Éric Blais, Toronto Star

All the sloganized sports analogies couldn’t change the fact that, while he achieved much, he didn’t get it done.

In the final week of the election, there was a noticeable shift: Poilievre was pulled from the ads. However, this didn’t translate into a pivot toward showcasing the broader team. It merely underscored the limitations of a single-leader focus when the leader’s brand alone couldn’t seal the deal.

To draw a business analogy, if a CEO promised to “bring it home” — whether that meant closing a major deal or completing an acquisition or a merger — and failed to do so, no matter how well they performed on secondary key performance indicators, they’d face significant pressure to change course. The board would demand a new approach, or even a new leader, to achieve the primary objective. The same logic applies to politics: leaders who fail to deliver on their central promises must pivot or risk the fate of becoming the sole bearer of their party’s failures.