We could very well be saying Prime Minister Pierre Poilievre come 2025.
While the next election locals will face is the provincial one, residents would be wise to cast their eyes further and higher up to the 45th federal election, which will be on or before Oct. 20, 2025, a decade after Justin Trudeau first took the top job.
Though in Squamish, there are loud voices on the left side of the political spectrum, pollsters and pundits have long been noting a move toward the Conservatives, even on the left coast.
As of Jan. 21, according to pollsters at 338 Canada, the federal Conservatives are projected to take 40% of the popular vote in B.C.
The site currently projects a 72% chance the Conservatives will win in West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country.
Polls and surveys are valuable, but sometimes, it is the small things that tell the story even better.
Recently, a post sharing a version of The Tax Poem (author unknown) was again making the rounds on Facebook.
Tax his land, Tax his bed, Tax the table at which he’s fed.
Tax his tractor, Tax his mule, Teach him taxes are the rule.
Tax his work, Tax his pay, He works for peanuts anyway!... You get the idea.
It has been around a while, perhaps a couple of decades. Usually, it is repeated by more politically extreme folks. But the poem is now also being shared by hairdressers and construction workers.
Average folks who feel financially squeezed and frustrated.
While traditionally Conservative voters were older, young people of various backgrounds have shown support for Poilievre. A recent Abacus Data poll found the Conservatives would garner the most votes—32%—among 18 to 29 year olds, who seem to favour his fiscal freedom, freer markets, lower taxes, and focus on fighting inflation.
Poilievre also rails against the carbon tax, which scores him points.
Himself a career politician, Poilievre seems successful in hammering at elitists, and that plays well to those struggling to make ends meet.
The Liberals haven’t done themselves any favours in that regard. A perfect example was when Liberal deputy premier and federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland bragged about not owning a car and biking around Toronto, while having access to a car and driver.
Her anecdote about cutting her family’s Disney+ subscription to save money also hit a raw nerve. While she meant, perhaps, to show she is just like us, it instead demonstrated how out of touch she is with the average Canadian struggling to buy groceries.
All this to say, this Conservative popularity is why so many are rushing to be the next Tory candidate in our riding—and why the other parties dismiss or ignore the angst they represent at their peril.
