In an email sent to Conservative leadership campaigns and senior Conservatives earlier this month, former Reform Party leader Preston Manning engages in a thought experiment envisioning the kind of speech Trudeau might give to the House of Commons on to welcome Poulievre — widely expected to become the next leader of the Conservative Party of Canada in September. In an apparent attempt to demonstrate the dire effects on the party of bitter infighting between rival leadership camps, Manning’s fictional speech includes passages he describes as “the most damning and negative descriptions of Mr. Poilievre” coming from “the mouths of members of his own party who probably know him best.” CBC News obtained the text of the email — one of several Manning shared with party members during the leadership race — and verified its authenticity. In it, Manning takes the unusual step of writing from the point of view of a fictional Liberal figure – “l. B. Grit” – who offers the prime minister political advice and delivers a speech. Preston Manning arrives for morning sessions at the Manning Networking Conference in Ottawa on Friday, February 9, 2018. (Justin Tang/Canadian Press) In a brief preface before slipping into his Liberal alter ego, Manning writes that his “intention is to give the reader food for thought about strategies the Liberal Party of Canada might well employ as the next federal election approaches and how to react to such strategies”. He notes that while the speech focuses on Poilievre, the same tactic could be used against the next party leader, regardless of who wins on September 10. The fictional speech begins on a somewhat condescending note, with Trudeau congratulating Pouliev on winning the leadership and wishing him “moderate success — the same degree of success that his two predecessors achieved.” Manning envisions Trudeau then offering to share with the House and the public “relevant facts and opinions about this new leader provided by members of his own party.” The fictional speech begins with Trudeau mentioning MP Ed Fast, who supports Jean Charest’s leadership and has had a public spat with Poilievre’s supporters. “I am very concerned about the serious damage his highly questionable ideas are doing to the financial credibility of our Party,” Fast wrote of Poilievre in a May 20 email intended to drum up support for the Charest campaign. Fast also wrote that Poilievre’s commitment to freedom “extends only to people who agree with him 100 percent of the time.”
“Financial Incapacity”
The speech zeroes in on criticism of Poilievre’s controversial embrace of cryptocurrency. It cites an email Patrick Brown’s campaign sent in July before the Brampton, Ont. mayor was excluded from the race for the leadership of the Conservatives. “The Crypto Crash has exposed the complete and utter financial and monetary incompetence of Pierre Poilievre,” the Brown email states, pointing to a multi-billion dollar crash in the cryptocurrency market in a matter of days. After citing several crypto-themed criticisms of Poilievre, Manning’s fictional Liberal executive suggests Trudeau tell the House that his government “will heed these warnings, especially when [Poilievre] and the members opposite take part in the next budget debate.’ Manning’s memo to the Conservatives also points to attacks on Poilievre over his public claim that mandatory vaccination policies have done “absolutely nothing” to help Canada’s fight against COVID-19. Manning has warned Conservatives in the past about the dangers of pitting each other against each other in public. In his email to the campaigns, he suggests that Conservative rivals — including Trudeau — have enjoyed watching leadership candidates tear into each other during this race. “I’m sure you’ll find this speech draft more enjoyable to read and ultimately deliver,” says ‘l. B. Grit” to Trudeau in Manning’s memo. Manning’s fictional liberal executive offers thoughts on “countermeasures” that could reduce infighting in Conservative circles — such as the party’s Leadership Elections Committee imposing a moratorium on negative campaigning for the rest of the race and threatening fines. He also suggests the possibility that the leadership candidates themselves could back off the rhetoric and pledge to work together to defeat the Liberals and the NDP — before concluding that the Conservatives are not “remotely interested in or capable of adopting such countermeasures” .
Liberal-NDP deal unlikely to last: Manning
CBC News reached out to Manning and the Poilievre campaign for further comment on his advice to the Conservatives. No response had been received at the time of publication. Manning also argues in his memo that the NDP-Liberal confidence and supply deal — which is supposed to give Trudeau and the Liberals a multi-year reprieve from the threat of a confidence vote that would topple their government — won’t last until 2025. Again using the voice of a fictional Liberal executive, Manning claims that the NDP themselves are unhappy with leader Jagmeet Singh over his failure to demand cabinet posts in exchange for his group’s support for the government. No NDP MP has ever publicly stated such concern. In his memo, Manning also suggests that NDP MPs will see their re-election chances decline the longer the confidence and supply deal is in place because voters will decide they could get the same results by voting Liberal. Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, left, and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh prepare for the start of the federal election debate for Anglophone leaders in Gatineau, Que., Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Justin Tang) He warns that such concerns could cause the deal to collapse. Singh insisted the deal will deliver significant results on long-promised NDP priorities such as pharmaceutical and dental care for low- and middle-income Canadians. “We use our power to help people,” Singh said after announcing the deal with the Liberals in March. “We get help for people who need their teeth fixed. We get help for people who need to buy their medicine and can’t afford it.” Manning’s memo suggests the Liberals see the deal as a way to undercut the NDP. While the section of the note dealing with the Conservatives is titled “Divide and Conquer,” the section devoted to the NDP is called “Unite and Conquer.”
