Pierre Poilievre can throw the social impact world into chaos and fragility

I didn’t sleep the night that Pierre Poilievre won the Conservative leadership race. I couldn’t. 

And he didn’t just win. He really, really won. He crushed it. He secured victory in the first ballot. After a seven-month campaign, the long-time MP and former cabinet minister from Ontario won the election decisively, securing 22,993 of the just under 33,800 electoral points up for grabs. Poilievre secured support from coast-to-coast-to-coast, coming in as members’ first choice in almost every riding and selling hundreds of thousands of party memberships. He received 70.7 per cent of the total votes cast. That narrowly beats the 68.9 per cent of the vote received in 2004 by Stephen Harper, the first leader of the reconstituted Conservative Party of Canada, and the only one to date to serve as prime minister.

Political pundits and pollsters are now unpacking exactly what happened — and why it happened. I believe that so much will also be written from a sociological and anthropological perspective on the conditions in Canada that gave rise to Poilievre’s crushing victory. To start, we are living at a time like no other in recent history. The last few years in particular have opened people’s eyes to all the inequities and injustices that were below the radar for most people. It opened people’s eyes to how unsustainably unaffordable life has become. 

It also opened people’s eyes to the ugly underbelly of Canadian politeness. The last few years surfaced hate, misogyny, white supremacy, and extremism. It surfaced the ugly reality that the country’s social safety net, long-term care system, education system, and the healthcare system are deeply broken. And have been for decades. It surfaced new tensions and divisions in neighbourhoods and in families; no politics talk at the dinner table pre-pandemic turned into no vaccine talk at the dinner table. And definitely no mask talk at family get-togethers. The polarization is palpable. People across the country are now wondering, are Canadians free? 

One word encapsulates the times Canada is in: fragility. 

Society is fragile. Progress is fragile. And the future is fragile. 

Living through fragility, quite simply, means that Canada’s social impact world works much harder than it ever has. So much will be disrupted if Poilievre is to become prime minister. And what might he dismantle or discard? The Federal Anti-racism Secretariat? Yep. Feminist International Assistance Policy? Yep. Gender balanced cabinet? Yep. Publicly releasing all ministerial mandate letters? Likely. Carbon pollution pricing? Yep. DEI analysis of grants and contributions? Yep. Gender based analysis of public policy? Yep. Science-informed policymaking? Likely. And this is not all.

The next election won’t be until 2025 if the Liberal-NDP Supply and Confidence Agreement holds. But I estimate that the next campaign is likely to be Trudeau’s last. In Poilievre’s combative style, Trudeau has met his match even though they come from different walks of life. Unlike Trudeau, Poilievre is a career politician. He’s been an MP since he was 24 years old. He was first elected in 2004. 

Poilievre has been in a range of roles, committees, associations and interparliamentary groups, including as minister of employment and social development for a short period of time in 2015. But he is a person of contradictions and has a brash persona. In 2005, he voted against same sex marriage. He has also voted against transgender rights legislation, legalizing marijuana, and in favour of a number of restrictions on abortion procedures (although during his campaign he vowed not to reopen the abortion debate). In 2006, just hours before Prime Minister Stephen Harper was set to issue an official apology to residential school survivors, he protested, “Are we really getting value for all of this money, and is more money really going to solve this problem?” In 2015, he displayed a lack of empathy for migrant workers facing deportation, remarking, “That’s why they’re called temporary foreign workers.” There are loads more instances. He has written extensively in support of dismantling Canada’s welfare system, argued for doing away with unions, and infamously greeted the arrival of the Freedom Convoy to Ottawa from a highway overpass in January 2022, shouting “Freedom, not fear!”, and the day before Canada Day, he led a march of convoy protestors in Ottawa. 

I repeat: progress is fragile and the future is fragile. 

The social impact world isn’t new to the disrupting, dismantling and discarding of inclusive, just and forward-looking strategies, funding, and public policies. Some groups such as those supporting 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, addressing racial inequities, working on international development and global cooperation, and tackling the climate crisis have had funding pulled or cut, charitable status come under scrutiny, reputations tarnished through smear campaigns, and a whole lot more. While the social impact world has always played a strong advocacy, education and bridge building role with governments and corporates alike, now’s the time to mobilize a pan-Canadian group to engage and educate Poilievre’s team on the value of the work of social purpose organizations, leading up to the 2025 election. 

The social impact world is not a place to download services, nor is it a place to dump spare change or offer drip funding, and expect to solve society’s biggest challenges. Now’s the time for changemakers and funders to accelerate actions to make the future less fragile — help community organizations shore up long-term operational funding, prioritize racialized communities, centre reconciliation and justice in grantmaking, and demand contracts and not grants to deliver community services. 

In the last seven months, largely due to the success of Poilievre’s campaign, his tone across the country has begun to shift to “making Canada the freest nation on Earth”, “giving you back control of your life”, and “cutting welfare programs.” Poilievre may be betting on tapping into a deep well of frustration at the Liberal status quo — amplifying issues such as inconsistent vaccine mandates, out of control inflation, and the disastrous passport renewal process. 

All things considered, the social impact world is about to undergo massive disruption — and changemakers can’t pretend they didn’t see it coming. 

Vinod RajasekaranPublisher & CEO

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