Poilievre and the worker's struggle
The Conservative leader, annotated
Like any important organization, Canada’s Building Trades Unions gave a cordial welcome to three federal leaders during their national conference this week: Justin Trudeau Monday, Jagmeet Singh and Pierre Poilievre Tuesday. (Later Tuesday, Poilievre was in the House of Commons, briefly.)
I watched it all from home. I’m going to provide way longer quotes from Poilievre than news reports usually do, just as I did for Trudeau yesterday. (I have written about Singh before and will again, but not this week.) Together, the two appearances show how two party leaders compete for unionized workers, a key voting group whose vote no party can take for granted.
The Conservative leader spoke for 30 minutes to Trudeau’s 40. He took no questions from the floor. Detractors who say he’s nothing but slogans would have been pleased by his early resort to slogans. He thanked his hosts, then addressed the crowd in the Gatineau Hilton ballroom. “You're the ones who handle the grievances, negotiate the wages, find the jobs, provide the skills and train the future,” he said, which is indeed a version of what people in labour unions do. “But before I get into my common-sense plan — axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget and stop the crime — I just wanted to share some staggering arithmetic.”
From here on in, there was less rhyming. I’m going to footnote, with hyperlinks, as much as I can of what Poilievre said, because it’s rare that he makes an assertion of fact for which I can find no source.