Overheated rhetoric during Poilievre visit a sign of things to come
Eventful September in Canadian politics sets the stage for federal election sooner rather than later
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre signs a poster for one of his supporters after a rally in Iqaluit on Monday. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
Last one to leave Iqaluit, turn out the lights, please!
Northern communities are going to “empty out” if Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives lose the next election. He said so himself during Monday’s visit to Iqaluit.
Parliament hasn’t even returned from its summer break but the overheated political rhetoric has already begun.
In what has been an eventful September in Canadian politics, Poilievre was in Iqaluit Monday, sporting his too-snug, too-smug Axe the Tax T-shirt that has been his uniform all summer.
Poilievre was a toned-down version of his sometimes-combative self. For example, he didn’t spar with reporters over government funding of the media as he has been prone to do in the south.
Still, Poilievre is itching for a fight, daring the NDP and Bloc Québécois leaders to join him in voting down Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, possibly as early as next week when the House of Commons resumes sitting.
Poilievre’s first visit to Nunavut since becoming his party’s leader in 2022 came just days after NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh pulled the plug on his party’s deal that has kept Trudeau’s minority Liberal government in power for more than two years.
That move raised expectations that Canadians could be going to the polls sooner than the October 2025 scheduled federal election.
But if the Conservatives are going to form a majority government, they need to flip at least 53 Liberal or NDP seats to Conservative blue.
The 338Canada.com election prediction site suggests Poilievre’s Conservatives are on track to win 212 seats in the next election — a number that would best Brian Mulroney’s record-setting 1984 landslide by one.
Nunavut could be one of them. Over the past 16 years — in the past five elections — Nunavummiut haven’t shown a high degree of party loyalty, having elected New Democrats, a Liberal and a Conservative.
Leaders of the three national political parties have come to Nunavut in the past year.
The attention they have lavished on Nunavut is a sign they all think it’s a winnable riding for their party.
Whether it’s an early election or still a year away, it could come down to just a small number of ridings that determine whether Trudeau will lead Canada into a second decade or whether Poilievre’s Conservatives will take over.
With the pre-election activity intensifying, Poilievre wasn’t alone in serving up political rhetoric in Iqaluit. After the Conservative leader left its turf, the NDP swung back with a news release criticizing Poilievre for leaning on what it called empty slogans.
“Northerners expect more than just catchphrases and slogans,” the release quoted NDP MP Lori Idlout saying.
On the day Singh was laying the groundwork for Trudeau’s downfall, the NDP told Nunatsiaq News that Idlout was not available to comment on her leader’s surprise power play. But she posted pictures on X of her with her family picking berries in Iqaluit.
So, as Parliament gets back to work on Monday, hang on. The political rhetoric is going to get hotter in the coming months.
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He may be weird. He may be a little off. He may be shorter than the average bear.
But has he bhangra danced lately? Has he played the piano and sang at the queens funeral? Has he invited a nazi war criminal and gave him a standing ovation in Parliament. Did he hide in his basement watching Sci fi claiming he had covid when the Freedom Convoy went to Ottawa?
Yknow, Trudeau does some weird/stupid/offensive things.
but if he didn’t have covid
could you blame a guy for hiding?
If a couple thousand people showed up to my house with nooses with my name on it i don’t think i’d go outside either lol
PP was handing out donuts to the convoy. Better or worse?
I rather have these convoys now rather this endless “International Students” protesters, this is getting way our of hand for Canada. Truck Convoy; HELP….Let the real Canadians protest, I am getting very tired of “not even Canadians” holding the country hostage. where are the Canadians who were so tough on Indigenous and Inuit? Get into action now, how? the way you treated your native Canadians….
Four more year, four more years, go lorie,
Lori? huh….
Easy to say “axe the tax” but what is his position on climate change. The land is melting, releasing decades of carbon. The sea is warming facilitating the use of the North West Passage as a trade route with the attendant risk of environmental disaster. Climate change poses a profound risk to sovereignty and the peoples of the North. Populist nonsense purely for the sake of electoral success is going to destroy Canada. Poilievre is a political whore selling himself to the highest bidder. He is the worst of our poor alternatives.
Adding an extra seven million people to the population is doing the real damage to the environment Too many people on the planet destroying the planet quite rapidly
I don’t believe the conservatives have any plan in stopping or slowing down immigration.
We really need to stop confusing misanthropy with environmental concern.
Allowing skilled immigrants to relocate to Canada is not adding more people to the planet.
you think the cab drivers, security guards and northmart cashiers are the “skilled immigrants” that theyre importing. perhaps its the ones shitting on beaches in the south? Where are the engineers, doctors, construction workers, architects, machinists, heavy equipment operators?
So did this 7 million arrive from another planet. No, they were already on this planet perhaps in another country but still here. How could they be responsible for increasing pollution by living in Canada. I’m sure you can think this through and see what the facts are.
