The trouble Poilievre faces inside his own party...

Plus, CBC rejects a resignation and Carney's folly on the Middle East.

Is Pierre Poilievre in trouble?

Not in the by-election in the Alberta riding of Battle River—Crowfoot. Sure, Poilievre will have a challenger in that race that National Post has already profiled, and the longest ballot committee has threatened to pull their stunts again, but the Conservative leader should win this by-election.

If you ask me if he is having trouble in his own party, the answer to that is yes as I wrote in my latest column for the Toronto Sun.

There were plenty of people willing to whine, grumble and complain about Poilievre when I was in Calgary for the Stampede. More than one person said to me that they just don’t see a path forward for Poilievre to defeat Mark Carney at this point.

As I noted in the column, these weren’t Doug Ford supporters from Ontario dressing up as cowboys and complaining about Pierre in Alberta, these were rock-ribbed conservatives from Western Canada.

This isn’t to say that Poilievre is going to be ousted, there is no visible organized movement to defeat him in his January leadership review, but it is a problem for him. When the grumbling gets this loud within his own party, it’s something he needs to fix.

Speaking to him over the phone Tuesday, Poilievre said he is spending his time, when not campaigning in the by-election, meeting with the grassroots. Local campaign managers, party volunteers, MPs and candidates who lost are among those he’s reaching out to.

Poilievre is in a difficult position here.

He took 41% of the popular vote, normally enough to win a massive majority but this time, he won 25 fewer seats than Carney’s Liberals. Even in Battleground Ontario, Poilievre’s Conservatives won 43% of the popular vote but only 52 seats as the NDP vote in that province collapsed to less than 5% of the popular vote and no seats.

Now, he faces a Liberal leader who just like in the election campaign, continues to steal Poilievre’s ideas and rhetoric. We don’t know if Mark Carney will implement these ideas, like building pipelines or getting spending under control, but he’s getting the benefit of the doubt from voters at the moment for at least saying the right things.

And there is Poilievre’s conundrum. How does he fight back and win over swing voters in this scenario?

CBC thinks Travis Dhanraj is still an employee...

As I wrote about yesterday and on Monday, Travis Dhanraj resigned from CBC in a very public way. He sent a letter to CBC executives followed by an all-staff email detailing his resignation, the reasons for it and his problems with CBC.

They rejected his resignation and said he is still an employee.

“Yes, Travis Dhanraj is still an employee although he is currently on leave,” was the email reply I received from CBC.

It’s utter madness.

Are they hoping to fire Dhanraj and want to claim he’s still an employee to cite his email as a cause for the firing? That’s possible, we know that Dhanraj and his lawyer Kathryn Marshall have said a lawsuit is coming and a complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, perhaps CBC is playing defence against those actions.

Either way, it was great fodder for another column to blast CBC and their blatant bias. This passage below is giving critics of CBC a reason to smile while causing consternation inside their hallowed halls.

I don’t know how CBC can defend what their political shows have become. They pretend to be neutral arbiters of truth, but in reality CBC’s Power and Politics and Rosie Barton Live regurgitate talking points directly from the Prime Minister’s Office.

If this were a private network, they could do what they want, but it is a publicly owned network that isn’t supposed to be taking sides and claims not to take sides, but clearly does.

I should be providing an example from Rosie Barton Live as well, but like most Canadians I can’t be bothered to watch that show. I’ve seen a few clips online and it is awful and, really, we all only have so much time in a day.

CBC, less relevant by the day.

Canada set to recognize a terror state...

According to a report by Canadian Press, the Carney government in Ottawa is getting closer to recognizing a Palestinian State. The source for this claim is the person who is effectively the Palestinian ambassador to Canada.

Mona Abuamara has been the chief representative of the Palestinian General Delegation to Canada for the last four years, an ambassador in everything but the title. She’s had a warmer reception over the past several years as the Trudeau Liberals and now the Carney Liberals have shifted Canada’s position.

From CP:

For decades, Canada has backed the creation of a Palestinian country to exist in peace alongside a secure Israel. In May 2024, Ottawa said it no longer believes that recognizing Palestinian statehood can only happen after a peace negotiation. Around that time, Ottawa said it was assessing what conditions need to be in place, in order to proceed with formal recognition.

Recognizing a Palestinian State now, when Hamas – a banned terrorist organization – still controls Gaza would be a mistake. It would be a slap in the face to the families of the eight Canadians killed on October 7, it would be rewarding terrorism and the taking of hostages.

If Hamas were removed from power and a peace agreement reached, that would be a different matter, but doing it at this point would be a mistake.

Mark Carney recently got himself into trouble by suggesting that he wanted a “Zionist Palestinian State.” That comment saw demands for an apology from several Muslim organizations and others even though he explained that what he meant was he wants to see a Palestinian State that recognizes Israel’s right to exist and wants to live in peace.

Hopefully, he sticks to that and refuses to advance recognition until there is peace.

What to read...

While everyone else is looking at how Carney will win over Conservatives by building a pipeline, Tasha Kheiriddin is looking at what this means for the Liberal base. Her assessment in National Post is that this is dangerous for the Liberal leader.

Donald Trump and Elon Musk continue to feud but could a peace deal between them be brokered? Joe Warmington is talking to Kevin O’Leary, AKA Mr. Wonderful, about his attempts to mediate peace between the two men.

Anthony Koch, a former staffer for Poilievre, is writing about the conservative need to save academia. We all know that universities have lurched far left over the past several years, but Koch says they shouldn’t be abandoned.