Geoff Russ: Conservatives have ceded love of Canada to Liberal vanity

Final preparations were underway at the BMO Centre in Calgary on Thursday, January 29, 2026 as the 2026 Conservative Party of Canada convention was set to start. Gavin Young/Postmedia

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Conservatism in Canada is currently on a remarkable run, and a depressing one. 

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The best lines and policies it has pitched to voters are being appropriated and stolen by the Liberals, altered, and presented to the public as if Prime Minister Mark Carney himself had thought of them.  

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Pierre Poilievre and other Conservative party figures can try to gloat through the pain and sneer that they are the faction with the best ideas. However, policies are not copyrighted, and the public will not judge Carney for championing an expanded housing supply, accelerated major projects, and stronger national defence, among other plans.  

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Imitation only flatters the people in power, not the opposition, and Carney is reaping the benefits of his own popularity. He can pick the 2025 Conservative platform clean, without a care in the world, and blend what he takes with his own agenda and the leftovers of the Trudeau government. 

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It is very possible that the current era of Canadian conservatism, with its genesis in carbon taxes and the pandemic, is winding down as a viable force. In the eyes of an outsider, the Canadian right, or the “movement,” is in terminal decline. In the summer of 2024, it appeared to be ascendant both federally and provincially. No longer. 

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On Monday, the Liberals swept a trio of byelections with majorities in every one, retaining two seats they had won in the 2025 federal election and seizing one more from the Conservatives in Quebec. An August 30 projection from 338Canada has the Conservatives winning just 84 seats if an election were held tomorrow. 

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Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance are the five stages of grief. Those on the right should not waste time on the first four. They’ve had since April 28, 2025, to accept that the momentum built over the past few years will not produce a Conservative government anytime soon. The wheels have come off the bus, and it is time to start looking for a new vehicle. 

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To be clear, Poilievre’s economic populism has tremendous merit. Indeed, Canada’s youth are being crushed by a cartel economic model that greatly benefits the asset-rich, while imported labour and other impediments delay their adulthood and careers. 

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One of the best things to happen under Poilievre’s leadership has been the broadening of the Conservative voter pool, encompassing everyone from frustrated younger voters to blue-collar workers rallying to the Conservative standard. Keeping the tent open to them is essential going forward. 

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Still, the loss of boomers and other older suburban voters was a crushing blow. Carney and the Liberals still possess another massive advantage: ownership of a largely, semi-fictional version of Canada. When Donald Trump began his rhetorical war on Canada, the Liberals were, for that reason, very comfortable waving the flag, to devastating electoral effect. The recent byelections proved that once again. 

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The Canadian right is very good at attacking Liberal economics and spending, but is rather hapless when it comes to critiquing the Liberals’ national narrative, much less offering a strong alternative.