Check It Out: Breaking records and throwing stones

By Joan Janzen

Are you ready for this week’s joke? Here it is ... My neighbour has proudly informed me that he has made the world record books for having the most concussions ever recorded ... 147. I was happy for him; after all he is a close neighbour, only living a stones throw away.

Just recently, the Conservative party president, Robert Batherson reported their party had “set a record for the largest number of paid members of any political party in Canadian history.” Regardless of anyone’s party affiliation or lack thereof, setting a record is usually celebrated. But instead we see the media throwing stones of criticism.

In the past the media got quite excited about increased party memberships. In December, 2014, a Canadian Press headline boasted “The Liberal party says membership numbers have skyrocketed under Trudeau”. The article went on to say, in April of 2013 the party membership stood at only 60,000, however more than twice that number signed up since Justin Trudeau became leader 20 months previously. At that time the Liberal party had close to 300,000 free memberships.

But now we see the media’s narrative is much less celebratory, even though the current amount is significantly higher than the 270,000 Conservative members who were eligible to vote in the 2020 campaign. Out of the 600,000 members, Poilievre reports 311,958 of those signed up via his website.

In response, Althia Raj from the Toronto Star noted, Poilievre may have signed up half of those members, but questioned how many of those members (Liberals, NDP and Green Party) signed up because they don’t want Poilievre to be the Conservative leader.

Andrew Coyne from the Globe and Mail said Poilievre is aiming his message at a very narrow electorate. “They’re very excited, but I don’t think that translates into support at election time. It’s a crazy way to choose a leader. The people who are deciding this race are going to be people with no history of involvement or interest in the party. Just people who are recruited, who may or may not stick around for five minutes after the leader is chosen,” he wrote.

I believe we call people with no history of involvement ‘new members’ who joined because they plan to vote. Isn’t it cause for celebration when Canadians become engaged in the political process and decide to vote for the first time?

Columnist Harrison Faulkner discredited Poilievre’s campaign with the headline, “Are there only white people at Poilievre’s events?” And Gary Mason, from the Globe and Mail, said “His (Poilievre’s) supporters don’t see his hypocrisy”. He said Poilievre’s promises “range from disturbing to all-out bonkers”, and if he were to win he would take the party in a hard right direction. He then offered a comparison to Doug Ford’s campaign.

Mason said, “Mr. Ford, a political survivor, adapted his policy agenda by ending his war with the Prime Minister, and shifting more toward the centre, and now he is arguably the most successful Conservative politician in the country.”

It’s interesting how Ford receives accolades when it serves as a useful tool. And doesn’t adapting one’s policy agenda to agree with the Prime Minister eliminate the concept of democracy and an “opposition” party whose job is to hold him accountable? Perhaps this is why IDEA, a non-partisan research think tank based in Sweden, which ranks the performance of democracies throughout the world, noted Canada’s score for “effective parliament” fell from .73 to .59 under Justin Trudeau.

But who knows ... maybe the extensive criticism from the media, that is always just a stones throw away, is an indication that the Conservative party is pointed in the right direction.