Commentary
When it comes to the candidates who are coming and going from federal politics in advance of the next election, it’s a tale of two parties.
The Liberals are seeing high-profile caucus members jump ship prior to the next election. The Conservatives, meanwhile, are attracting young candidates who represent the future.
It’s yet another sign that Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has the momentum and is serious about building a winning team.
This year, a number of Liberal cabinet ministers announced they wouldn’t be seeking re-election. The tally includes Marc Garneau, Carolyn Bennett, Joyce Murray, Helena Jaczek, and Omar Alghabra.
Now, other than Alghabra, all of them are within the typical retirement age anyway. But the fact they’re making this choice now rather than one election earlier, or waiting until the next one, tells you that things are different today. If they felt like the Trudeau government’s best policy years were still to come, they’d likely be fighting to stick around. After eight years in government, this clearly isn’t the case though. Their announcements signal that Trudeau’s best years are behind him.
The Liberals’ official position will be that whoever comes in as the replacement candidates in these ridings represents a fresh face for the party. That’ll be pure spin though. The fact that Trudeau will still be at the helm in the next election–and he maintains that he will be leading the Liberals into the election–makes it clear to the voters that there is no fresh face.
The electorate will be choosing whether they want more of the same or something different. While Trudeau may try to argue he’s offering something different, the real alternative clearly comes in the slate of candidates Poilievre is putting together. That’s been clear in recent weeks, as new candidates have been added to the team.
There’s a lot of excitement around the candidacy of Jamil Jivani, who last week won the nomination to replace former leader Erin O’Toole as the Conservative standard bearer in the GTA riding of Durham.
Jivani speaks passionately about his experiences as an inner-city youth who could have chosen an anti-social path but instead went to law school and became an advisor to Ontario Premier Doug Ford on youth opportunities. As the former President of the Canada Strong & Free Network, he worked to bring diverse young people into the conservative fold.
It will no doubt be very inspirational to young people across Canada to see Jivani stand up in the House of Commons to hold the Trudeau government to account.
The same goes for Shuvaloy Majumdar, who recently won the Calgary Heritage by-election and now sits as a federal MP. A longstanding foreign policy expert, Mujamdar is widely expected to play a prominent role in a Poilievre cabinet.
Likewise with Roman Baber, who recently won the York Centre Conservative nomination. Baber speaks about his experiences growing up in a Soviet country and how that influences his advocacy for freedom. He gained respect across the political spectrum for his principled opposition to excessive pandemic restrictions while he served as an MPP in Doug Ford’s caucus.
York Centre, in Toronto, is currently a Liberal seat but could certainly swing Conservative based on the enthusiasm currently felt for Poilievre and with a star candidate like Baber.
Thornhill MP Melissa Lantsman was first elected as a Conservative MP in 2021 and her star has only continued to rise after being made deputy leader of the party under Poilievre. As the first openly gay woman elected as a Conservative MP, her high-profile role sends a message that this is a party for everyone.
These are just some of the candidates who will be front and centre in the next federal election campaign. They’re young, diverse, and energized to tackle the issues with a fresh perspective. They all bring a level of excitement and positivity to their advocacy of Conservative values and their support of Poilievre’s leadership.
Meanwhile, the story for the Liberals is that cabinet ministers are calling it quits. The candidates who do take up the Liberal banner will be stuck answering for eight years of Liberal policy plunders and scandals. It’s not an enviable position to be in.
When it comes to this tale of two parties, it’s no surprise that the polls currently show the Conservatives are surging ahead.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
