Pierre Poilievre's horseshoe strategy - 2022-08-06
Pierre Poilievre's horseshoe strategy August 6, 2022,
In the three Conservative leadership races and nearly seven years that have transpired since Stephen Harper took his drubbing in the 2015 election, the prevailing formula for those trying to replace him has been the same: campaign on the right to win the leadership, then pivot to the centre in time for the general election.
Both Andrew Scheer and Erin O'Toole tried this approach, and it took them within spitting distance of forming government. But Scheer couldn't quite sell the pivot, and O'Toole pivoted so abruptly that he ended up bleeding support from his "true blue" backers to the People's Party.
For months now, political watchers have been trying to figure out exactly when and how Pierre Poilievre will start making a similar move. Could he even manage that pivot back to the middle after he'd embraced the "Freedom Convoy" and traded in conspiracy theories about the World Economic Forum?