Canada Needs an Opposition That’s Serious and Constructive

Just because Mark Carney is on a roll doesn’t mean Canada can do without an effective Opposition. Too bad Pierre Poilievre and his Conservatives can’t muster one.

Their efforts to hold Carney’s political juggernaut to account have been hampered by a few factors. One is Poilievre’s spent credibility after backing the convoy populist right, a bad bet that Trump-style politics would win in Canada. Another is Poilievre’s simplistic hammering of Carney on the economy. A third problem for Poilievre is the fact that the last Conservative to serve as prime minister, Stephen Harper, prefers to praise rather than oppose Carney.

The result is a problem not just for Conservatives but for all Canadians. In a healthy democracy, the Opposition is as essential as the government. Voters elect a government to run the show, but they also elect an Opposition to ask the right questions and keep the government on the straight and narrow.

At the moment Prime Minister Carney is enjoying strong polling numbers. For good reason. Carney pulled off a huge investment summit in Toronto, charmed the European Union and received a standing ovation when he addressed the European Parliament.

Carney also brokered a strategic partnership with trade-dependent Vietnam. Two-way trade between Canada and Vietnam, a country with 100 million people, was worth over $20 billion last year.

Canadians also generally approve of Carney’s handling of the country’s biggest problem — the erratic and often sinister machinations of President Donald Trump, a man who slavishly bows to dictators while threatening longtime allies.

Room for constructive criticism

Despite Carney’s savvy leadership, things are not perfect in Canada. The cost of living remains a big problem for most people, especially for the younger generation and lower-income Canadians. Some may be open to well-funded, well-organized and determined populist movements, aided by deliberate misinformation on the internet.

Which is just to say that Carney is not above legitimate criticism. Take Bill C-39. As a followup to last year’s major projects initiatives, Carney is doubling down. Others have slammed Carney for using his “national interest” bulldozer to run roughshod over the need to consult First Nations and do environmental assessments.

Poilievre takes a very different tack, labelling Bill C-39 as all talk and no action. He has predicted it will fail to fast-track major projects as it is intended to do.

Maybe, but he’s vague on the details. If major projects are held up, the likely reason will be court challenges and direct action protests like those vowed against the Pacific Link pipeline by First Nations. What do the Conservatives suggest, given that we live in a democracy with an independent judiciary?

Per usual, Poilievre delivers snarling sound bites. “The famous one-year turnaround time on a decision that this minister went and advertised to the media is nothing in reality except an illusion,” he has accused.

But again, what does Canada’s leader of the Opposition propose? In fact, Poilievre has said only that his caucus is studying the bill, not how it will vote.

Meanwhile, both Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and the oil and gas sector have welcomed Bill C-39. Skating towards open space, the prime minister has called Bill C-39 the most consequential economic legislation tabled by the current government.

Carney’s new fan

When Poilievre and his party attack Carney on affordability, they are similarly vague. “He’s proven once again that he is absolutely out of touch and Canadians are absolutely out of money. All they have got from him is big talk around the world and big bills here at home,” harrumphed Poilievre.

Others see that big talk around the world as praiseworthy. That includes Poilievre’s former mentor Stephen Harper. Harper gave the closing speech to hundreds of wealthy international investors at the Canada Investment Summit on Sept. 15 in Toronto. Harper endorsed the Carney government for hosting the summit and advancing efforts to fast-track major resource projects.

Harper also supported the Liberal government’s efforts to diversify external trade. He said Canada had “no choice” but to walk away from the U.S. trade talks. The former prime minister also opined that to maintain Canadian sovereignty, “we must pursue diminished reliance on the United States.”

Harper described himself as “probably the most pro-American prime minister in Canadian history.” He has long admired the U.S. system of government. During the 2025 federal election campaign, Harper had endorsed Poilievre for prime minister “without hesitation, without equivocation, without a shadow of a doubt” over Mark Carney. Things have apparently changed.

Which puts Poilievre in an awkward position. The Conservative leader who ran the Canadian government for 10 years was now endorsing Carney and the Liberal government. Yet Poilievre still appears committed to the old attack dog persona he adopted as a Harper cabinet minister. That means a hyperpartisan that blames everything on Carney.

It was a technique that worked well against Justin Trudeau in the run-up to the 2025 election, when it looked as if the Conservatives would win handily. But to hammer Carney for global diesel prices, inflation caused by the Iran war, housing and the carbon tax, all in the name of political self-interest, is patently absurd.

It may also be unpatriotic. Canada is under serious threat from Trump’s United States. That threat requires an intelligent Opposition that is constructive in these dire times, not one that is simply looking to boost its poll numbers with populists and divide the country further.

Top priority

Putting the country’s welfare first is a must, given Canada’s domestic political scene. The separatists in Alberta are well funded and organized and, to use Yeats’ famous phrase, “full of passionate intensity.” Right-wing support is on the rise worldwide. Witness the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, win in Germany and U.S. support for the AfD party at the highest levels, including Vice-President JD Vance and the president.

Failing to sense the risks that now are so clear, the Conservative Party of Canada got in on the romance with the right. Members of Poilievre’s caucus feted Christine Anderson, an AfD member of the European Parliament, when she did a cross-country tour of Canada in support of the far right. Tamara Lich, a primary organizer of the trucker convoy, was photographed with her in support of the convoy.

Although Poilievre later denounced the meeting of his MPs with Anderson, Poilievre himself brought doughnuts to the truckers, some of whom demanded the dissolution of the Trudeau government. A “Poilievre for Prime Minister” banner even went up on at least one truck in the convoy.

The world has changed, and the old relationship with the United States, as Prime Minister Carney said, is probably not coming back. With so many huge decisions in the offing, Canada needs a vigorous Opposition that will defend Canadian sovereignty but also hold the Liberals accountable by scrutinizing their policies and spending in constructive debate.

The Conservatives are, after all, the “Loyal Opposition” in the Westminster-style parliamentary system. Their duty is to protect the well-being of the country, not just promote their political interest.

A good Opposition acts as a check on executive power and ensures accountability. Huge decisions on defence, trade and industrial strategy are being made by the Carney government that will affect the country for generations to come. We are moving at breakneck speed, but the right questions have to be asked by an informed, wise and diplomatic Opposition.

For example, instead of simply telling Carney to go faster and harder with his major projects, a soberly conservative Opposition, defending principles of small government and low taxes, might naturally press the prime minister to show how the new pipeline will be managed to avoid another publicly funded boondoggle.

Similar questions of fiscal responsibility and personal freedoms could be posed about Carney’s massive military ramp-up and his warm embrace of artificial intelligence technology.

The Opposition needs to ask real questions and get real answers in Parliament. But they need to drop the toxic and reflexive opposition to everything the government does. So far, Poilievre has not shown that he is up to that task.