This week, supporters of the Conservative Party showed up at campaign event in Brampton, Ont., sporting T-shirts and carrying banners that read, “Do you believe the polls?” The next day, reporters were asking Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre if he believes the polls – and whether he would accept the outcome of the election on April 28.
Mr. Poilievre had an unambiguous response. “Yes,” he said. That is the right one-word answer, with no following ifs, ands or buts.
Anyone trying to find the link between skepticism about polling data and a rejection of the outcome of a democratic election might have been scratching their heads – until Liberal Leader Mark Carney was asked the same questions on Thursday and cleared that up for everyone.
“Of course,” he responded to the two questions. And then he added that there are “certain parties that just import all their slogans and their policies from America, but let’s not import that nonsense into Canada.”
Got it, Mr. Carney. Questioning the accuracy of polling data is the gateway drug that could lead to “certain parties” claiming that the April 28 election was rigged if they lose the vote.
If anything in this case, the person importing American nonsense into Canada is Mr. Carney.
We don’t deny that some of the Conservative supporters asking “Do you believe the polls?” may be blurring the line between legitimate skepticism and conspiracy theory.
But it seems mostly to be a sentiment held by partisans who are coming to grips with the massive swing in the polls that has seen the Conservatives fall from a 25-point lead last fall to a consistent five- or six-point deficit now.
Their time would no doubt be better spent asking why it took so long for Mr. Poilievre to adjust his campaign messaging after U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade and annexation threats, Justin Trudeau’s resignation and Mr. Carney’s elevation to Prime Minister.
But it nonetheless has long been standard practice for campaign organizers to tell their supporters, and for their supporters to tell each other, to ignore the polls when they are unfavourable. It is a strategy designed to keep partisans engaged that has never before led to the suspicion that the party involved intended to question the outcome of an election.
Mr. Carney’s coy linking of Mr. Poilievre and the Conservatives to Mr. Trump’s extremism is not new; it’s been part of his campaign all along. He has portrayed Mr. Poilievre as someone who “worships at the altar of Donald Trump and will kneel before him, not stand up to him” – an outrageous accusation of treachery.
And now he is intimating without evidence that the Conservatives are preparing to sow doubt on Canada’s electoral system if their party loses. It’s divisive and small, and not befitting of someone who wants to lead this country.