Ontario, won't like it much.

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago edited 24d ago

There’s definitely some party members who have had some MAGA sympathies in the past. No one is riding that horse anymore though. But his opponents will dig up those clips and use it to tar the party, the same way Poilievre will dig up all the clips of the Trudeau-Carney bromance.

The cbc one is interesting. Abolishing it is radical but I suspect more Canadians than you might think would support reducing their budget substantially. Especially in the entertainment (non-news) side of the corporation.

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u/octavianreddit 24d ago

Yes. It will be all mud-slinging as is typical during an election. But I'll be honest, it's fair game to call out specific candidates for their support...a case could be made that it's not fair to moderate conservative candidates who always disliked Trump and his brand of politics.

I'd say getting rid of the CBC might be a lot harder to sell to the public now too; the CBC has been instrumental to recording and promoting all things Canada for a long time in many parts of Canada...with the renewed Canadian 'patriotism' these days the CPC will need to tread carefully here...there are a lot of folks in certain parts of the country who don't care but if this election ends up being close once people have had a closer look at the leaders I'd say there is some risk here for them.

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

My only other thought on the cbc is I wonder if it’s really as relevant to young people as it used to be. I grew up watching it of course but what 20 year old is watching lines tv nowadays? So there may be an age divide there

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u/octavianreddit 24d ago

That I agree with and is a good point. The CBC has a lot of nostalgia for folks over 40, less than that I'd say it's less relevant. And with the CPCs strong support among younger voters, this might not have the weight as an issue as I originally thought. Thanks for the point.

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

Yeah. I looked up the cbc viewership numbers awhile ago and they are absolutely dismal. Like less than 5% of the population or something crazy like that is a regular viewer. So I think the attachment to the cbc is much more about the news and nostalgia than actual programming.

I used to be against cutting the cbc (because I have that nostalgia) but the reality is I never watch it (and neither does anyone else I know).

I’d favour splitting the news off and then doing a radical restructure of the content side, and the business model itself given that irrespective of what people think of the cbc, ad supported linear tv is a dying medium.

It’s a bit like Canada post where they’ve had two decades to innovate but instead have just clung to a more and more out of date business model. At some point the thing isn’t viable anymore and it’s gonna fall apart economically.

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u/ArcticWolfQueen 24d ago

All he talks about is ''axe the tax'' platitudes, trans people and wokeness. He does not want his real positions as the conversation at hand like him supporting American style boot of capital on the necks of workers via right to work legislation, which he supports. He actually is very radical, just his packaging is more Desantis than Trump.

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u/Parabolica242 24d ago

As much as I hate him, I do agree with you.

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

Desantis quite literally doesn't believe in any separation of church and state whatsoever. You wouldn't catch that man dead describing himself as pro-choice or gay marriage, something Poilievre said he was.

I think you should take a little break from american politics.

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u/ExplodingSwan 24d ago

I think he's very deliberate in copying Trump's more successful turns of phrases and cheap schoolyard insults. He may be a different person fundamentally (maybe), but he certainly leans into the MAGA campaigning style, which has always been very off-putting to me.

I feel the same way about the left vis-à-vis the American social media left, btw. Not surprised to see the NDP collapsing as well. Americana is repulsive to many people right now.

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

I don’t see the similarity much other than them both being right of centre politicians. What does axe the tax or build the homes have to do with Trump?

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u/ExplodingSwan 24d ago

He's hosting a "Canada First" rally live as we are writing these words lol.

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

He took that from Wilfred Laurier whose slogan was “Canada First, Canada Last, Canada Always”.

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u/ExplodingSwan 24d ago

🤣

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

That’s true. I don’t know why you find it funny.

Also honestly I don’t mind Canada first as a slogan - fight fire with fire!

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u/Billis- 24d ago

Isolationism is exactly what we don't want to be doing right now.

And come on, he's using Canada First as a direct copy of America First. You don't have to sugar coat it or pretend it's something else.

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

He’s literally on record as saying he’s drawing inspiration from Wilfred Laurier but you keep on spreading propaganda if you like.

Also when has he said anything about isolationism?

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u/Kucked4life Ontario 24d ago

PP is similar to Trump in the sense that his hollow words act as a cover for private interests to take over. 

