Since Conservative leader Erin O鈥橳oole has shown himself clueless about framing a 颅platform for the next federal election, let me do it for him.
Start with why Donald Trump got elected in 2016. In part, he lucked out in his 颅opponent. Hillary Clinton was distrusted, in poll after poll, by half the country.
O鈥橳oole doesn鈥檛 have quite that advantage. Both of his main opponents, Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh, are every bit as 颅clueless as he is, but Trudeau isn鈥檛 disliked to the same extent that Hillary was. So not much help in this direction.
However, the main reason Trump won was that he perceived the deep distress felt in the country鈥檚 heartlands.
Millions had lost jobs, lost homes, 颅suffered drops in their income and found themselves facing an uncertain future. Trump saw and responded to that, viscerally.
The economic pain presently suffered by working-class families in sa国际传媒 is just as intense, if not more so. Due to the measures taken to restrain the COVID-19 epidemic, tens of thousands have lost their 颅employment, their businesses, their futures. Hopelessness and despair are a growing reality.
It鈥檚 critical that O鈥橳oole recognize how fundamentally this state of affairs has altered the entire dynamic of our political arena.
The prime minister has not. He continues to prattle on about ill-timed schemes wholly at odds with present realities, like 颅shutting down chunks of the energy sector and 颅hiking carbon taxes.
This is tone-deaf messaging that O鈥橳oole must exploit.
How? First, call for a moratorium on any new tax increases, no matter how politically correct they may be.
Second, find the inner fortitude to take Joe Biden to the woodshed over his callous and politically driven decision to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline. Demand he back down, and promise to recall our ambassador if he won鈥檛.
Third, lay out a route back to fiscal sanity, and be brutally explicit about just how tough it will be.
Make a commitment, with numbers attached, to downsize every federal ministry year by year for five years. And eliminate several of them outright.
Start with the ministry of middle class prosperity (an oxymoron if ever there were one), plus the ministry of digital 颅government (only one digit is needed here to signify intent).
Fourth, silence the party鈥檚 social 颅conservatives. This won鈥檛 be easy, because media critics know the Tories are vulnerable on matters like abortion, and will continue jabbing away.
But it鈥檚 not just abortion. Several 颅Conservative senators have opposed 颅Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). Their objections are either faith-based or due to slippery-slope arguments.
Let the Conservative party come to grips with this fundamental reality. You will never form government if you persist in clinging to beliefs long since abandoned by huge chunks of the population.
Lastly, speak in blunt, forthright 颅language. Given the far-reaching 颅challenges facing our country, you cannot win by 颅voicing the kind of mealy-mouthed 颅platitudes we hear on a daily basis.
Clearly this is not the kind of platform you roll out in times of prosperity and 颅general satisfaction.
But equally clearly, we inhabit no such times and none are visible on the horizon.
