
Finding a million more Conservative votes: 'It’s about figuring out a way to speak to women'
Ben Woodfinden, Pierre Poilievre's 31-year-old former comms director, says centre-right parties worldwide face the same gender divide.
Ben Woodfinden, the 31-year-old former director of communications for Pierre Poilievre, understands the challenges faced by younger Canadians. Ten years of a Liberal-led, no-growth government, Ben laments, “means they live in a country that doesn’t work for them anymore.” They want change.
And there’s a flip side, he cynically suggests: Some Canadians are content with the status quo, because it benefits them. They bought houses decades ago that are worth 20 times what they paid for them. It’s in their interest, he argues, to encourage unsustainable levels of immigrants to support existing social programs and to constrain investment in the infrastructure needed to re-energize the Canadian economy.
I note that based on comments, I would say 1/3 to 1/2 of freecanada.win members say they are women, and we trend pretty far right here. Is it abortion? Marxist critical theory brainwashing? Rich women just insulated from inflation and mass immigration? Aside from Canadian Conservative parties just being Liberal Lite, how to move more women’s thinking right?So I think it’s going to be about figuring out a way to speak to women … on issues that affect them,” Ben reflects, in ways that don’t alienate other people. But, he admits, it’s a challenge to thread that needle.
Article content
There are many divides bubbling up in Canada’s political landscape — generational, regional, rural versus urban, education levels. And now gender. “The parties of the right are increasingly male-dominated,” Ben notes, and the “parties of the left are increasingly female-dominated.” It’s an unhealthy social divide, he adds, “a trend that’s happening independent of any specific leader or any specific party, and I think that’s part of why we didn’t do as well with younger female voters.”
Upvote
28