Pierre Poilievre's four priorities this winter are reminiscent of Stephen Harper's five promises in 2006. And the similarities between the two leaders' political communication strategies don't stop there.
For a month now, Pierre Poilievre has been repeating his four priorities as if he were singing a refrain. In the eyes of the conservative leader, every opportunity is a good opportunity to make his four messages clear: cut taxes, build housing, balance the budget and stop crime. They are thrown around everywhere, both in question time and at press conferences.
After reciting it for the first time in Montreal last week, he pushed the tone even further! before listing them again, like a singer inviting the crowd to join him.
Pierre Poilievre is not the only one who has to submit to such discipline. Conservative elected officials must also include these four issues in their media interventions, conservative sources point out.
The goal: to convey a message to voters… and avoid missteps by operating within a clearly defined communication framework. According to our sources, we think it's beneficial to stick to a simple message that stimulates the imagination.
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Stephen Harper during the 2006 election campaign. (archive photo)
Photo: Portal / Andy Clark
Stephen Harper also had his mantras before he was elected prime minister in 2006. There were five of them: passing an accountability law, reducing GST, strengthening the justice system, prioritizing direct support to parents instead of funding childcare services, and addressing fiscal imbalance.
According to former conservative strategist Rodolphe Husny, the two politicians' techniques are similar and sensible. We must be disciplined and respect the Conservative sandbox, this analyst stresses, noting that the issues put forward by Pierre Poilievre largely overlap with Stephen Harper's 2006 promises.
The reality is that it takes a lot of time for Ottawa's political message to reach Gaston in Saint-Léon and Huguette in Joliette, he explains. It takes three weeks, a month, and even longer for this message to crystallize with the average voter.
Political scientist Anne-Marie Gingras sees this as a proven tactic. It is a classic communication strategy to silence the candidate, explains this professor at UQAM. The idea is to protect the politician from himself and from the mistakes he might make.
By sticking with taxes, housing, budget and crime, we are in some ways on safe ground, adds Ms. Gingras.
Five questions, no more
Relations between Stephen Harper and the media were often stormy during his time as prime minister. The Conservative leader did not like press conferences, especially those organized by the Press Gallery.
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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre addresses the media at a party caucus meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on February 7. (archive photo)
Photo: The Canadian Press / Sean Kilpatrick
During the election campaign, he gradually limited the number of questions asked by journalists who accompanied him on his trips.
In 2008, reporters were able to ask Stephen Harper twelve questions a day. However, journalists had to be content with five questions per day for the 2011 and 2015 election campaigns. The press agencies – who pay a high price to get a seat on a campaign plane – protested but ultimately abided by the conditions dictated by the Conservative leader.
His successor at the helm of Canada's Conservative Party also imposes a five-question limit when holding press conferences outside Parliament Hill (the few press conferences he held in the famous capital). form of press scrums). Follow-up questions – which allow journalists to delve into an aspect of an answer or debunk the rhetoric – are not allowed.
Pierre Poilievre was part of Stephen Harper's Conservative faction for more than a decade and served on his council of ministers for two years. The former Conservative leader endorsed him in the 2022 leadership race and the two men remain very close.
However, the similarities between the two politicians do not extend to the way they interact with journalists.
Stephen Harper showed a certain distance, a reticence that could be interpreted as indifference to the media. Pierre Poilievre throws down his gloves and often responds to reporters as if they were political opponents.
Mr. Poilievre regularly responds with questions directed at reporters. This approach is successful for him on social networks: the video in which we see him casually biting into an apple while answering questions one after the other from a local journalist who asked him about populism and Donald Trump was viewed more than 1, Viewed 5 million times on the X network.
The verses?
It is not impossible that Pierre Poilievre's four priorities will change over the months as the elections get closer and the news develops. According to Professor Anne-Marie Gingras, it is currently possible to attract the public's attention with its simple messages. But one day he will have to clarify his words.
As voters pay more attention to political life and the election campaign approaches, people become much more thoughtful and expect more details, she notes.
In other words, if we look at the polls, Pierre Poilievre's four-line refrain seems to appeal to many people at the moment.
However, as Election Day approaches, some of them will want to pay more attention to the verses.