Poilievre's Cult

How Conservatives Became the Sycophants They Despised

For those who prefer, the author has recorded an audio version of this article.

Canada’s political rot isn’t only in Ottawa’s halls. It’s very much in the voting booths, where millions of us keep checking the same boxes for the same self-serving clowns in different-colored ties. Canadians are not just complicit; they’re the enablers. Blind tribal loyalty to parties like the Liberals (LPC) or Conservatives (CPC) isn’t patriotism, it’s Stockholm syndrome for democracy. These parties don’t give us squat; but Canadians commit to them their votes due to party loyalty, and politicians cash in by prioritizing personal ambition, caucus games, and power grabs over any shred of principle or representation. Floor-crossing is the quintessential example of this circus of hypocrisy. Take Chris D’Entremont, the Nova Scotia MP who bolted from the CPC to the LPC in early November, citing misalignment with Pierre Poilievre’s direction. CPC brass and their online echo chamber have reacted with outrage: “Betrayal!” “Resign and trigger a byelection!” “Assault on democracy!” Poilievre himself fumed that it insulted voters nationwide.

Oh please! Poilievre needs a time out in a quiet room where he can reflect on his own insult to Canadian voters and willful ignorance of democracy. When Canadians rejected him to be Prime Minister in April of this year, and his own constituents fired him from his riding he had no problem allowing one of his MPs to assault democracy. In fact, he and the CPC applauded the resignation of Alberta MP Damien Keriek. This resignation came just days after he had been elected by a strong majority of the riding to represent them. The resignation was done so a loser (Poilievre was in fact a former MP at the time) rejected by voters in his own riding and the country didn’t have to stand in the unemployment line. Me thinks the CPC doth protest too much.

Rewind to 2018: LPC MP Leona Alleslev defected to the CPC, complaining about Trudeau’s handling of the economy and foreign policy. Did the Conservatives demand her resignation? Call for a byelection? Label it an “offense to Canadians”? No. They rolled out the red carpet, hailed her as a brave truth-teller, and slotted her right into their ranks without a peep about voter betrayal. They did the exact same thing the LPC is doing for the current “traitor”. This isn’t a rarity; it’s the political culture of our so-called democracy. Belinda Stronach jumped from CPC to LPC in 2005 to prop up Paul Martin’s minority government. Then like now, the CPC cries “treason,” demanding a byelection. Fast-forward, and when CPC MP Scott Brison crosses to Liberals in the Harper era, or when David Emerson flips from Liberals to Conservatives literally days after the 2006 election (no byelection, straight into cabinet), the outrage flips with the jerseys. LPC howls one way; CPC the other. Same script, different actors.

Byelection? It’s rather evident that parties only care when it suits them. Force one when the defector hurts your side; wave it through when it pads your benches. Voters eat it up, raging on cue via social media soundbites, never pausing to ask: Why does our system even allow this mid-term party-shopping without automatic consequences? There have been about 300 floor crossings in Canada’s parliamentary history. This works out to about two a year. That is certainly more than enough occurrences for either party to take action and legislate protocols to prevent this. In most proportional systems (think Germany or New Zealand), floor-crossing triggers seat loss or byelections by default. Here? It’s a free agent market for MPs chasing better cabinet odds or dodging leadership drama.

Then there’s the endless whataboutism loop. CPC under Poilievre spends years decrying LPC ethics scandals, deficits, or foreign interference mishandling only for their own record (hello, Harper-era prorogations, Duffy affair, or In-and-Out scandal) to mirror it exactly. LPC points fingers at CPC “extremism” while ignoring their own SNC-Lavalin mess or blackface photo ops. Voters? We lap it up, picking teams like it is hockey, not governance. Elbows up indeed, Canada!

