Twenty minutes before Pierre Poilievre accused the RCMP of participating in a massive political coverup, the Conservative leader was explaining to his interviewers how, in his own judgment, he had kept his party united behind him.
Within the party, he said, there are a number of distinct philosophical groupings. There are "law-and-order conservatives" and libertarians and fiscal conservatives and social conservatives. And so, Poilievre said, he chooses to focus on the things that all of these groups can agree on.
"I draw a circle on a page for each one of those groups and I look at the place where all of those circles overlap and I put all of my energy in those places," he explained.
"And that way the various parts of our coalition feel like they're getting something that matters to them."
This explains, Poilievre said, why he has focused on things like low taxes, small government, free enterprise and getting tough on crime. (It perhaps also explains why he has had so little to say about climate change — an issue that divides conservative voters in Canada .)
"And that's why, if you look at our party over the last three years, we've had very little disse
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