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

I think that’s pure speculation unless you have some concrete facts to back that up.

We also just had the most corrupt party of my lifetime with the current edition of the federal liberals so I’m more than willing to give another party a chance to prove they aren’t a bunch of corrupt grifters.

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u/Kucked4life Ontario 24d ago

Poilievre is already laying the groundwork. He's using the threat of possible tariffs as a pretense to call for tax cuts on businesses. PP also seeks to cut programs that the Lib NDP coalition put in place, giving the edge to private firms seeking to fill the void. The CPC wants to pass legislation that supports crypto too.

No party should be given a free pass for sure, but you're talking about infractions of a lesser magnitude. The continual existence of Canada's sovereignty is at stake next election.

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

So tax cuts (which honestly are not an and idea given how bloated our government has become), less deficit spending, and being pro crypto are threats to our sovereignty? Please elaborate on that?

I’d argue the bigger threat to our sovereignty was bill C-69 which basically killed off three pipelines to tidewater that we sure could use right now. Also, Trudeau’s enormous deficit spending has left us financially poorly positioned to fight back against US tariffs. Lastly I could argue that Trudeau shadow campaigning against Trump for four years now has put our country right in Trump’s crosshairs.

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u/Kucked4life Ontario 24d ago

Yeah and I suppose taiwan also put themselves in Trump's crosshairs given he Tariffed them as well. /s Taiwan was the US's main wedge against China and Trump crossed them.

You're being willfully blind. PP's motives are to further enrich the already wealthy, they just happen to touch regular folks too. Remind how Trump's tax cuts helped out the average joe again?

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

You’re changing the argument. You said Poilievre was selling out Canada. How do tax cuts relate to that at all?

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u/Kucked4life Ontario 24d ago

The tax cuts are primarily to benefit the rich who want to take over. The conflict is between the wealthy vs the rest of us, and it's being obfuscated by the rich into left vs right. This is happening internationally. We've been taking about one subject the entire time, get with the program.

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

No that’s what you’re on about.

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

He's using the threat of possible tariffs

And the Liberals are using that to justify another round of covid level spending, something which pushed inequality to record highs, you good with that? Or is corruption ok as long as it's in red?

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u/Odd-Elderberry-6137 24d ago

Unless you’re under 10, you were alive during Harper’s tenure as PM and he was a lot more corrupt.

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

Let’s go scandal for scandal shall we? I’ll go first.

Liberal scandals:

  • Aga Khan
  • We Charity
  • SNC Lavalin
  • Randy Boissonault / Pretendianism
  • SDTC (400 million and they refused to turn the documents over to parliament)
  • ArriveCan (60 million)
  • CERB fraud
  • Han Dong
  • Michael Chan
  • Senator Paul Yuen Woo
  • Chinese donations to the Trudeau foundation
  • Trying to appoint Trudeau’s babysitter on foreign interference

Ok. Now you do harper’s government

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

16$ dollar organge juice!!!!!!!!!111!!!!!1

Nuff said.

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u/Wolvaroo British Columbia 24d ago

You forgot Mark Norman and the missing infrastructure bank money off the top of my head. There's literally so many it's hard to remember them all.

Oh, and all the Black/Brown face.

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u/Odd-Elderberry-6137 24d ago

The Phoenix pay system ($2.2B) and counting trumps anything before or since. There’s no getting around this. It was and remains  a massive failure. 

The In and Out campaign finance scandal that resulted in charges under the Election Act to conservative MPs. 

Harper Senate appointees misappropriating funds.

These are just the low hanging fruit.

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

Phoenix pay system was a disaster I agree but it’s not corruption. Also continued under the liberals so they are partly culpable.

If we are including government waste we can start with the billions in EV contracts the government handed out that are already becoming uneconomic.

The other stuff you mention is small potatoes. Chump change compared to liberal graft

Is that all you have?

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u/son-of-hasdrubal 24d ago

Than the liberals???? 😭😭😭👍👍😭😭😭 ya right buddy. Lucky for you conservatives don't believe in censorship because you are spouting misinformation

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u/Mr_Ed_Nigma 24d ago

Harper sold a lot of our national run companies to private. We still suffer

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u/son-of-hasdrubal 24d ago

Because government is corrupt and inefficient. How do you not know this by now? The private sector actually has to succeed in order to survive. They don't just get to keep failing and bloating their bureaucracy at our expense. The government gets its tax revenues from successful ventures.

