Conservatives, NDP both favour Poilievre in pitches to union voters – National
Federal Conservatives And The New Democrats We agree on very little, but one point of consensus has emerged in recent months: labour issues will play a key role in the upcoming federal election.
Both parties have launched television ads that attempt to define the Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre in the eyes of union voters, a group that politicians see as having increased influence in the upcoming federal election.
The ad launched by the New Democrats across the country last week clearly targets its traditional union base. It features union leaders describing Poilievre as a career politician who has “never been a worker and never supported workers.” The footage includes shots of party leader Jagmeet Singh on picket lines in locations across the country.
The Conservatives responded to that attack Monday with their own ad, saying Poilievre will bring a fresh start, “where hard work is rewarded, where there is affordable food and safe housing where everyone has a fair chance at a good life.”
After showing images of night workers, such as nurses, waiters and truck drivers, the Conservative ad ends with a slogan: “After the night, no matter how long or dark, comes the morning,” as Poilievre appears on screen, smiling in a field at dawn. They also launched a radio ad attacking Singh for honoring his supply and confidence agreement with the minority government.
Both messages appeared to resonate with participants in Toronto’s annual Labour Day parade, where they said they would be paying attention to promises and actions from both sides.
Workers have heard a lot from politicians lately, said Lily Chang, secretary-treasurer of the Canadian Labour Congress, but what they really want is to see them walk the talk.
“People need politicians to make policy decisions and to make sure working people have a chance to prosper,” she said at Monday’s march.
Federal parties have stepped up their efforts to attract union votes as the labour movement experiences a renaissance, said George Soule, a former NDP communications director who is now a principal at strategic communications firm Syntax.
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“You see it in the United States, where the sitting president went to a picket line, and I want to emphasize that this is a place where you will never see Pierre Poilievre,” he said in a telephone interview.
Since Poilievre became leader two years ago, he has met with more than 60 unions and visited more than 200 traditionally blue-collar workplaces like factories, plants and mills in eight provinces, while saying other federal parties have abandoned them.
But New Democrats point to his absence from the picket lines and his silence after Canada’s two railways locked out their unionized workers as proof that Poilievre is a “fake, a fake and a fraud.”
“You never hear him talk about corporate greed or attack big business,” said NDP labour critic Matthew Green.
“Instead, he’s holding these massive fundraisers in these multi-million dollar mansions while going out and putting on a work vest and fake scuffed shoes, pretending he’s been on the front lines the whole time.”
The Conservatives pointed to Poilievre’s recent remarks, in which he accused Singh of betraying workers by joining an “expensive coalition” that he said puts Singh and Trudeau ahead of Canadians.
Michelle Johnston, a union member who marched in the Toronto march, described herself as an undecided voter. But when she chooses a side, she said it will ultimately depend on policies that affect her, such as women’s health care.
“I’m not sure where the candidates up there stand,” she said of party platforms.
Since Poilievre took over the party two years ago, the Conservatives have implemented several policies affecting workers, including opposing the use of foreign replacement workers in electric vehicle battery plants and imposing tariffs on electric vehicles, steel, critical minerals and other products made in China.
His party also backed a bill banning replacement workers, while pledging to keep the law in place if the Conservatives form government.
It’s a change of tone from his early days in Parliament, when he voted for a private member’s bill that would have required unions to publicly disclose how they spend their money. He also supported another bill that unions said would make it harder to organize in federally regulated workplaces.
Both bills were repealed when the Liberals came to power.
National opinion polls suggest this change is resonating with Canadians, as the Conservatives have a substantial lead over the other parties.
This is notably the case of George Smith of Toronto, who said he plans to vote Conservative for the first time in the next federal election.
“Their goal is to serve the people, not themselves,” said Smith, who believes that vision will be reflected in their candidates and their official election platform.
The Conservatives and the NDP will soon face off in another way: at the ballot box in an upcoming byelection in a Winnipeg riding where union ties to the NDP have long been strong.
“(Poilievre) is trying to make the case that he can take these working-class seats. He talks a lot, and this is his chance to show if he can actually do it,” Soule said.
The Conservatives have stepped up their attacks on the New Democrats and their leader Singh in recent weeks, and the NDP has responded in kind. Both parties sense change is afoot.
“If you want to know the list of things that Canadians are looking for in the next election, one of them is to replace Justin Trudeau, period, no matter what he does,” Soule said.
“I think it’s going to be a pretty blue and orange election. Poilievre and the Conservatives are spending a lot of money on polls, they see this coming, so they’re fighting very early.”
