New from the NCC in the Western Standard (link to article)

COLEMAN: Carney gets the coverage, Poilievre gets the crowds

'The polls aren’t the only story, the Canadian people are rising up.'

By Peter Coleman, President, National Citizens Coalition

The polls have indeed flipped in favour of the Liberals, but speak with anyone on the ground or behind the scenes, and they’ll tell you that’s not the whole story. Far from it.

Campaigns matter, with a day on the campaign trail packing in what would normally be a week’s worth of stories, highs and lows, scandals, and back-room intrigue.

In just the last few days, we’ve been stunned to learn of the worst display of Chinese foreign interference yet, from the Liberal Party of Canada, three esteemed scholars and a well-respected journalist have parsed through Carney’s thesis at Oxford and found clear instances of plagiarism, and the Carney camp have gone from talking tough on Trump, to receiving another endorsement from their supposed mortal enemy and the entire focus of their campaign.

Mark Carney and his Liberal cronies have had no mandate to torch Canada’s lifeline with the United States, yet that’s exactly what they tried to do a few days ago, when they all but declared our most vital trade relationship “over” for good. That isn’t leadership — it’s despicable wedge politics straight from the Liberal playbook.

With a decade of failure under their belts, skyrocketing costs, crumbling infrastructure, an entire generation feeling betrayed, and crime and chaos running rampant in once-pastoral streets, the Liberals are itching to string out the Trump tariff fiasco. Why? Because when they’re allowed to make the election all about Trump, they can avoid their ghastly record.

But Carney’s halo is slipping. Caught plagiarizing at Oxford, increasingly snippy with ethical reporters, and seemingly incapable of connecting with voters under-55, he’s now a liability over the next 4-5 weeks that they can’t spin away. It’s time to drag him back down from his elitist, coronated perch and force him, his loyal, uncritical media and many of his misguided supporters to face the cold hard facts: Carney is a serial liar and a fraud, who has built his career on smoke and mirrors, and shadowy deals with sordid characters who must not gain control over Canada or its future.

• He invented a record with Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin.

• He stole financial-crisis valour from the late great Jim Flaherty.

• He sneakily moved Brookfield jobs right into Trump’s backyard.

• He’s squirreled away Brookfield’s dollars in Bermuda tax havens while he advised Trudeau on higher taxes and making Canadians’ lives more expensive.

• He’s invested in foreign energy, but worked to shut down every Canadian energy project over the past ten years.

Once a liar and a plagiarist, always a liar and a plagiarist. So what else is he hiding? With Carney, the question isn’t if, but how much?

Meanwhile, out in the real Canada — the Canada of welders, nurses, and small-business owners — Pierre Poilievre is striking a chord that reverberates louder every day. Yes, tariffs worry real working Canadians, out in the real Canadian economy, but so do grocery bills, housing costs, and a government that’s lost touch.

The crowds Poilievre is pulling in, recently in both Hamilton and Surrey, aren’t just big — they’re historic.

His crowd in Surrey was so large, the cell network became overloaded. That happens at rock concerts and Super Bowls, not on a Canadian campaign trail.

Campaigns really do matter, and these crowds matter more than any Ekos poll or Liberal pundit’s hot take. A word of professional advice to the Conservative team: book a stadium. Do it now. Take those optics, show that momentum, and make the groundswell back toward the Canadian Dream undeniable.

The Liberals want you to believe Carney’s their savior: riding high and above it all in the polls. But those numbers can still be quicksand, and they aren’t built on trust.

Canadians don’t know the real Mark Carney yet. And with a few more weeks, and a few more scandals, many won’t like what they see and hear.

Campaigns aren’t won in boardrooms or newsrooms. They’re won in the gritty, unglamorous work of meeting voters where they are. Crowds aren’t just optics — they’re a pulse. And Poilievre’s got the heartbeat of a nation fed up with Liberal elitism.

Carney’s betting Canadians will forget the last ten years of failure if he waves the anti-Trump flag hard enough. We’re still betting they won’t.

That’s why we, at Canada’s trailblazing conservative third-party advertiser and organizer, are fighting tooth and nail to reach Canada’s missing middle and our younger generations again being passed over for more elite Liberal designs.

We’re here to help give hardworking, common-sense Canadians the government they deserve, not the one Carney has faked and lucked his way into. The Liberals are on borrowed time, and their plagiarist-in-chief can’t hide forever.

It’s not yet over for the Conservatives. Far from it. If the people continue to gather like they are now, if these crowds continue to grow, no poll or lie can stop them.

Peter Coleman is the President of the National Citizens Coalition, Canada’s longest-serving conservative non-profit advocacy group.

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