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HALIFAX — In Ottawa, the political centre of all things, Chris d’Entremont is a super big deal.
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In Nova Scotia, the province from which d’Entremont hails? Not so much, bud.
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On a recent trip to Nova Scotia, precisely nobody had anything to say to this writer when they were asked about Chris d’Entremont. When prodded for something, anything, they just shrugged.
Pierre Trudeau used to say, uncharitably but not inaccurately, that most Members of Parliament are nobodies when removed from Parliament Hill. In the case of Chris d’Entremont, that status seems to extend all the way to his home province. Out here, they’d much rather talk about the Blue Jays. Or the weather.
The profound disinterest in d’Entremont’s much-analyzed decision to slink across the Commons floor from the Tories to the Grits may be a Nova Scotia thing. In this province, rapid partisan flip-flops aren’t front-page news. Snowplow jobs, advertising gigs, paving contracts: They go back and forth between the two main parties like the flicking of a light switch.
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Departed Atlantic Canada Tory guru Dalton Camp, who not infrequently benefitted from such partisan political assignments, had the best line about how Nova Scotians regard all this partisan chicanery: “Politics is largely made up of irrelevancies.”
So why is Chris d’Entremont, who is mostly irrelevant, being treated as relevant by every pundit in the punditocracy?
Because of what it means to Pierre Poilievre, that’s why.
Poilievre’s fall from grace
The Conservative leader’s fall from grace has been absolutely Shakespearean. From the lofty heights of a nearly-30-point lead at the start of the year, to abject defeat — nationally, and in his own seat — just four months later. In our country, there has never been a swifter or steeper political decline.
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Since then, Poilievre has been on a political deathwatch. Everything he did before — the curt dismissals of the media, the arrogant disregard of Bay Street, the proximity to the anti-WEF, anti-vax, pro-convoy fringe — are no longer celebrated as the smart new way of doing politics. Now, they are cited as evidence of Poilievre’s political ineptitude.
In politics, self-inflicted wounds are the deepest. For Poilievre, nothing has hurt him as much as the betrayal of d’Entremont. Writer Robyn Urback observed in another newspaper that the Nova Scotia MP can dress up his floor-crossing in whatever finery he wants. But in the end, it was all about one thing, she wrote: Being self-serving.
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And the floor-crossing has not served Poilievre well, at all. Because of d’Entremont’s move, and because Edmonton Tory MP Matt Jeneroux was clearly preparing to do the same thing, Mark Carney is ever-closer to a parliamentary majority. And Poilievre is closer to the political ash-heap of history.
(Don’t blame those of us in the media for any of this, either: Our job is to come down from the hills and shoot the wounded. Sorry, Pierre.)
One longtime Nova Scotia Tory came up to me in the lobby of Halifax’s famous Lord Nelson Hotel. He didn’t want to talk about Chris d’Entremont. He wanted to talk about Pierre Poilievre.
“He’s a goner,” said the Tory. “He’ll be lucky to get a majority at the leadership review. He’s a loser.”
Welcome to Nova Scotia, folks: Politically, they play for keeps out here.
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