The figure spread like wildfire. Pierre Poilievre is said to have sold 318,000 membership cards in his quest for the leadership of the Conservative Party.
We already knew he was ahead. But at this rate?
The question is on everyone’s lips: what hopes does Jean Charest have left?
Steamroller
The feat claimed by Pierre Poilievre is beyond measure in Canada. He claims to have single-handedly tripled Conservative Party membership in three months.
In Quebec, for example, his team claims 25,453 new members. All things considered, it’s a cruising speed twice as fast as that of Éric Duhaime for a year! For an Ontario MP, unknown to Quebecers, let’s say it’s unprecedented.
And yet… could this be the explosion of a collective fed up of a growing share of Canadians, recruited through shock videos, soliciting petitions on social media? Possibly, but still.
Mirage ?
Refusing to reveal their own figures, the strategists of Jean Charest are reduced to pleading that those of his rival are only window dressing.
Indeed, if Pierre Poilievre is so certain of winning hands down, why launch this Operation Intimidation against his opponents?
Is he weaving a Donald Trump web to plead that the election will have been stolen from him in the event of a defeat?
Beyond the theories that are circulating, how many of these instant members will bother to vote?
This is the slim hope to which Jean Charest clings, a road to his victory as narrow as the point of a needle.
He would have to bank on both a sudden disaffection of Poilievre members and a massive rallying of supporters of Patrick Brown.
We are talking here about an alignment of the stars as superlative as the recruitment of its populist opponent seems spectacular.
