, 12.27.2022 05:23 PM

My latest: the winners in 2022

It’s that time of year!

The time, that is, when columnists haul out their naughty and nice lists, and type up political winners and losers. And who am I to buck tradition?

So, herewith and heretofore, the political winners of 2022!

(The political losers column comes next. And being on the winners list, by the way, is no guarantee that you won’t also be on the losers list.)

Justin Trudeau. Yes, yes, we know. You don’t like him. I don’t like him, either. But by any political standard, the Liberal leader had a winning year: he just did.

He didn’t just win the Mississauga-Lakeshore byelection — his candidate, who was not without blemish, absolutely clobbered his Conservative opponent. And that’s in a riding that Doug Ford’s Conservatives won handily just a few months ago.

That’s not all: Trudeau’s Big Date with Destiny was supposed to be his appearance at the inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act in Ottawa and elsewhere. And not only did he not lose his cool during many hours of cross-examination, Trudeau did exceptionally well. He kicked ass, in fact.

Finally, Justin’s a winner for the most important reason of all: he is still standing. He still has power. He still is the prime minister who defeated three Tory leaders in a row.

And don’t be surprised if he goes on to defeat a fourth.

Pierre Poilievre. The Ottawa area MP didn’t just win his party’s leadership — he absolutely crushed the competition. And that competition included an actual former Conservative leader, Jean Charest, who is a pretty accomplished and respected politician.

Since he became leader, Poilievre has pulled back from the Freedumb Convoy and Bitcoin and conspiracy theory nonsense, and he hasn’t had a single caucus bimbo eruption — and, for the Tories, that’s a pretty big achievement.

Predictions that he would be facing an election with a divided party — and I was one who made such a prediction — were completely wrong. His party looks to be quite united behind him, and getting ready for an election that could come at any time now.

Joe Biden. Full disclosure: I worked for Biden on his presidential race, so I’m a bit biased when it comes to the 46th president. But I think I’m entirely justified in admiring the guy so much: like my former boss Jean Chretien, Biden is consistently underestimated by his opponents, and then he consistently exceeds expectations.

Everyone thought that he would get clobbered in the midterms, but he didn’t. He actually increased his party’s standing in the Senate, and he kept the Republicans to a puny number of victories in the House of Representatives. He may be as old as Methuselah, but he’s as smart as Methuselah. Discount Biden at your peril.

Premiers Doug Ford, John Horgan, Francois Legault. The three men who lead, or led, our three biggest provinces were wildly successful. Ford got reelected with a bigger majority, Quebec’s Legault got reelected with a big majority, and B.C.’s Horgan left his party in better shape than he found it — and said party is still governing. While our national leadership is often uninspiring, these three men — whatever their faults — knew how to win, when they needed to win.

Incumbents. If there’s one thing the pandemic taught us, it’s that Canadian voters don’t like changing horses midstream. Incumbent leaders — particularly at the municipal level — held onto power and easily defeated any and all challengers.

Mayor John Tory in Toronto – and his counterparts, Bonnie Crombie in Mississauga, Patrick Brown in Brampton, Valerie Plante in Montreal – and so on: all of these leaders revealed themselves to be solid performers during the pandemic, and voters rewarded them accordingly.

We could go on — and that’s a good thing — but we don’t want you to think that I’m too positive. There’s lots of negative stuff to remind you about, too.

That comes in the next column!

25 Comments

  1. Robert White says:

    In my neophyte opinion, Poilievre cannot surmount any sort of leverage throughout the GTA aside from minority support that wouldn’t amount to a hill of beans compared to the Liberal machine.

    He has Freeland & Trudeau to pick apart as they pick him apart in tandem.

    Poilievre is merely marking time as the temporary leader until the Conservative Party disolves as the membership realizes that Harper is not coming back to save his one hit wonder.

    In this light Harper is reduced to his creation mired in
    the mud of what once was which wasn’t much according to Canadians that vote.

    RW

  2. Warren,

    We Conservatives are many things but being Casanovas is way beyond our charismatic capacity, by and large. Don Juans just ain’t us. LOL.

  3. Warren,

    […] “and he kept the Republicans to a puny number of victories in the House of Representatives. ”

    Actually, the Republicans did that ALL by themselves. Like Mitch said, it was all about candidate quality. Republicans picked too many serial losers and whackos for House races. They have only themselves to blame for a slim House majority.

  4. Gilbert says:

    I honestly fail to see how Justin Trudeau can be called a winner. He enacted draconian mandates. When the protestors were on their way to Ottawa, he ran and hid. He went to Europe and spoke about democracy after calling Canadians names, using divisive language, freezing bank accounts and only ending the protests after pressure from the US.

    He continues to spend like a person who knows nothing about finances and has done nothing about Chinese interference in the last election. President Xi scolded him for leaking information to the media, conduct by the Canadian PM which was completely unprofessional. More Canadians are struggling with brutal inflation and high taxes, and the government seems to be out of ideas for improving the economy. How can we call such a leader a winner?

    • Martin Dixon says:

      Says that cabinet ministers committing ethics violations “sucks” and I see the Pomp and Circumstances person who got Ng in trouble is back committing punditry on the CBC. Can’t make this shit up.

