LILLEY: Charest and Poilievre campaigns hit Toronto in very different ways

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It’s a study in contrast to say the least. Starting the day at a downtown Toronto hotel having coffee with Jean Charest and finishing it at a Pierre Poilievre rally in a rowdy bar. The settings and ambiance couldn’t be more different, the energy of both campaigns are thousands apart and yet both men are convinced that they will be the next leader of the Conservative party of Canada.

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Charest arrives shortly after 9 am having already done several interviews. He’s smiling, engaging and looking to discuss his love of Canada and his reasons for entering this race. We trade stories of places we’ve both visited across the country before delving into a discussion of policy and what a government under his leadership would seek to accomplish.

Before we can get too far into the discussion, the waiter stops to speak with Charest in French and thank him for his work in politics. It’s different than the roaring crowds Poilievre has attracted but the kind of quiet support Charest is counting on to win the race.

We discuss his views on why the Trudeau Liberals have it wrong on healthcare, trying to dictate to the provinces, and why his experience as premier would help the country heal separatist sentiments and move forward. Throughout it all, Charest maintains that he is running to win and can beat Poilievre and his large crowds of him.

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“It’s about selling memberships, as you know,” he says before detailing where he is going, the in-person and virtual meetings he’s holding.

As he gets up to leave, a couple from Regina, Dick and Melinda Carter, stop him to express their support. After a brief exchange, Charest is off to the next media appearance, and I ask the Carters why they are backing him.

“He’ll expand the tent,” said Dick, a longtime political operative in Saskatchewan provincial politics.

“It’s good that he’s getting in the race,” Melinda said, adding that not everyone in Western Canada supports Poilievre.

Mid-afternoon at a different hotel in downtown Toronto and Poilievre is holding a news conference on the cost of housing. He’s laying out his plan to remove the “gatekeepers” he says are pushing up the cost of homes in Canada’s biggest city.

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“A Poilievre government will link growth in infrastructure dollars for a given big city to the number of housing units that actually get built,” he said.

In the evening at a Toronto bar just steps from where the Leafs are playing the Flyers, Poilievre is holding his own capacity crowd captive not with athletic seats but promises of a brighter, better future. He makes jokes about Justin Trudeau and Liberals in general and get rapturous applause with promises to defund CBC and sell off their headquarters just a few blocks away to pay for affordable housing.

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“We have to stop printing money and start building houses,” Poilievre said.

He speaks of battling inflation so that people can afford their lives again, making it so that the people who build homes can afford to buy them. He promises to mandate the Bank of Canada to fight inflation and to keep government spending in check so that ordinary Canadians have more to spend.

Most of which he talks about, though, is freedom, a word Liberals now use sneeringly but one that Poilievre embraces while even quoting a Liberal prime minister from more than a century ago.

“Canada is free and freedom is its nationality,” Sir Wilfrid Laurier said.

As he gets ready to leave the stage there is no couple from Regina waiting to say he has their support. Instead, there is one of the biggest contrasts, a long line of people waiting for a quick photo with the man of the hour, Poilievre.