May 3rd, 2025 | RYAN TYLER

We Need A Western Federal Bloc

This is the only way forward in an increasingly hostile environment.

Canadian conservatism is a sad mix of complacency and arrogance. This materialized inside Pierre Poilievre's campaign perfectly, leaving him a seatless loser unable to overcome his party's electoral track record. For this reason, I will not be voting for the federal Conservatives in the next election. After this typically disappointing election result, it has become clear that real change will not involve the Conservative Party of Canada.

After Andrew Scheer's resignation, I was a part of the chorus that wanted Poilievre to run for the party's leadership in time for the 2021 election, which eventually became Erin O'Toole's job. Following Mark Carney's win, I still remain convinced that Poilievre would have beat Justin Trudeau in 2021. However, none of that matters. What matters now is that Canada is broken and the divide between East and West is irreparable.

The nonsense about Poilievre winning 41% of the vote and breaking records means nothing. The fact is, it wasn't good enough. Conservatives were unable to convince Canadians that re-electing the same corrupt, broken Liberal Party would be a bad idea. This race was very winnable for Conservatives, but they managed to lose it. In handfuls of ridings across the country, margins were so tight that Poilievre could have moved the needle had he and his party not been so arrogant and complacent.

I warned Conservatives about the threat posed by Mark Carney here, well before he even won the Liberal leadership or announced his candidacy. My remarks were met with a lot of jeers and scoffs from typically cocky conservatives. Some even compared him to Michael Ignatieff and brushed off the idea that he could win.

Now, here were are. We basically have another Liberal majority. That majority will become more official when three or more elected members of the NDP cross the floor. Even so, they don't have to cross the floor in order for Mark Carney to easily stay in firm control until 2029.

The kind of jeering arrogance I have experienced from Canadian conservatives is what manifested inside Poilievre's campaign. He even lost his own seat because of this arrogance.

While Conservative voters continue to pin the blame on everything from Trump and the NDP to the legacy media, I'm going to blame who is really at fault: the Conservative Party and Pierre Poilievre. It's time for everyone to start taking accountability for what is the fourth straight Liberal government. It's time for Conservatives to quit hiring the same failed strategists, following the same failed principles, and shouting the same failed slogans. Until then, it's time for voters in Alberta, Saskatchewan and interior British Columbia to take matters into their own hands.

If you want to read my more thorough critique of Poilievre's campaign, stick around or scroll down. First, I'm going to tell you where my next federal vote will go.

A Western Bloc

The three Western provinces need a federal Bloc similar to what exists in Quebec. Small experimental parties like Maverick popped up in 2021, but that was a different time. In 2025, Ontario and Quebec have yet again given Western Canada the middle finger and a fourth consecutive Liberal mandate. Due to Poilievre's failures, a few seats in Alberta and Saskatchewan flipped red as well—but that won't last.

The West will never see eye-to-eye with the East. We have nothing in common except a shitty red maple leaf. The two halves of Canada are fundamentally different and those differences have become irreconcilable.

The very definition of what it means to be conservative, or liberal, differs between Alberta and Ontario. Ideas about freedom are much different in Western provinces than they are in Quebec and Atlantic Canada. How we conduct our business in Alberta is wildly different than the rest of Canada. While Quebec and the Maritimes import oil from Saudi Arabia, we can't understand why pipelines have become such a dirty subject and why our homegrown energy sector is viewed as a problem.

People out West have an entirely different perspective on life than people in Eastern Canada.

For these reasons, we need to elect a Western Bloc that only runs federal candidates in Alberta, Saskatchewan and interior BC. This Bloc would be mostly conservative by nature, so alliances and possible coalitions could be easily made with other right-leaning federal parties. Doing this, of course, would decimate the federal Conservatives—but the consequences would be beneficial for the West.

To appeal to more moderate voters, this Bloc would need to focus strictly on economic issues, forgetting about most trivial social causes—at least in the beginning. If and when separation actually happens, only then should social and cultural matters become a part of the vision. After all, the West would eventually have its own democracy.

What most ideas about sovereignty currently lack are guarantees of security. Voters in Alberta, Saskatchewan and BC will need to believe their new nation will have strong global allies, supporters, and trading partners. They don't want to go it alone.

Winning over those who fear Western separation would involve a provincial and federal Bloc that make strides toward forming foreign alliances and friendships. Danielle Smith has already been doing this with her visits to the United States and Europe. Alberta and Saskatchewan have a lifetime supply of resources, including energy, precious metals and minerals. If we can sell these resources to other countries, before separation even goes to a vote, and secure deals outside the federal sphere, the skeptics will begin to feel more comfortable with sovereignty.

As for convincing foreign countries to support our sovereignty, it would be simple. A free and independent West can offer an abundance of clean, ethical energy and resources to countries around the world. Freed from the shackles of Canadian bureaucracy and environmental zealotry, the West would have access to a global market, offering cheap and clean products to countries most in need.

Under the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau, Canada lost out on LNG and energy deals with Europe and Japan. With a new and independent West, those countries could have energy and resources flowing. Countries across Europe could reduce their dependence on Iran, Russia and Saudi Arabia by forging new trade deals with our new Western republic.

Once voters start to see the bigger picture, and when our leaders—if we elect the right ones—begin forging these alliances immediately, Western independence will feel less like a dream and more like a real possibility for more people.

In the end, what's the worst that could happen by electing a Western Bloc? So what if we decimate the federal Conservatives! They deserve it. Even so, elected federal parties may fall into positions where they need our support. Our Western Bloc could be the power brokers in Ottawa, much like the Bloc Quebecois has been in past elections. A trimmed down Conservative Party, or Liberals, will be forced to work with whoever they can to form a government—and it would probably be a Western Bloc.

