BBC:
At 20 years old, Pierre Poilievre already had a roadmap for Canada.
Canada’s Conservative Party leader – now 45 – laid out a low-tax, small government vision for the country in an essay contest on what he would do as prime minister.
“A dollar left in the hands of consumers and investors is more productive than a dollar spent by a politician,” he stated.
Poilievre is one step closer to making his vision a reality, and even gave a nod to the essay in a recent interview with conservative psychologist and commentator Jordan Peterson.
For months, Poilievre’s Conservatives have enjoyed a large lead over the struggling Liberals in national surveys, suggesting they would win a majority government if an election were held today.
Now Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced he’s standing down, and with an election likely to be called soon, Poilievre is promising a return to “common sense politics”.
For Canadians frustrated with a sluggish economy and a housing and affordability crisis, he is offering an alternative to what he has labelled as Trudeau’s “authoritarian socialism”.
A win would make him part of a wave of populist leaders on the right who have toppled incumbent governments in the west.
While it has invited comparisons to Donald Trump – and he has fans like Elon Musk and others in the US president-elect’s orbit – Poilievre story is very much a Canadian one.
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