A political scientist says Pierre Poilievre’sΒ openΒ resentment toward offshore tax havens and corporate jets likely isn’t enough to sever his Conservative Party’sΒ relationship with business leaders.
That’s illustrated with endorsements by more than 30 prominent executivesΒ in newspaper advertisements that ran Saturday across the country, Lori Turnbull said.
While PoilievreΒ has railed against the excesses of the corporateΒ elite, “I thinkΒ there’s a world where the business community is like, ‘WhateverΒ β thatΒ rhetoric is just politics. He’s trying to get votes,'”Β said Turnbull, a political science professor at Dalhousie University.
“If PoilievreΒ becomes prime minister, is he likely to embark on aΒ whole bunch of things that are going to hurt the business community? Probably not.”
Current and former business executives, including Fairfax Financial CEO Prem Watsa, Canaccord Genuity CEO Dan Daviau and past ScotiabankΒ president Brian Porter, signed the open letter, arguing the Conservatives are best positioned to shepherdΒ Canada through the ongoing tariff chaos.
The leadersΒ sayΒ the next government must drive entrepreneurship and innovation, lower taxes, develop natural resources and curb spending.
“It’s because of President Trump’s threats that Pierre’s plan makes so much sense,” the open letter reads.
The corporate endorsement comes three weeks into an election campaign in whichΒ Poilievre has decried “global elites” whoΒ stash their money in offshore locations to avoid paying taxesΒ β a legal practice the party is targeting forcefully.Β
If elected, Poilievre has vowedΒ to close loopholes that allow companies to “stash their money away in tax havens and avoid paying their fair share here in Canada.”
And he’d ask the Canada Revenue Agency to shift its focus from “harassing and auditing innocent small business owners” toΒ cracking down on tax havens.
Even if Poilievre as prime minister clamps down on tax shelters, or ends the tax writeoff for corporate jets, TurnbullΒ said some business leaders would consider that a worthy trade.
Hallmarks of his business policies include lower taxes, fewer regulations andΒ fast-tracking major infrastructure projects.
Tax havens as a wedge issue
Turnbull suggested PoilievreΒ isΒ creatingΒ a wedge issue aroundΒ tax havens, given thatΒ Liberal LeaderΒ Mark Carney previously managed three investment funds registered in offshore tax havens, all while continuingΒ his wooing of the working-class voters that aren’t traditionally seen as part of the Conservative base.
“I think it’s indicative of the conservativeΒ movement moving toward this more populist thread,” she said.
Before and during the campaign, Poilievre has made several announcements in front of workers in hard hats and high-visibility vests.
And his promises to incentivizeΒ business developmentΒ have curried favour with some labour groups, such asΒ theΒ International Brotherhood of Boilermakers.
Steven Tufts, a labour studies professor at York University, said the union support the Conservatives have garnered is from tradespeople banking on a PoilievreΒ governmentΒ to deliver big infrastructure projects.
Meanwhile,Β the Conservative leader hasn’t been afraid to go after “corporate Canada and Bay Street” toΒ shore up his working-class credentials opposite Carney, a former central banker with many ties to the top ranks of business, Conservative strategist Kate Harrison said.
She said the Liberals claim to represent everydayΒ people, but “it’sΒ a little bit hypocritical to not look at some of these loopholes and tax havens that allow the wealthy to continue to thrive at the same time as you are penalizing working and average Canadians” with taxes like the just-eliminated consumer carbon tax,Β said Harrison, vice-chair of Summa Strategies.
Harrison said it’s telling theΒ Conservatives are winning over both workers and the business class, two demographics whose interests can be at odds with each other.
“It is unusual, and I have not seen this be the case in recent political memory, where a party has been able to successfully get endorsements from both unionized labour and some of the biggest private-sector leaders in Canada,” Harrison said.
HelpingΒ business and labour
AmandaΒ Galbraith, another Conservative strategist, considers it aΒ testament to Poilievre’sΒ appeal.Β
“HeΒ understands that eliminating or cutting individual taxes is as important as it is to cut corporate taxes,” said Galbraith, co-founder and partnerΒ of the communications firm Oyster Group.
“It’s not one or the other βΒ it’s both.”
The open letter from business leaders was signed by some executives who are usually apolitical in public,Β Galbraith added.
“It’s not with undue riskΒ to their own businesses to take a political position no matter what,” she said. “I thinkΒ they felt that it was important.”
TurnbullΒ said Poilievre’sΒ courting of the working class has been helped by his tendencyΒ to useΒ rhetoric that’sΒ “always against someone.”
Directing workers’ anger to bureaucrats and big corporations may be helpful, the political scientistΒ said, but it’s limiting. Recent polling suggests the Conservatives areΒ trailing the Liberals in popular support.
“That ‘bad guy’ narrative only gets so far.Β People are looking for more positive messaging, especially now that we have these threats from Donald Trump and uncertainty about the economy,” she said.
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