Why the Conservatives and NDP are headed for a clash over Canada's working-class votes

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's path to power may be by prosecuting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's past eight years in government, but his road to victory is painted NDP orange.

Appealing to working-class voters in rural and northern ridings — like those held by New Democrats across British Columbia and Liberals in northern Ontario — is part of what Poilievre sees as a winning formula.

That offensive was on full display on Vancouver Island recently as he traversed NDP turf, rallying supporters in Nanaimo and snapping photos with mill workers in Port Alberni. He also stopped at a steel plant and port in B.C.'s Lower Mainland to rub shoulders with workers, images of which lit up his social media.

«We're seeing Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Conservative party, on the floor of shops and factories,» said Allie Blades, a strategist who worked on his 2022 leadership campaign in B.C.

Blades, who works for Mash Strategy, said it's a populist approach that so far has served Poilievre well.

«It's a switch that the Conservatives, I think, have done very rightly and strategically,» she said. «We're seeing the floor versus the stage.»

The shop floor, of course, is traditional New Democrat territory — home to a critical voting bloc the NDP is not about to surrender without a fight.

«You've never seen [Poilievre] on a picket line,» said Anne McGrath, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh's principal secretary and formerly the party's national director.

«You can go to shop floors and look at things on a shop floor, but when push comes to shove and workers need support from their political leaders, we've never seen him there.»

Poilievre has clearly struck a nerve by tapping into legitimate public anxiety around affordability, McGrath