Polls show the rot runs deep on both sides of the isle. An Ipsos poll from April 1–3, 2025, just weeks before the election, found that among decided voters: 90% of Conservative supporters said they vote for “the candidate they believe in” (code for blind party loyalty), while 88% of Liberals said the same. Only 6% of CPC voters were even considering switching to the Liberals, and vice versa. That’s not deliberation. That’s ideological capture. We’re manipulated by leader cults. Trudeau’s fading charisma, Poilievre’s anger-porn rallies, Carney’s banker prestige. We’re voting for vibes, not verifiable representation. The NDP is fading because even they play the game, propping up LPC minorities for scraps while preaching anti-establishment. The Bloc? Regional tribalism on steroids. Greens? Perennial protest vote that achieves zilch. Bottom line: MPs cross floors because the system rewards careerists, not constituents. Parties flip-flop on “principles” because opposition is just a waiting room for power. And we keep voting for it; ill-informed, echo-chambered on X and Facebook and from MSM, and easily swayed by attack ads or viral clips. We’re not stupid in IQ terms; we’re lazy, tribal, and willfully ignorant in civic terms. Until voters demand reforms like ranked ballots, proportional representation, binding byelections on defections, or term limits, we deserve the circus. Stop blaming “the system” or “those guys.” Look in the mirror: Your ballot is the problem. Regardless of the party, Canadians en masse vote like trained monkeys incapable of even a moment of reflection, following their leader of choice. It’s a complete mockery of democracy, but it’s the voters who are being mocked.

There used to be a time in this country when after an election there existed good-faith leadership from all parties, winners and losers. The failed party let the dust settle and at least put-on like dignified losers. Under the leadership of Poilievre there has been nothing but bad acting. The dust had not settled yet; the CPC was already trashing the new PM and the Liberals. Hell, Poilievre and the CPC seemed incapable of even conceding to its loss. It failed in epic proportions. It grasped defeat from the jaws of victory. Its leader was fired by his own constituents at the same time the country rejected his offer to lead it. There was no moment of reflection or recognition of the message Canadians sent the CPC. Somehow, the CPC framed this as a victory; a testament to the leadership prowess of Poilievre. In this delusional state, CPC MPs justified the resignation of MP Damien Keurek who’d just handily won his seat in Alberta, resulting in an unnecessary and costly byelection in the safest conservative riding in the country. Why? So, Poilievre didn’t have to find another job. Poilievre was in fact a former MP, but he remained a burden to Canadians as he and his family essentially squatted in Stornoway. The CPC can’t claim to value fiscal conservativism. It cost taxpayers millions of dollars intentionally, while denying its obvious failure at the polls all for the gain of one individual.

Under Poilievre, the CPC is hardly socially conservative either. One of his first acts as leader? Appointing rookie MP Melissa Lantsman, elected just 11 months earlier, as deputy leader, leapfrogging a caucus stacked with doctors, lawyers, and veterans. What qualified her over that bench? Not gravitas, but a DEI dream sheet: woman, lesbian, Jewish, suburban GTA darling. Poilievre’s insiders called it a “living checklist” to chase “unobvious demographics,” projecting a “modern, dynamic” face while sidelining the party’s grizzled core. Patronage? Check. Her provincial CPC gigs and leadership endorsement earned the nod, not federal chops.

Moreover, both Lantsman and Poilievre voted yes on Bill C-4, An Act to Amend the Criminal Code (conversion therapy). There is nothing conservative about a law that compels parents to validate a child’s “gender-identity”. It doesn’t just ban “conversion therapy”; it enshrines the fiction of “gender identity” as sacred, criminalizing any parental pushback against kids denying their biology. Think a mom or dad questioning hormones for their confused 12-year-old, now risking 5 years for “repression.” In 2019, 62 CPC MPs voted against the predecessor bill over these exact fears. By 2021, Poilievre helped fast-track it, preaching “common sense” while legislating away sex-based reality. That’s not conservativism or leadership; it’s surrendering to the gender cult. It undermines parental rights, peddles the “born in the wrong body” delusion, and proves Poilievre’s crew has lurched left, sacrificing truth for votes.

