Grow Up

There is no version of internal Conservative warfare that ends well.

I have friends on every side of the fight now consuming Conservative X. I have worked alongside some combatants, admired others from a distance, and hold every one of them in genuine regard. This is not a column about who is right. It is about why that question does not matter and about the one person who must end this.

For those spared the spectacle, a brief summary: At the Calgary Stampede, Pierre Poilievre celebrated Kerry Lynne Findlay’s victory in the BC Conservative leadership race as a win over “Liberal lobbyists from out East.” The people he described were not Liberals. They were Kory Teneycke, Nick Kouvalis, and Anthony Koch, among the most accomplished Conservative operatives in the country. What followed were days of digital crossfire involving former Poilievre communications directors, columnists, influencers, and operatives, culminating in Brian Lilley asking in print whether the leader is serious about winning, and Ben Woodfinden, who gave years to Poilievre’s office, confessing he has never been more depressed about the state of conservative politics in this country.

Everyone involved believes they are right. Some probably are. Here is the thing about being right in politics: it doesn’t matter.

Winning elections is the point. Not winning the argument.

Which brings me to the onus. In any organization, responsibility for cohesion rises with rank. A volunteer can hold a grudge. A staffer can nurse a grievance. A columnist can keep score. The leader cannot. The leader of a political party cannot be one combatant among many because the leader is the only person whose job includes the coalition itself. When the leader picks a fight, it is not a fight; it is a fracture. When the leader can end a fight and declines to do so, HE is the cause of the fracture.

This is the hardest lesson in our movement’s history. From 1993 to 2003, the Canadian right was fractured, resulting in three consecutive Liberal majorities, each won with roughly 40% of the vote. What ended the wilderness years was not one side proving the other wrong. Nobody conceded anything. What ended them was leadership that decided winning mattered more than the argument. Stephen Harper did not merely merge two parties. He put his rivals in his cabinet, swallowed a decade of grievance, and enforced a simple rule: we fight Liberals, not each other. He was not warm about it. He was disciplined about it. He won three elections.

The counterexample is just as instructive. Jason Kenney built a coalition, then let a war with his own base consume it. The base won the war and lost the premier. There is no version of internal conservative warfare that ends well. There are only two versions: the one where the leader stops it early, and the one where it stops him.

Now consider what the current fight actually costs. The men Poilievre dismissed as Liberal lobbyists include the architects of three consecutive Progressive Conservative majorities in Ontario, the largest province and where the last federal election was lost. A federal Conservative leader cannot win government while at war with the operation that dominates Ontario, any more than he can afford friction with the premier of Alberta, the premier of Nova Scotia, or the new leadership in British Columbia. These are not optional relationships. We have already seen what happens when they fail. In the last campaign, senior provincial operatives publicly savaged the federal effort during the writ period. Whatever you think of that conduct, and I think very little of it, the leader’s job is to make it unthinkable, not guarantee a sequel.

The objection writes itself. Why should Pierre apologize to people who attacked him first and briefed against his campaign? Because he is the leader, and the leader does not get the luxury of nurturing grievances. Magnanimity is not weakness. It is one of the most underused weapons in politics. Every other participant in this brawl can afford to be right. The leader can only afford to win. If mending fences with Doug Ford and his team adds a single point in Ontario, the phone call costs nothing, and pride is not a reason.

Canadian voters are watching a party that trails in the polls ripping itself apart. They will draw the obvious conclusion: a party that cannot govern itself cannot govern the country. The window to change that impression is open, but not forever.

So here is my advice, offered with affection to a movement I have served for thirty years and to friends on every side of this mess. Log off. Pick up the phone. The leader goes first because that is his job. Nobody has to admit they were wrong. Everybody has to decide that it does not matter.

In other words: grow up.