Maple MAGA Meltdown
The shivs come out for Pierre Poilievre
"I don't know what you expect
Staring into the TV set
Fightin' fire with fire and burning down the house."
—Talking Heads
I don't do conspiracy theory, but if I was afflicted with that weird mindset, I might be inclined to think that Premier Danielle Smith is some kind of sleeper agent for the Liberal party.
How else to explain how she is doing everything in her power to tie Pierre Poilievre to Donald Trump?
A long-time political arsonist, Smith has approached our unprecedented national crisis with malevolent glee. She has promoted breaking up the country and posted photos of herself hanging out with those who sell out our nation. She seems to go out of her way to offend Canadians and our growing sense of patriotic determination.
She says it's all about helping Pierre Poilievre get elected Prime Minister. But, as Smith presents it, Poilievre will be a junior partner in a larger MAGA narrative.
No wonder Poilievre's poll numbers are tanking.
The Trump election has blown apart Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre's plan to become Prime Minister.
For the last four years, he has carefully followed the MAGA playbook – vilifying political enemies, replacing policy plans with cheap bumper sticker slogans and driving a relentless wave of manufactured rage and cynicism.
And all of it worked great until Trump was elected in November 2024. Then, Maple MAGA was left totally flatfooted as Trump turned his manufactured rage on Canada.
Poilievre hasn't done very well trying to pivot from his role as mini-Trump. Any time he seems to make ground, Danielle Smith shows up.
Her comments to the extremist platform Breitbart blew a hole in Poilievre's attempted makeover. Smith reminded Breitbart and Canadians that:
"the perspective that Pierre [Poilievre] would bring would be very much in sync with, I think…the new direction in America."
And then she admitted she tried to get Trump to tone down the tarifff war just long enough for Poilievre to win the election. Her comments whacked Poilievre on the first day of his campaign.
The week only got worse for him as he was dogged by accusations that his own team tried to work back channels with MAGA to get a fake dis-endorsement from Trump. Then came reports that his leadership campaign was aided by foreign interference.
As week two of the campaign begins, Danielle Smith has popped up again—this time at a right-wing fundraiser with MAGA influencer Ben Shapiro.
It was a total love-in with Canada's Quisling Premier and a man who ridicules our nation as a "silly little country" and a nation run by "schmucks."
Shapiro on Canada:
"We can annex it and then just call it an outlying territory or something like Puerto Rico, but of the North… Trump has basically proposed that we annex Canada, and I feel like they will greet us as liberators at this point."
You would expect Smith to defend Canada in some way.
Not a chance, "I come in peace," she smirked.
This isn't going to help Poilievre in any way. But every time he is asked about Smith, he defends her because his leadership is totally dependent on his Alberta machine.
Canadians are now looking at the Alberta Conservative movement as a nest of traitors.
But while Smith is selling the nation out, Conservative Premier Doug Ford is scrambling to save the thousands of jobs on the line in Ontario. Poilievre, who has never shown much gravitas in bringing people together, has been rubbing Ford the wrong way for a long time.
Ford is a guy who plays for keeps. He made it clear that he doesn't want his MPPs to participate in the Conservative federal election campaign.
As if this wasn't serious enough, his team leaked polling data that was highly damaging to Poilievre.
And then they went further.
Long-time Conservative strategist Kory Teneycke was sent out to explain that Poilievre's Trump-like behaviour has pissed off Canadians.
Teneycke pointed out that Poilievre simply isn't a very likeable guy. He is mean. He is cynical, and he is way too "Trump'y."
Burn.
When someone like Teneycke delivers that message to the mainstream media, it is the equivalent of putting a horse's head in the bed of the Conservative leader. This is a direct message to Poilievre and a serious one.
So what does this mean? We have four weeks to go, and in an election, anything is possible.
But the Maple MAGA coalition of right-wing premiers are falling out. And Teneycke is right about Poilievre – he is an unlikeable guy. If he can't maintain an alliance of centre-right Ontarians and separatist MAGA Albertans in the same tent, how is he going to run the country?
And right now, the Big Blue tent appears to be burning to the ground.
You can partially thank Smith and her can of high-octane Alberta gasoline.
But really, it all comes back to Pierre Poilievre, who built a movement founded entirely on rage.
And now, it has turned on him.
It doesn’t matter if PP is polling at 1%, no one should be confident that Carney will win.
Vote!
thank you Charlie, for again telling it like it is. Danielle Smith should be charged with election interference and forced to step down. Her insistence on holding Big Oil over the heads of all Canadians while the rest of Canada fights to exist is tantamount to treason. I know she is not speaking for most Albertans. She speaks for those that want to relive the glory days of big investment and huge corporate profits. hmmm almost sounds like the South 49 doctrine.