It’s official, Stephen Harper has endorsed Pierre Poilievre in the Conservative leadership race. Not that it was ever in question or up for debate but now, no one can question Harper’s position on who should next lead the party he helped create.
He explained his reasons for backing Poilievre in a video posted to social media Monday night.
“There’s been a lot of speculation about whom I support or do not support and why,” Harper said.
Actually, no one was wondering who Harper was supporting, everyone knew. Harper’s dislike of Jean Charest has been well documented and none of the other candidates have a hope of winning or have any connection to him.
Poilievre was the only one with a hope of getting Harper’s endorsement. It is worth noting that Harper didn’t endorse anyone in the 2017 or 2020 leadership contests for the Conservative Party. Based on the predictions of a slam dunk and crushing victory being made by Poilievre supporters, it’s not clear Harper had to offer an endorsement now.
“Pierre Poilievre was a strong minister in my government. In the past several years he’s been our party’s most vocal and effective critic of the Trudeau liberals,” Harper said.
“He’s been talking about the issues, especially the economic issues that matter. Slow growth, debt, inflation, lack of job and housing opportunities, and the need to fix the institutions that are failing Canadian families. He’s proposing answers rooted in sound conservative ideas, but ones adapted for today’s realities”
Harper said these are the reasons why Poilievre has such strong support inside the Conservative caucus and why he’s attracted so many new members, including many young people, to the party and movement.
“That’s how we win the next federal election, and in my opinion, Pierre has made by far the strongest case that he is the person to do that,” Harper said.
The endorsement comes after some polling that likely had the Charest camp feeling pretty good and hoping they could use the numbers for momentum and convince any undecided voters unsure of Poilievre’s style.
An Angus Reid survey showed both Poilievre and Charest beating Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in a hypothetical match-up. Each man would attract 34% voters support according to the poll but do so in different ways.
Poilievre would solidify the Conservative base and win big in Western Canada and would do better with men, especially those 55. Charest would lose some support in Western Canada but still take majority support and would gain support among women, older men and voters in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada.
Poilievre would take many voters away from the People’s Party of Canada, while Charest would drive some voters to the PPC but win over disaffected Liberals, and would actually have a bigger lead over Trudeau than Poilievre according to the poll.
Harper’s endorsement isn’t likely to do much to solidify Poilievre’s support among the many younger voters he’s attracted to the party, many of whom wouldn’t remember much of the Harper era. It will however dampen the mood for the Charest camp, especially any boost they were feeling from that poll.
Ballots started arriving in mailboxes in early July and must be returned to Deloitte, the company tallying the votes, by 5 p.m. on Sept. 6. The winner will be announced on Sept. 10 at an event in Ottawa.
So far, few of the more than 675,000 ballots issued have been returned with some sources saying it’s as low as 5% of the total.
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