Even if an eventual referendum fails, the results would be close enough to freak out Ottawa. A narrow referendum would give Alberta, Saskatchewan and BC the same power and privileges as Quebec. Federal parties would suddenly start capitulating and bending their knees to the West to maintain power and to keep Canada intact. A Western Bloc would strengthen this new power and expand our leverage. 

Overall, the creation and election of a serious separatist Bloc is a win-win for the West.

So, unless a serious Western Bloc ends up on the next federal ballot, I will not be voting. I encourage anyone reading this to make the same pledge. We can still observe, analyze, speculate, and have fun with Conservatives like we have been—but we should spare our votes for real, meaningful change.

Poilievre's Complacency And Arrogance

I won't vote for the Conservative Party in the next election, no matter who leads them. Why? Because what's the point! In the long term, Conservative governments only delay and temporarily pause the transgressions from Ottawa and Quebec against the West. After the next Conservative government, the next Liberal government will be more extreme and authoritarian, and we'll be right back to where we started.

In the short term, Conservatives remain too incompetent to defeat a corrupt Liberal government. As soon as the 2025 campaign started, Conservative strategists polished Poilievre up and watered him down to appeal to people in Quebec and Atlantic Canada, where voters found him “too combative” and abrasive. My whole reason for supporting Poilievre in the first place was to have that combativeness unleashed on Trudeau and whoever the next leader of the Liberals would be.

Like always, the Conservative Party thought ten seats in Quebec were more important than the seats they lost in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Saskatchewan. They thought appealing to low IQ voters in the Maritimes would pay off this time. Clueless CPC strategists thought Poilievre needed to be less angry so little old Boomer ladies would like him. They thought weird slogans like “Bring It Home” would appeal to—appeal to—I'm not sure who the fuck they thought that would appeal to.

The point is, Conservative strategists are idiots. They've always been idiots. We're talking about strategists of all kinds, not just one. We're talking about the same advisors and planners who worked for the past three elected leaders. Those same people were now tasked by Poilievre himself to beat a highly educated central banker with an impeccable resume.

But they couldn't figure out how to beat a dopey drama teacher.

Pierre Poilievre hired these people. He listened to them, took their advice, repeated their slogans, took his glasses off, and ignored the very real threat that emerged in his own riding of Carleton. Shrugging off the obvious election interference taking place under his nose, Poilievre pressed on and did nothing about it. He let his own smarmy arrogance convince him that he could never lose his own seat.

Well, he lost his seat and the whole fucking election.

My naysayers are convinced it had nothing to do with him. It was Trump's fault, or it was the CBC's fault, or it was stupid old Boomers. Maybe it was that pesky PPC and Maxime Bernier. Maybe it was Satan. Or, maybe, it was a combination of all those things and Poilievre's complacency and arrogance. But mostly that.

We already knew the CBC and legacy media would elevate Carney. We knew Atlantic Canada would vote Liberal. We knew Mark Carney had an impressive career that would sway the most ordinary Canadians. We knew Liberals would rely on dirty tricks and lies to win. We knew a majority of Canadians would base their votes on Trump. A lot of things were known early on, yet Conservatives still could not overcome the most obvious and predictable challenges.

Rather than make alliances and forge friendships with key leaders across Canada, Poilievre ignored them. Most real conservatives despise Doug Ford, as they should, but trying to earn his endorsement would have helped more than it would have hurt. Ontario is a different breed, but Ford recently won re-election. His conservative supporters may be a bit softer than Danielle Smith's supporters, but they could have moved the needle for Poilievre in key parts of Ontario. Ignoring Doug Ford and not courting his support was yet another arrogant misstep by Poilievre.

A deep analysis of ridings across the country shows just how close and winnable this election was for Conservatives. Yet, Poilievre blew it. Even a tie in the seat count, with the possibility of a powerful Bloc, would have been better than the final outcome.

The Conservative leader also ignored calls to appear on Joe Rogan's podcast. By doing so, he failed to reach a massive audience of young men, many of whom are Canadian. This is another example of Conservatives refusing to penetrate the cultural sphere. His strategists likely saw it as risky, but that's only because they're morons. Joe Rogan (a Poilievre fan) has hosted a variety of personalities like Bill Murray, Josh Brolin, Mel Gibson and others. By thinking an appearance on Joe Rogan might be viewed as too controversial, Poilievre's handlers have further proven their own ineptitude.

Conservatives and Poilievre were convinced they could beat an experienced central banker with the same tools they used to lose against Justin Trudeau, all while ignoring an array of new tools at their disposal.

Carleton is what happened across the country. Poilievre lost his own riding for the same reasons he lost the entire election. Liberals played dirty across the board, and Conservatives, like always, did nothing to respond. They let left-wing activists run 90 candidates on his ballot, never bothering to take action. Instead of filing complaints and asking Elections Canada to either split the ballot into multiple parts, mark the top party candidates, or investigate the clear attempt to confuse voters, Conservatives did nothing. What else did Conservatives let Liberals get away with across Canada?

Conservatives were convinced it was all fake news. As they did when people warned them about Carney, big and small C conservatives scoffed and jeered at the suggestion that Poilievre could lose his own riding—or the election. Conservatives on social media spent the entire campaign spouting about conspiracy theories, rigged polls, and how it would be impossible for him to lose.

From bad television ads and missed opportunities, to outright complacency and arrogance, Conservatives lost the election for the same reasons they lost in 2019 and 2021. This was the third winnable election the party lost because it followed the same script. For me, there are no more chances to give. There is no next time.