'The Best and Worst of Times' Meets 'Quitting Is the Easy Way Out' in Alberta's Referendum Pitch
Prime Minister Mark Carney, standing with Alberta's premier and other politicians, reached for Charles Dickens: the referendum, he said, comes at the best and worst of times. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's version is blunter — he says he understands the disillusionment with the state of affairs in Canada, but that quitting is the easy way out. Both men are making their case to Alberta voters ahead of a referendum, and the two lines tell you something about the styles on offer. Dickens flatters a moment by making it enormous and ambiguous; 'quitting is easy' does the opposite, shrinking a constitutional question down to a matter of personal grit.
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Quoting Dickens is a rhetorical hedge as much as a flourish. 'The best and worst of times' lets a speaker sound grave about a vote without conceding anything specific about it.
He wasn't hedging in a vacuum — he was standing with the Alberta premier and other politicians, which is a visual argument all by itself.
Poilievre skips the literary ambiguity entirely. His framing is that understanding the frustration is fine, but quitting is the easy way out.