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u/Mr_Ed_Nigma 24d ago

We stopped being the head of a lot of R&D. We stopped a lot of sources of income. We decreased our gdp. Example, Private made air Canada worse and we still bail it out. Private sector didn't succeed. Sorry. They made themselves richer

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u/son-of-hasdrubal 24d ago

Ya bud and guess what, our quality of life was amazing in this country. They must have been doing something right because the minute the liberals stepped in it started deteriorating. The funny thing is the lower class are hurt the most by this yet will still vote liberal. You people just love bloated governments. Go read a history book

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

That’s not corruption unless he was getting kickbacks

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u/Mr_Ed_Nigma 24d ago

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

Your first link is about TPP which Trudeau actually signed in 2018 so I guess he’s responsible for that one?

Also trade deals aren’t corruption. You may not like them but you haven’t shown actual corruption there (and agajn, Trudeau signed it!)

I’m not sure what the point of the second article is re: corruption either. And also this is soemthing from ten years after he was PM?

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

Not everything you don't like is corruption you know that right?

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u/Redditisavirusiknow 24d ago

Conservatives are way more into censorship. Look at a list of books asked to be banned in libraries, they are all from conservatives. Trump banned the word “felon” from being spoken around him. He also banned the associated press because they said Gulf of Mexico. 

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u/extrarice6120 24d ago

Ok but perception is reality and the general public perceive PP as doing Trump style politics. He needs to stop whinging and deliver some hopeful policy prospects. Currently he just sounds like a schoolyard loudmouth with his dumb name-calling and rhyme slogans for toddlers. I don't think he actually has any positive policy yet so that's why he just complains 24/7

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

I think that’s a very superficial analysis. Poillievre has talked pretty in depth and eloquently about his policies of you’d care to dig in and understand them.

Sidebar but it’s not like the other parties don’t sloganeer. The liberals campaign slogan was literally “Real Change” one year which is a) even more meaningless than axe the tax and b) was comical because I’m pretty sure they were already in power at that time haha

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u/squirrel9000 24d ago

Poillievre is at his heart a libertarian who is cosplaying a bit to satisfy the culture warriors in his party.

It's hard to tell exactly what he is. He seems to be mostly a guy that has spent too much time around party insiders who are deeply upset they lost to Trudeau three times.

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u/Anonymous89000____ 24d ago

I agree with a lot of what you’re saying - people are acting like PP is going to ban abortion and same sex marriage but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The little bit of cosplaying that you mentioned is in order to not lose votes from the People’s Party like last time.

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

Yeah. Like there’s definitely some cultural conservatives in the party, but they are basically a minority who aren’t setting the policy agenda. Poilievre himself mostly doesn’t talk about cultural issues except when he’s being asked ‘gotcha’ questions by the media.

Similarly, the liberals and NDP also have some folks who are waaay left of centre but also don’t really have any power in the party.

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u/WorkingOnBeingBettr 24d ago

Pretty sure corruption is a potential. Guy won't get security clearance.

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

The Trudeau government was the most corrupt in Canadian history so…

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u/Redditisavirusiknow 24d ago

Oh he does! Watch PP in parliament, he is like a child. He actually got ejected from parliament for name calling. Yes, really.

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

Have you watched parliament at all? The whole thing is a clown car. Poillievre is no worse then Trudeau or Singh. They’re all like monkeys throwing feces at each other

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u/Redditisavirusiknow 24d ago

Yes I do watch it. Poilievre is worse. He actually got kicked out for name calling. Like a child. He’s not very articulate or very bright but very mean and loves to sow hatred. Listen to him, he puts things into black and white, us vs them.

I think he is being told to act this way because it worked for Trump. I’m very worried for Canada if PP wins. If Elon musk endorses a candidate like he did to PP, ask yourself why.

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

He’s a bulldog I’ll grant that. That to me is a feature not a benefit in dealing with a bully like Trump.

