LILLEY: Poilievre winning in the battle for workers

On Labour Day, every party wanted to show they were with “the workers” who make this country tick. It appears, though, that different political parties have different views on that and are getting different receptions from workers themselves.

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On Friday, Justin Trudeau went to Algoma Steel in Sault Ste. Marie and got an earful from a worker he encountered – despite showing up with doughnuts.

“I don’t believe you for a second,” a steelworker, who ran into Trudeau, told the Prime Minister during an encounter caught on video.

The Trudeau Liberals have held the riding since 2015, but over the last 20 years, it has been held by the Liberals, Conservatives and NDP. Right now, like much of Ontario, it is expected to switch over to the Conservatives in the next election, which is why Trudeau was there stumping at the steel plant’s gates.

“I think you are only here for another year; we won’t see you around in another year,” the steel plant employee told Trudeau.

“That’s what elections are for,” Trudeau said, trying to turn the conversation around.

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It was a fruitless effort by Trudeau, and he should have known that.

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The latest poll for Postmedia, by Leger, found 47% of men say they will vote for Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives, compared to just 22% of males who say they will vote Liberal and 13% who will back the NDP. Lest anyone thinks women still back Trudeau, 40% of women say they will back the Conservatives, compared to 27% for the Liberals and 17% for the NDP.

When it comes to people who actually work for a living, meaning people who aren’t in the laptop class like me, the Conservatives are the overwhelming favourites.

“A country is built by the people who rise when it is still dark,” Poilievre says off the top of the video he and the Conservative Party released in the early morning hours of Labour Day.

He paid tribute to servers and soldiers, nurses and night shift workers, and farmers and factory hands as he called them.

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“Often called ordinary people, but they are extraordinary,” Poilievre said.

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After detailing how people are struggling with higher prices and wages that haven’t kept pace, and how crime, chaos and homelessness are issues people struggle with, Poilievre’s video says there is a new dawn coming “where everyone gets a good shot at a good life.” The video, reminiscent of Ronald Reagan’s iconic 1984 election ad Morning in America, offers the idea that there is hope ahead.

It’s a message that will resonate with voters looking for a change, which they clearly are after nearly nine years of Trudeau.

Not to be left out, the NDP also released a video this week trying to appeal to workers; instead, it appeals to public sector union bosses.

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The NDP video features public sector union bosses Sussanne Skidmore and Laura Walton — Skidmore is the president of the B.C. Federation of Labour, and Walton is the head of the Ontario Federation of Labour.

The problem with these union bosses — and the NDP politicians they align themselves with — is that they oppose infrastructure projects like highways, workplaces like steel mills and the extraction of resources like mining, oil or gas that so many private sector workers rely upon.

While the NDP in its video says that Poilievre isn’t a true friend of unionized workers because he hasn’t shown up at a picket line, Singh isn’t a friend of unionized workers because he opposes their jobs existing.

Blue collar workers are about to vote blue en masse.

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Areas that traditionally would have voted NDP, or perhaps Liberal, are going to back Poilievre and the Conservatives.

The reasoning will be the same as what we saw in the 2022 provincial election in Ontario where Doug Ford’s PC Party got the backing of private sector unions because he supported projects that keep them working while progressives oppose them.

Poilievre is about to get the backing of the same kind of workers for the very same reason — unlike the other parties, he doesn’t want them put out of work.

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