LILLEY: 'Suits' and 'boots' backing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre
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Guy Fournier says he’s voting for Pierre Poilievre because the next Prime Minister of Canada should offer “hope for a better future, not fear and empty promises.” What makes Fournier’s statement of note is that he’s not just a union leader, he’s a Quebec union leader, a group of people not normally prone to voting Conservative.
Yet Fournier, the business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 568, representing workers across Quebec has said he endorses Poilievre “with all of my heart and soul.”
You can add Fournier’s endorsement to that of Karl Lovett, of the IBEW 778, in the Windsor area and Tyler Holmen of IBEW, Local 2067, representing electricians across Saskatchewan. It’s not just electricians, it’s plumbers, pipefitters, steelworkers, carpenters — Poilievre’s campaign is basically being endorsed by people who build make things for a living.
In his endorsement, Fournier details the problems facing his members: Construction workers cannot afford the homes they build, food prices have skyrocketed, many have to work multiple jobs to pay the bills and crime has also spiked.
“The Liberal government caused this crisis. They cannot be trusted to fix it,” Fournier wrote.
“Worse still, their new leader, Mark Carney, is a bad apple New York banker who cares nothing for the working man.”
That endorsement of Poilievre and the Conservatives sounds like something that would have gone to the New Democrats in years gone by. Now, though — with the the NDP being irrelevant and Mark Carney still sticking to his radical environmental policies of net-zero — the people who build the big projects in this country are taking their votes to the Conservatives.
You could say blue-collar workers are now voting blue.
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Strangely, though, so are the people who finance these projects. Over the Easter weekend, another full-page ad was run in Canadian newspapers by major business leaders endorsing the Conservatives, as well.
“Canada is an exceptional nation — rich in talent, strong in values, and vast natural resources,” they write.“Yet in recent years, we’ve faced real challenges. Productivity has stalled. Economic growth has slowed. Our GDP per capita is shrinking.”
The business called for five changes they want to see in the next government: Support for free enterprise, elimination of red tape and other barriers, restoring fiscal discipline, reforming the tax system and developing our natural resources. They point out that our GDP per capita has seen some of the lowest growth among peer countries over the last decade while countries like the United States, Denmark, Spain and Italy have seen a boom.
“That is why we are supporting Pierre Poilievre and the Conservative Party of Canada. They have a clear plan to address these issues and get Canada back on track. It’s because of President Trump’s threats that Pierre’s plan makes so much sense.”
Signatories to this letter included executives with energy firms, major banks, investment firms, real estate developers and more. These are executives with far more real world experience in building companies and businesses than Liberal Leader Mark Carney.
One of Poilievre’s campaign slogans has been “Boots, Not Suits.” It goes with his promises to train up to 350,000 people in the skilled trades, to restore the apprenticeship training grants, to make it easier for tradespeople to work across Canada and more.
Yet, along the campaign trail Poilievre has picked up support from the boots and the suits.
Poilievre and his campaign now have the support of those who plan and propose large scale projects in Canada and those who actually build them. Mark Carney may have an economics degree, but Poilievre has the backing of the people who make Canada’s economy work at both ends of the system.
That should count for something as Canadians finalize their vote over the next week.
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