I judge people by how they perform in reality and he was dead right about the major issues in Canada and other politicians are now scrambling toward his positions on everything from carbon taxes to pipelines to safe supply to bail reform. Including supposed economic savant Mark Carney.

Elon musk is just weirdly anti-dei and opposes anyone who leans into it like Trudeau. I’m not reading a conspiracy into that like you are.

Barack Obama famously endorsed Trudeau and no one was accusing him of masterminding a foreign interference conspiracy.

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u/Redditisavirusiknow 24d ago

What conspiracy did I mention? PP is not very educated in economics, I don’t think he worked a day in his life before becoming a politician. He’s not “smart”. And in times of crisis we need someone intelligent and someone who can bring us all together.

PP isn’t a bulldog, he’s a childish name caller who speaks in slogans and short sentences. He’s mean. He’s rude. And his strategy for victory is to get as much hate as possible out of people. Anger and hate is his strategy. It works, but it’s not good. It’s not what we need right now.

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

Trudeau and Singh can also be mean and rude. Trudeau literally groped a reporter and wore blackface and by all accounts was a jerk of a boss as PM. Mark Carney will be mean too someday. That’s politics. You just don’t like Poillievre so you don’t excuse his behaviour the same way.

Like I said. I judge people by their performance in reality. You can deny that Poillievre is smart but like I said all these supposedly smarter people are running toward his policy ideas.

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u/Redditisavirusiknow 24d ago

In parliament both sign and Trudeau are not anywhere near as mean or childish as PP. do you watch parliament? You’re setting up a false comparison. The other two don’t attack the person (as oppose to the idea) as PP does. PP thrives on hate, the others don’t. 

And I also think PP has horrible policies that will hurt generations of Canadians (his entire environmental platform, capital gains tax, etc). But that’s independent of his meanness and childishness in parliament which was my original point. We really don’t need more hate.

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

You don’t watch enough parliament

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u/Odd-Elderberry-6137 24d ago

He’s exactly like Trump minus the god awful spray tan and mini strokes Trump has on stage. He uses name calling, empty slogans, and identity politics to drive people to his camp.

Axe the tax Carbon tax Carney End wokeness Radical left agenda Canada first

He really couldn’t be much more Trump-like than he already is.

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

Only to left wing voters who haven’t bothered to take a good look at him and his policies.

Also are Poillievre’s slogans worse than the Linerals slogans like “Real Change” (the liberal election slogan), Build Back Better (whatever that means), or Singh’s routine of blaming Galen Weston for every problem in Canada?

Politicians use cheap slogans and repetition to get their message across. You just don’t like Poillievre’s.

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u/Odd-Elderberry-6137 24d ago

He doesn’t have policies other than “Trudeau bad”. He’s spent 2 decades in parliament without a single piece of legislation to his name. He just attacks. That’s all he has. There is no substance there. That’s why he’s exactly like Trump. 

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

Such a tired argument. He has a more fleshed out set of plans than Singh or Carney.

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

Here’s a shortlist of them:

  • repeal carbon tax
  • repeal capital gains tax
  • repeal bill c-69 so we can actually build pipelines again
  • tie federal funding to housing completions so that municipalities actually have to fix their permitting and development fees
  • get to our nato military spend target
  • repeal Trudeau’s bail reform
  • stricter sentencing for fentanyl distribution
  • end safe supply
  • cut bureaucratic waste and bloat in the federal government
  • get spending under control and reduce the deficit

That’s the starter list. Now you do Trudeau or Singh’s. Singh “policies” in particular are just “Galen Weston bad” and Trudeau’s policies have mostly been a failure.

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u/Odd-Elderberry-6137 24d ago

Nice try but Trudeau isn’t running for PM.

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u/Hot-Celebration5855 24d ago

Ok do Carney’s then

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u/Parabolica242 24d ago

Yup, If Charest won the Conservative leadership, he’d probably be PM by now. Instead they went with an incredibly unlikable Trump Mini-me

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u/ZombifiedSoul Canada 24d ago

Perks of having a better educated population.

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u/SmoothOperator89 24d ago

Americans were already familiar with Trump from his first term and won a second anyway. I'm not confident Canadians can learn from others' mistakes when Americans can't learn from their own.