Sacrificing truth for votes seems the brand of Poilievre’s Conservatives. Too many once-respectable CPC MPs toe that line. Recently, in a razor-thin 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court struck down one-year mandatory minimum sentences for possessing or accessing child pornography (not all child sex offenses mind you, like hands-on abuse) because of their blanket rigidity risking disproportionate punishments. On its surface, absolutely alarming as hell, a gut-punch to victims and common sense. Scratch the surface; think: some dumbass 18-year-old forwarding a blurry teen pic, or a young couple—one 18, one 17—caught in the crosshairs of a sledgehammer. The CPC has done nothing but polish the surface with outrage-porn, screeching “soft on pedos!” while ignoring the nuance they pretend to champion. Clearly there’s room to tweak the law. Narrow the scope and plug the loopholes without torching judicial discretion. But if they’re seriously concerned about fixing it, why no white paper? No caucus brainstorm? All Poilievre’s crew musters is a vow to nuke it with the notwithstanding clause and a bumper-sticker pitch: “Elect me, and I’ll magic this away.” That’s not a solution to any of Canada’s problems. One man will not fix the country, especially not a follower who speaks only after the mob screams.

Poilievre isn’t a leader. He’s a follower and a mirror. The reflection staring back at Conservatives is Justin Trudeau from 2015, just with a cowboy hat and less charisma. Think back to the 2015 campaign. A young, telegenic political heir jets across the country on private wings, nuclear family in tow. He’s mobbed by screaming fans at airport hangars, there’s selfie lines snaking for hours. “Sunny Ways!” they all chant. “Hope and hard work!” The LPC didn’t run a campaign; it staged a coronation. Policy? Secondary. Platform? Vibe. The man was the message. Liberals didn’t vote for a party; they voted for a messiah with a red tie who vowed to grow the economy from the “heart out”.

Fast Forward to 2025. The CPC campaign does the exact same tour. Private jets, wife and kids in tow. Screaming crowds and airport hangers. Winding lines and selfies. Same celebrity/rock-star choreography. Merch tables and slogans, “Axe the tax!” But Trudeau’s cult of superficial hope was replaced with a cult of antagonism and anger. Conservatives didn’t campaign for principal or policy. They campaigned for a messiah. The man is the solution. Blue tie, same script.

Conservatives doing what Liberals did and expecting the same outcome is the textbook definition of insanity. The Liberals crowned a performer and got a decade of scandals, deficits, and a leader who didn’t know when to quit. The Conservatives crowned a reactor, called it “common sense,” and got a shocking electoral defeat plus a follower who still doesn’t know when to go.

Pierre Poilievre is not a leader; he is a follower, and every conservative following a follower is lost. The CPC has lurched left of center, voting for gender cults that deny biological reality and criminalize parental responsibility, appointing DEI checklists over grizzled vets, and polishing outrage without policy fixes. Conservative voters followed him there, blind to the shift, addicted to the rallies like Liberals were to the selfies. Same tribal capture, different flavor. Red enablers got us blackface and SNC; blue enablers are sleepwalking behind “axe the tax”, “common sense” and “jail not bail” bumper stickers. Conservative voters need to wake up. Their allegiance to the leader won’t drain the Ottawa swamp. The most it might accomplish is refilling it with the same Kool-Aid Liberal sycophants chug, just blue. Your idol isn’t resistance; he’s a rerun. Demand principles, not performers. Reforms, not rallies. A party, not a personality. Until you do, you’re just the other cheek of Canada’s lazy ass, voting like trained monkeys in different-colored ties. The rot starts in the booths. Clean your mirror.

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Chris Nerpin is an Independent Accounting Professional working in the Nation’s capital. A politics junkie, he’s watched, played, and written about politics since junior high. Never a shy observer, he doesn’t hesitate to call things as he sees them. You can find more of his opinions about Canadian politics and social issues on X @chrisnerpin.