EDITORIAL: Dear Conservatives, avoid liberal advice

Conservative MPs have a choice to make about the future of their leader because Conservatives, unlike Liberals, adhere to a process by which the caucus can depose the leader

Published Apr 18, 2026  •  Last updated 24 minutes ago  •  2 minute read

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre (left) and Prime Minister Mark Carney. Photo by Bryan Passifiume and Greg Southam /Postmedia Network

Tristin Hopper, who writes for our sister paper the National Post, had some excellent advice for Conservatives on X recently when it comes to taking guidance from Canada’s liberal punditariat.

As he described their true motives:

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“Hey, political party I despise and want to die, here’s some strategic advice.” – Canadian newspaper op-eds.

Indeed, peruse the Canadian news aggregator site National Newswatch these days, and the praise of Prime Minister Mark Carney by various and sundry pundits and pollsters qualifies as hagiography – originally “holy writing” describing the lives of saints, but today meaning uncritical and over-flattering commentary.

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By contrast, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is attacked – over and over again, day after day – as a poor, benighted soul who, it is hoped, will be promptly dumped by his party so that Conservatives may return to the promised land of Red Toryism, whereupon chances of their political survival may, someday, improve.

As Conservative MP Jamil Jivani states, writing in the Toronto Sun in the wake of social conservative Marilyn Gladu’s bizarre defection to the Liberals given her views observed, there is a serious problem with Conservatives as it applies to taking liberal advice.

“The biggest lesson Canadian conservatives must learn from the Mark Carney floor-crossing saga”, Jivani wrote, is, “Stop trying to please your Liberal detractors, because they’re not sincere.

“This is a constant problem in the conservative movement: people who think Liberals in the media or politics will ever be fair to us, if we contort ourselves or water down our message enough …

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“There are conservatives who watch CTV and CBC, or read Liberal newspapers, and believe Liberal talking heads can be won over. They long for an imaginary world where Liberals shower us with praise for our good policy ideas. There are conservatives who think that if we just had the right tone or became bland and vanilla enough, Liberals might extend us grace.”

Clearly, Conservative MPs have a choice to make about the future of their own leader because Conservatives, unlike Liberals, adhere to a process by which the caucus can depose the leader.

But in considering that future – once the remaining as yet undeclared Conservatives, according to media reports, defect to the Liberals – they might want to consider not taking any more advice from liberals.

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