Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre addresses the caucus for the first time during a meeting in Ottawa on Sept. 12.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre sure can talk a blue streak about inflation.
His focus on kitchen-table issues cemented his everyman image with his party’s rank and file. But to win the next federal election, Mr. Poilievre must also amass support from the business and entrepreneurial class – the very “elites” who’ve become regular targets of his political attacks.
Although Corporate Canada is certainly frustrated with Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s tax-and-spend policies, Mr. Poilievre will need more than a steady supply of snappy one-liners to convince business leaders that he’s a more suitable economic steward.
Successive Conservative leaders have alienated the party’s traditional Bay Street constituency over the years with their increasingly populist bent.
Remember when former prime minister Stephen Harper launched a $9-million advertising campaign to attack Rogers, Bell and Telus during the wireless wars of 2013? Or when former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole pledged that a Tory government would force large federally regulated businesses to appoint at least one worker representative to their boards of directors?
Well, Mr. Poilievre risks deepening that rift with Bay Street because some of his pronouncements are bad for business.
His vow to fire Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem and his support of trucker blockades that resulted in billions of dollars in economic losses don’t signal to our trading partners and foreign investors that Canada would be a stable place to invest if he were to become prime minister.
And, of course, his suggestion that cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, offer Canadians a chance to “opt out” of inflation was reckless investment advice.
Is Pierre Poilievre really a freedom fighter?
Enough with the populist antics already.
Mr. Poilievre needs a pragmatic plan to generate sustainable growth for the Canadian economy. And like it or not, that includes taking advice from the business community – or as he calls them, the “Davos elites.”
He would be foolish to squander an obvious opportunity to fill the industrial policy vacuum created by Mr. Trudeau.
Aside from legalizing cannabis, imposing a carbon tax and turning Ottawa’s purchase of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion into a money pit, what exactly has his Liberal government accomplished over the past seven years?
In fact, Ottawa rarely comes calling on Bay Street. Sure, there has been the occasional itinerary item – such as last month’s visit by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz – but there has been little direct engagement between Mr. Trudeau and the business community.
If Mr. Poilievre were wise, he would embark on a listening tour of Corporate Canada and advance some of the red-meat business issues that have either stalled or been scrapped under the Liberals’ watch.
For instance, he should promise to resurrect plans for a national securities regulator and finally turn former Conservative finance minister Jim Flaherty’s dream into a reality.
Canada is the only industrialized country without a national securities regulator. Not only does the current patchwork of provincial and territorial rules make it more costly and complex for companies to raise money in our capital markets, it discourages foreign direct investment in our country.
Similarly, Mr. Poilievre should vow to show federal leadership on dismantling interprovincial trade barriers – a task that was assigned to Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland back in 2019.
Progress has been painfully slow and a slew of interprovincial trade barriers continues to take a toll on the national economy. A 2016 Senate report concluded that internal trade barriers reduce Canada’s gross domestic product by as much as $130-billion.
That’s because internal trade barriers drive up compliance costs, impede labour mobility and create supply chain kinks for all kinds of businesses. They also hurt consumers by limiting competition and inflating prices.
Mr. Poilievre should also take a page out of former Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney’s playbook and promise to make Canada a signatory to new trade pacts, including the U.S.-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity.
The 14 countries at the table represent 40 per cent of global GDP and are discussing key issues, including the clean economy. Canada’s absence from those talks has been a head scratcher for domestic business leaders.
Mr. Poilievre should also promise to scrap other irritants introduced by the Liberals, including the discriminatory surtax on bank and insurance company profits. At the end of the day, this cash grab by Ottawa amounts to a tax on retirees who rely on the income from these dividend stocks.
In short, Mr. Poilievre needs to drop his crypto bro shtick and transform himself into an industrial champion. Think Michael Wilson.
Ideologues play populist politics. But it takes a statesman to advance business issues at home and abroad.