Fake Conservatives, Poilievre is on the right issue, Trump's polling...

Plus Doug Ford gives you permission to visit the United States this Christmas.

As Pierre Poilievre was calling Mark Carney’s Liberals “counterfeit conservatives” one of Carney’s top minister was saying more Conservative MPs could soon become Liberals. You might say that would make those considering crossing the floor “counterfeit conservatives” and Tim Hodgson, Carney’s Natural Resources Minister, says there may be more.

Hodgson was asked about my reporting last week that he played a key role in recruiting Michael Ma to cross the floor.

Liberals are telling me one more Conservative will cross for sure, possibly two and Conservatives are telling me they fear that to be accurate.

As I wrote about here, there is a lot of anger about floor crossing and a desire to change the law to ban floor crossing without a by-election. Check out my piece on that, it shows that not only did we have those laws in two provinces, one of them survived a court challenge to strike it down.

That said, don’t expect the Liberals to ban a practice that is helping them at the moment.

Carney practicing “counterfeit conservatism” according to Poilievre…

In a year end interview with Canadian Press, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre made a number of comments claiming Carney steals his ideas, but only part of them.

“He will tell you that he has copied my idea on, say, the carbon tax but then while he hides the most visible part of the carbon tax, he raises other fuel taxes,” Poilievre said.

Poilievre also said that Carney did a half-way move on bail reform that wasn’t everything the country needs.

“(Carney) says he’s going to spend less, but his deficit spending is 100 per cent more — his deficit is literally twice the size of Justin Trudeau’s,” Poilievre said.

“So it’s a counterfeit for him to pretend that he agrees with my very popular ideas for an affordable, safe Canada, but if you scratch the surface, you see he’s doing exactly the opposite of what he’s saying.”

We will have to wait and see if calling Carney a “counterfeit conservative” will fare any better for Poilievre and his team than saying “he’s just like Justin.”

Poilievre is on the right issue despite what the media says…

The floor crossings of two MPs and the resignation of a third from the Conservative caucus are not good, but the latest poll from Abacus Data shows the Conservatives tied with the Liberals at 41%. Nanos, Innovative and Angus Reid polls also put the parties within 1-3 points of each other in polls with margins of error of 1-3%.

That is not the Conservative Party falling from grace or being abandoned by voters.

Something that I was writing about today is that the number one issue for Canadians, by far, is the cost of living. Abacus finds that 67% of Canadians say that the cost of living is the worst that they ever remember it being and 62% say it’s the most important issue ahead of health in second place at 40%.

You know who is viewed as the best party to deal with the cost of living?

Voters chose the Conservatives over the Liberals to deal with the cost of living by a margin of 42% to 29%. So when Pierre Poilievre or his team rise up and start talking about the cost of living, especially groceries, it resonates with Canadians who are hurting.

By the way, as I detail in my column, Statistics Canada just released the latest inflation numbers and food inflation is skyrocketing.

About Donald Trump and polls…

Canadian media pundits have a habit of dismissing or underestimating Donald Trump. They were convinced he couldn’t win in 2016, they were convinced that he couldn’t win in 2024 and now they are all convinced that his popularity is in freefall.

I hear this claim over and over again, I just heard it three times today on a TV political panel.

Reality is a little different.

According to Real Clear Polling which aggregates all polls on the issue, Trump’s job approval rating on average is 43.8% approving of his job and 52% disapproving. That’s better than the average Trump saw in the first, second and third year of his first mandate.

In the first year of his second term, Barack Obama was at 46.4% while in his second year he fell to 42.5%. Trump is ahead of Biden’s average approval rating during his presidency in all but Biden’s first year.

Trump is squarely in the middle of where presidents generally are in terms of approval ratings. Presidents are generally in the mid to low 40s in terms of approval rating.

The last time that a president had an average approval rating above 50% was Barack Obama in 2009, his first year, and before that it was George W. Bush in 2003.

I think all the chatter about Trump’s approval rating and claims that it is the lowest ever is simply wishful thinking on the part of Canada’s chattering classes. I prefer to deal in reality even when I don’t like what that reality is.

Doug Ford isn’t going to Florida, but you can…

No prominent Canadian politician is more anti-Trump than Ontario Premier Doug Ford. He went from backing Trump, he would have voted for him if he could have, to absolutely loathing the American president.

On Monday, Ford was asked if he would be going to Florida. He’s well known for spending time north of Miami where he and several family members own property.

Ford said he won’t go, but that doesn’t mean you have to skip.

Glad to hear that Ford says it’s okay for the rest of us to still visit the United States, I leave for California on Saturday. While most of my family is boycotting the United States right now, I’m not.

I need to travel to the United States for business from time to time already, and I definitely need some warmth and sunshine in the middle of this miserable winter.

Whatever you are doing to spend time with your friends or family over Christmas or Chanukah I pray that you have a blessed time and enjoy yourself.

Speaking of Chanukah, it’s the second night.