I do not see how any politician can win with no plan for the climate crisis we created! ImWe need to take this very seriously and I do not see any Conservative leader saying or doing much about it!
Of course there not used to party witch you don’t like maybe
Maybe if he gets in he will stop the bleeding of taxpayers funds and giving to other countries, as well as stop selling out Canada by bringing in so many from other countries to take over our country.
I find it highly amusing that someone writes a comment in a newspaper serving a primarily Inuit population complaining about people from outside coming in to run things. Truly, the lack of self-awareness is strong in that one.
Can’t wait 😀 he’s gonna win 💯
It would be nice and ironic for Pierre to shoot down the gas prices and make things affordable again. I cannot wait till elections I believe Nunavut will come out as conservative again.
What a choice in this next election. We have Mr. Pollievre who I just plain don’t like, we have Mr. Trudeau who leads an incompetent government that can’t seem to do anything efficiently, and is rife with corruption, or Mr. Singh’s party, that frankly, I don’t even know what they stand for, they flip flop so much. We know what we have, or do we take a chance on a name-calling slogan-slinging petulant child? If only there was another option!
*Green Party of Canada and Bloc Québécois enter the chat*
lol… the Bloq is only an option if you live in Quebec, and the Greens are only an option if you live in laalaa land
NDP are pro welfare.
.
Any questions?
The safest countries with the best quality of life, lowest crime rate strong economies also have strong welfare programs because they help get people back to work and they support people when they fall down so they don’t need to resort to crime.
There is no coincidence that provinces with conservative premier’s have the highest homeless population and highest crime rates. They turn around and blame the PM, but the reality is that their own cutting of social services is what causes their problems.
This is exactly what has been going on, it amazes me that so many people point their finger and blame the PM when majority of the issues are the responsibility of the provincial governments and you see clearly the provinces that are run by the Cons have the biggest problems, but yet somehow it’s the PMs fault.
The Cons do not represent the people but the big corps and their friends.
Look at all the infrastructure work and new funding available to do all these new projects all over Canada thanks to the federal governments this was done by the liberals and not the Cons who instead makes cuts to all kinds of funding.
You axe the tax you also axe funding, they go hand in hand.
Set your feelings aside
Glad to see this comment here. I’m no fan of Poilievre, or Trudeau for that matter, but Corey Larocque wrote this article with a clear bias against the Conservative candidate. Good journalism should always be impartial. Shame on Nunatsiaq for posting this.
that’s all he had rhetoric pandering and hate the other guy. no plan no vision no direction. aimless conservative hivemind. just get rid of the problem and everything will be fine. conservative voters will be disappointed by what a dcik government won’t do.
Gas prices here are down 30-cents/liter since the Spring.
Food prices haven’t changed.
You really think Ottawa sets the pump price?
If Polievre gets in with all his lobbyists from Loblaw’s and other major chains… food prices will never go dowm; maybe even increase.
Conservatives are also pro-welfare. For corporations.
We in Nunavut will vote NDP, the Unions and Tundra huggers control the Nunavut Riding, and the average person does not vote because we feel isolated with no voice.
The Union can barely answer it’s emails, it certainly does not “control” how its members vote.
“Northern communities are going to ’empty out’…”
He’s not wrong. It won’t matter what party is in power though. Communities are already emptying out. Between the devolution disaster, exponentially increasing cost of living, wages in the North not keeping up with this increase, insane housing market, and racism on the daily, why wouldn’t people leave…
The people will be heard only after politicians are no longer the bought buddies of lobbyists, those who generously contribute to their election and to the movement thru the revolving door between the public and private worlds. Much as justice is served to those who can afford it so too are the interests of the few are taken care of, those who can afford to bend the ear of the political class. The worst of the worst is how our Federal parties fall in line with the USA on foreign policy. The security/arms industry with untold billions pull the levers in the congress. Jimmy Dore out of California on his platform The Jimmy Dore Show regularly discuss the horrid, evil state of affairs that said concentration of power and wealth bring.
The people in Iqaluit have a false sense of the attractiveness of Nunavut and the commitment for people to stay. This is due to so many people moving from smaller communities to Iqaluit, and the huge numbers of southerners that go there to get their Arctic ticket punched.
In reality, the number of Inuit living down south is growing rapidly. Living in Iqaluit for many Inuit is a stepping stone to an eventual move to Ottawa.
Kujjuuak has been shrinking for years. So has Inuvik and Tuk. Not to mention smaller places like Sachs Harbour and Paulatuuk.
What Poilievre is overly dramatic. It does not mean he is entirely wrong. Either Nunavut needs to become more livable, or our housing crisis will solve itself.
Most Inuit seem to be on the side of Lorie, not because of political views but because of where shes from. A popularity contest for Inuit voters.