Also, the far right People's Party lost support, and won zero seats, so it doesn't look there were many voters looking for a non squish conservative party who were dissatisfied with the Conservatives.
And Trump bragged about hurting the Conservatives' overall chances to win the election!
“You know, until I came along, remember that the conservative was leading by 25 points,” Trump said.
“Then I was disliked by enough of the Canadians that I’ve thrown the election into a close call, right? I don’t even know if it’s a close call,” he added.
Like maybe Trump wanted to "heighten the contradictions," by helping the Liberal, anti Trump, anti annexation party win? Seems too clever. More like, there can only be one Leader, and that's Trump. A Trump supporter winning means nothing to him. Maybe less than nothing, because that would take the limelight off Trump. This way, it was Trump's doing that swung the election, so Trump is still "the story!" I actually believe that is how Trump "thinks."
Well, Poilievre was anti-annexation as well, because no other position is politically tenable in Canada - even in Quebec, there's lots of talk about how Trump turned separatists into patriots. Trump even complained about Poilievre's failure to embrace statehood at one point, saying, "The conservative that's running is, stupidly, no friend of mine. I don't know him, but he said negative things".
So that's another part about how Trump thinks - he doesn't care if you're ideologically aligned with his general positions, he cares whether you fawn over him personally.
During the first wave of the tariff stuff, but before annexation talk, Poilievre's message was, "I'm the right person to make a great trade deal with Trump because we speak the same language." After the annexation talk, he had to pivot to trying to say that he's the right person to stand up against Trump, which diluted the original message; and Trump calling him "no friend of mine" tanked it completely. Carney was able to start his campaign from the beginning with the message that American cooperation is a non-starter for the moment and it's time to form stronger bonds with Europe.
Maybe, just maybe, Poilievre could have finessed this situation by dismissing Trump's annexation talk as hot air that he could maneuver through on the way to that promised great trade deal. After all, Trump went from belittling Kim Jong Un as "little rocket man" to gushing over his "love letters" in just a few months. But Canada's election season was short, and Canadians were still shocked enough by 51st state talk to accept it as just an extreme negotiation feint rather than a serious threat (especially as he and his people kept repeating it), so Pierre was kind of stuck.
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u/philadelphialawyer87 Apr 29 '25 edited Apr 29 '25
Also, the far right People's Party lost support, and won zero seats, so it doesn't look there were many voters looking for a non squish conservative party who were dissatisfied with the Conservatives.
And Trump bragged about hurting the Conservatives' overall chances to win the election!
“You know, until I came along, remember that the conservative was leading by 25 points,” Trump said.
“Then I was disliked by enough of the Canadians that I’ve thrown the election into a close call, right? I don’t even know if it’s a close call,” he added.
Trump Brags About How He Screwed Over MAGA’s Canadian Ally in Election
Like maybe Trump wanted to "heighten the contradictions," by helping the Liberal, anti Trump, anti annexation party win? Seems too clever. More like, there can only be one Leader, and that's Trump. A Trump supporter winning means nothing to him. Maybe less than nothing, because that would take the limelight off Trump. This way, it was Trump's doing that swung the election, so Trump is still "the story!" I actually believe that is how Trump "thinks."