For Pierre Poilievre, the conflict appears to be the point

Some amount of conflict is inherent to democracy — particularly so in a political system that prominently features His Majesty's Loyal Opposition. And hyperbole has probably existed for as long as humans have been able to communicate.

But has any Canadian politician in recent memory embraced rhetorical conflict as enthusiastically as Pierre Poilievre?

For the Conservative leader, there seems to be no such thing as overstatement. And he seems to feel it's almost always worth going on the attack.

Speaking to reporters at a news conference on Parliament Hill in August, he used the word "disastrous" multiple times. He said Chrystia Freeland was "incompetent and discredited" and deemed her "Canada's worst ever finance minister." He said Housing Minister Sean Fraser — whom Poilievre described previously as "the worst immigration minister in Canadian history" — had "destroyed" the immigration system in his previous portfolio. He called Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault "crazy."

He said the government had unleashed "crime and chaos" across the country. A fan of alliteration, Poilievre has also accused the Liberals of propagating "drugs and disorder," "death and destruction" and "housing hell." He has said the federal carbon tax is an "existential threat to our economy and our way of life" and claims it will lead to "mass hunger and malnutrition." Last November, he described the government's economic update as a "disgusting scheme."

In April, Poilievre was ejected from the House of Commons after he refused to unconditionally withdraw his use of the term "wacko" to describe Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. 

Instead of being chastened, Poilievre and his fellow Conservatives embraced the term to describe policies and ideas with which they disagree. (After not being used more than three times in the House in any given year between 1994 and 2023, the word "wacko" has so far been uttered 79 times in the House in 2024.)

The Conservative leader has described Trudeau and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh as "absolute raving wackos" and "ideological lunatics." He has suggested the prime minister is a "Marxist."

After the NDP said it would not support a Conservative motion declaring non-confidence in the government last month, Poilievre said NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh was "a fake, a phoney, a fraud and a liar."

In August, Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer arguably pushed things even further when he released a video that compared Trudeau to Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong, two murderous dictators.

But Poilievre's barbs are not reserved for his fellow politicians.

That was readily apparent from his attacks on executives at Bell Canada (notwithstanding the failings of a recent CTV report). But the noise generated by that maelstrom drowned out the Conservative Party's equally noteworthy attack on the members of the Net Zero Advisory Body (NZAB), a panel of experts established by the federal government in 2022 to provide independent advice on climate policy.

Two weeks ago, the NZAB released two reports on Canada's progress toward meeting its greenhouse gas emissions target for 2030 and the emissions reductions Canada should aim for over the next decade. 

Asked for a response, the Conservatives said it was "no surprise that Trudeau-appointed, pointy-headed bureaucrats on fake advisory bodies are demanding harsher policies that will further hurt Canadians."