      • Martin,

        You could have knocked me over with a feather when I saw who The Mothercorp chose to interview this PM in a year-end interview. Nothing quite like all those hardball questions that the CBC is already so accustomed to doling out.

        • Martin Dixon says:

          Can’t watch. Watching him in QP bad enough. Watching him with a groupie is not tolerable. Do watch P and P to see what talking points have been sent from the PMO.

  5. Douglas W says:

    Justin Trudeau: the far-and-away 2022 over all winner but … folks are tiring of the dude … the Mississauga-Lakeshore by-election was a spring-training tilt .. if I were him, I’d roll the dice now, and see how things play out.

    • Douglas,

      In mid-winter? You have one hell of a lot more guts than yours truly. I would never have the balls to go now. By the by, has anyone ever won a winter election in this country?

      • Meanwhile, the CPC’s polling lead is holding up in December polling:

        Mainstreet: +4, Abacus: +6, Léger: +3.

        But our seat distribution still sucks, to use a recent Trudeauism. We’re still behind the Liberals in seat projections…that means the CPC message needs, at the very least, major tweaking to effectively ram home our message and seriously move those seat numbers.

        • Martin Dixon says:

          I am spending this week doing what I have been doing for the last 18 years. Raising money for one of my local guys. Was going to stop when Phil retired but like Corleone, every time I try to get out, they drag m back in. Managed to talk the local EDAs into cutting out most of the ridiculous golf tourneys and overrated cabinet minister visits. No one of any substance interested, at least in our riding. Just ask them for the money and tell them what they get out of it is NOT having to participate in that stuff. There was resistance at first but no more. Always do no matter what machinations are going on at the leadership level. All the people licking their wounds from the last leadership fight and sat on their hands the last election should actually take a cue.

        • Douglas W says:

          Only the Conservatives’ war room knows this: what their internal polling numbers tell them where they stand with the swing vote.

          One pollster has the Libs ahead by only 3 points or less in at least 15 GTA ridings.

          Not comforting for the governing party.

          Because pollsters know where their bread is buttered, and how important government contracts are, I’m not buying the current polling numbers.

          My hunch: Conservatives are two points (or more) higher than the polls are telling us; the Libs and New Democrats, a point or two lower, perhaps more.

          Lots of scare tactics going on about how Poilievre is negative on Canada, and that Trudeau is nicer and more honourable than the Conservative leader.

          Scare tactics mean the Libs know they’re in deep trouble; it’s the only card left for them to play.

  6. It doesn’t take a genius to know that the CPC should be consistently and regularly polling exclusively suburban women so that policy can specifically address and focus like a laser upon their issues and concerns. Is the party already doing that? I have no idea.

    • Douglas W says:

      Ronald, we know this much: the Conservatives are not showing their hand — period.

      Either they have a shock-and-awe strategy, ready to go, once the writ is dropped or … they’re going to fizzle in the first week of the campaign, never to recover.

      If it’s the latter, it’s going to be grim.

    • The Doctor says:

      PP’s numbers with women suck donkey balls. As long as that’s the case the CPC is not going to form government.

  7. Martin Dixon says:

    The funny papers are still reporting today on the fact that the federal public sector people(the standing O JT silly groupies) are still balking at the fact that they are being asked to show up at work a couple of days a week some times next year. Please please keep fighting it. Please.

    • Martin,

      I have relatives and friends who are 100% remote and for quite a while and several of them have now developed anxiety or depression. I can only speak for myself: but had I been remote, I would not have been long on this planet because of that. I need to be out of the condo at least five days a week. My mental health requires that.

  8. Martin Dixon says:

    PP weighing in on the horror that took place in Hagersville. We were a victim of a guy that was known to the police and out on bail from the same area. Almost killed someone in a high speed chase a couple years before robbing us with an accomplice while we were home. Thank god we were asleep and I didn’t hear them or I may have ended up in the same boat as Const. Greg Pierzchala(who had literally just got through probation-makes you want to cry). Testified against him but the charges were dropped because there were so many other charges against him. Our new local MP(Larry Brock) was the Crown. But let’s focus on the hunters and farmers!

    https://www.facebook.com/PierrePoilievreMP/videos/5491125831015522

    He is handling the Bank Of Canada question reasonably well. The usual suspects won’t agree, I am sure.

    • Martin,

      The Trudeau Liberals royally fucked themselves when they came up with the co-mandate. Now, they really get to wear it, not by political ricochet but directly. Just another in a plethora of their so-called good decisions made with their usual sound judgment…

      • Martin Dixon says:

        You have to wonder who came up with the talking point that PP will appoint someone that is independent of HIM because it was brilliant.

        • Martin,

          Before the co-mandate, the Bank of Canada was TECHNICALLY already an independent at-a-distance institution but in reality, the BOC would never go against the wishes of a sitting government. Read, for example, Biden’s view of QE in the States and the inflation it caused. Same thing here: if Trudeau had been resolutely against QE, Canada would have had none of it. But in each country, they choose to very discreetly play ball together.

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