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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks at the National Prayer Breakfast in Ottawa on May 7.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

Ever since the Liberals unveiled their surprise increase in the capital-gains tax in last months budget, the question on everyones lips has been: what will Pierre Poilievre say about it?

Well, maybe not on everyones lips. But certainly on some peoples. Conservatives, for instance. After all, conservatives are supposed to be against taxes and tax hikes, of all kinds. And leaders of the Opposition are supposed to oppose.

Surely the Conservative Leader would have to take the bait. Otherwise he would have to explain to his followers why he had once again failed to oppose the governing Liberals on a major question of economic policy as he had failed to do on subsidies for electric vehicle batteries, for example, or on the ban on replacement workers.

Well, the days have just flown by, and at last we have our answer. Intriguingly, its: What are you asking me for? Only instead of a craven abdication of leadership, the talented Mr. Poilievre has managed to turn it into a boast, even a philosophical credo.

In a striking piece in Fridays National Post, Mr. Poilievre acknowledges that, indeed, investors and business leaders have been pressing him to lead the charge on the capital gains issue. Why, theyve fairly been blowing up my phone.

They yelp: What are you going to do about this?

My answer: No. What are you going to do about it?

Whoa. Who saw that plot twist coming? But theres a point to it. Business, he complains, has been too content to roll over in the face of Liberal attacks on investment and entrepreneurship. Gutless executives prefer to suck up to the Liberals, relying on their useless and overpaid lobbyists rather than taking their case directly to the voters.

Got a beef, then, with the Liberals? Youre on your own. Why should I sell your bleat?

This represents an evolution in the populist, anti-corporate pose Mr. Poilievre has been trying to strike of late. Read quickly, it might even look like Mr. Poilievre is giving business a bit of tough love, urging them to show greater self-reliance, less dependence on government.

And its true: business has been all too willing to cozy up to the Natural Governing Party over the years, accepting destructive and intrusive government regulations as the price of government handouts. Any leader that put a stop to this sordid exchange would earn the thanks of a grateful nation.

But if that was what Mr. Poilievre meant he could have said so. He might have said:

Dont bother coming to a Conservative government for handouts, because we wont give you any.

And dont waste your time lobbying a Conservative government, either. Were going to do whats right for Canada, whether business likes it or not.

So: You mind your business, and Ill mind mine. Ill stay out of business, and you stay out of politics.

But that is not what he says in the piece, is it? He doesnt say he will stop giving handouts to business. And far from telling businesses to stay out of politics, hes effectively demanding they enlist on his side.

On the one hand, he warns that he wont take up any of their policy proposals unless business has already sold the public on it:

[Business] will get nothing from me unless they convince the people first When they start telling me about your ideas on the doorstep in Windsor, St. Johns, Trois-Rivires, and Port Alberni, then Ill think about enacting it.

On the other hand, on those policies he does take up, he wants business to provide him with political cover:

If I do pursue your policy, I expect that you will continue to advocate for it with those same Canadians in those same neighbourhoods until the policy is fully implemented.

As campaign messages go, its pretty nervy: I wont lift a finger for you if it involves the slightest political risk to me. But I expect you to carry water for me, for as long as it takes.

Its not that he wants business to stop sucking up to the Liberals, in other words, so much as that he wants them to start sucking up to the Conservatives: preparing public opinion for policies he can then adopt in safety, and campaigning for them and by implication him until they have been adopted.

Notice the language, too. I, me, my. If I pursue your policy. I expect. Start telling me.

I get it: hes on a roll. He obliterated his rivals in the leadership race. Hes 20 points ahead in the polls. Not only does he not owe business any favours, but hes in a position to start issuing demands.

But I cant be the only one left with the impression that it all seems to have rather gone to his head.

More here:
Opinion: Poilievre to business: stop sucking up to Liberals and start sucking up to me - The Globe and Mail