I am a life long Conservative. In two days I’ll be casting a red vote for the first time.

Looking back I wondered what it would have taken for the conservative party to get my vote? Here’s some reasons that spring to mind.

First of all, you have to have a sense of self awareness. Meaning, you need to understand how FEAR tactics influence your emotional decision making process.

Poilievre, leans heavily on fear tactics to motivate his base to support him. Trump did the same, and it worked. Fear is a powerful motivator. But I won’t tolerate that tactic. It smacks of desperation.

So if the Conservative Party is to win me over, they have to stop with the fear tactics.

Second, I literally have no patience for conspiracy theories (“Liberals are going to make you eat crickets”). We live in the real world, not a comic book. I love comics because it is escapism. But at the end of the day, I’m grounded in facts and reality. An uncomfortable amount of conservative people on my own fb page are huge addicts to conspiracy theories. It’s sad and frustrating all at once.

For the Conservative Party to win me over, they need to stop with this conspiracy bullshit. Most Canadian’s have some level of basic reasoning skills. The Conservative Party needs to ground itself in reality if it hopes to gain supporters.

Third, I know things have been difficult in recent years. The housing market, inflation… and it’s easy to blame the liberals. I’m not impressed with the blame game. I’m intelligent enough to understand that the issues facing Canada are global and not national and that Canada faced these challenges better than most countries.

My question isn’t, how bad did the liberals muck up their handling of these issues. The question I have is, could the conservatives have done better? Could they do better? And so far, all I see from Poilievre is rhetoric. No actual plan and no hint of competency that they could have done better.

To win my vote, they’d have to move beyond the rhetoric and show me that they could do better. I haven’t seen that.

Next, the Conservative Party would have to be uniting, not dividing. They would have to stand for something, not against something.

So far the Conservative Party under Poilievre has been negative. “Tear down” “Canada is broken” “Canadians are stupid” (Poilievre actually called Canadians stupid). That language does not motivate me. I’m motivated by looking forward to what we can be, “a global economic superpower” to quote Mark Carney.

We need leaders who build us up, not tear us down.

Next, for the Conservative Party to win me over they’d have to show respect for all Canadians, not just the ones that fit into traditional paradigms.

As someone with a deeply rooted Jesus background, I find myself sympathetic towards marginalized people. Poilievre has repeatedly shown racial and prejudicial attitudes toward indigenous people as well as a disdain for people groups whose sexual orientation or identity don’t conform to what’s considered to be normal.

For me to vote conservative, I would need to know that they respect all human life and will fight for the rights of all Canadians, regardless of our differences.

Next, we are facing a clear and present threat south of our border. Unlike the fear mongering of Poilievre’s rhetoric, this threat is real, it’s present and it’s not going away for at least 4-8 years.

For me to vote conservative I would need to be confident that Poilievre has what it takes to handle Trump.

What I’ve seen from Poilievre is a campaign modeled after Trump, talks of big rallies, using catchy slogans to bring in votes from shallow thinkers, giving his opponents nicknames rather than respecting them as leaders of Canadian Federal Party’s.

When asked during the debates how he would handle Trump, Poilievre said he can’t control Trump, and then proceeded to attack the Liberals. This does not instill confidence that Poilievre will be able to navigate us through what may be the greatest threat to our nation’s sovereignty.

Next, I would need to see real transparency. Poilievre launched his campaign on the idea that they would be the most transparent party.

So I have to ask why he is the only of the party leaders not to get a security clearance? I haven’t seen any of the other leaders muzzled by getting their clearances.

And why doesn’t he allow the media to follow his campaign? The media travels with all of the other campaigns, but Poilievre does not allow them to travel with his.

And why does he put the media in cages far away from his podium and refer to the official press as “protesters” for asking questions?

And why does he allow so few questions or when he does, no follow up questions? Poilievre has taken a fraction of the questions that the other leaders take.

What happened to transparency? What’s Poilievre trying to hide? Why’s he trying to suppress the press in a democratic election? Why is he so desperate to control the narrative?

I can’t trust this type of leader.

Next, Poilievre would need to have a plan to address the housing crisis in a way that puts middle income families into their own homes.

He’s good a throwing out big numbers that makes his constituents think they’re going to benefit. But unfortunately Poilievre’s plan disproportionately benefits the rich and investors, putting more middle and low income families into rental situations at the mercy of profiteering elites.

None of the parties in Canada have a sure fire plan to addressing the housing crisis. But I think bringing back the War-Time Housing initiative - mass producing small, affordable homes that can be quickly, efficiently and affordably built, reducing red-tape, right across the country, is a good place to start. That’s Carney’s plan.

I agree with Poilievre, we do need a change. But is Poilievre’s Conservative Party the change we need?

I have absolutely no confidence that Poilievre has the maturity, experience, wisdom or plan to bring us the change that we need.

Move past the rhetoric and all I see is a man desperate for power, willing to say anything, make up any number, repeat any slogan, and bluff his way right to the top.

Poilievre and his Conservative Party are not the change we need.

Given our options in this political landscape, we do the best with what we have.

It is time for a change. But maybe, the change we need isn’t a change in Party, but a change in leadership.

I am not voting Liberal. I am voting for Mark Carney. He’s everything Poilievre isn’t:

Mature, respectful, polite, intelligent, seasoned, experienced in the real world, a leader in global finance, respected by other world leaders, an out-of-the-box thinker, and a man of decisive action.

Perfect? No.

Right man for the job? Hell yes!

Dereck Ouellette