Poilievre capitalizing on anger, not creating it

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This article was published 30/04/2024 (613 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It may have been amusing to some, but it is a visual example of the flawed understanding that many commentators have of what’s happening in Canadian politics, and what’s causing it.

The cartoon in last Tuesday’s Free Press depicted Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre as something of a snake oil salesman. In his right hand, he held a bottle marked “rage”, and a bottle marked “hate” in his left hand. In front of him were bottles of “fear,” “malice,” “spite” and “blame.”

Next to the Tory leader’s head was a “bubble” containing the words “Hey, I’ll stop selling it when they stop buying it.”

The six bottles represent some of the worst elements of our society and politics, combined with the implication (or veiled accusation) that the Tory leader is peddling those poisons to gullible Canadians.

That fuels the apparent inference that Poilievre is causing all the rage, hate, fear, malice, spite and scapegoating we see so much of in Canadian society these days.

If that is the message to be derived from the cartoon, it’s not only wrong; it’s backwards.

Pierre Poilievre isn’t brainwashing naïve Canadians. He didn’t create the hate, fear and the many other troubling aspects of our politics. Rather, he is giving voice to, and amplifying, what millions of citizens were already thinking and, in many cases, already saying before he became leader of his party.

He is riding a wave of Canadians’ grievances all the way to the Prime Minister’s Office, grievances that have been building for years. They include widespread anxiety and anger over the cost of living, taxation, pandemic measures, climate policy, western alienation, abortion policy, gun control measures, housing costs and supply, drug policy, immigration levels and multiple other divisive hot-button issues.

To paraphrase a Billy Joel song, Poilievre didn’t start the fire, but he’s capitalizing on it — arguably even exploiting it — to his electoral advantage. He has skillfully convinced millions of voters that their concerns are valid, their feelings are justified and that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is to blame for virtually all of their problems, frustrations and anxieties.

More clearly, the Tory leader has unified all those Canadians — a coalition of the anxious and angry — by validating their perspectives and giving them more respect than any other politician has been willing to. As a result, the coalition has grown into a well-financed, organized and energized political movement.

Is Poilievre an opportunist for doing so? Absolutely, but name a successful politician who isn’t. Brian Mulroney built an angry coalition in 1984, enroute to a landslide victory, as did Jean Chretien in 1993.

The fact Poilievre will be unable to satisfy the huge expectations he is creating — for example, balancing the federal budget while simultaneously cutting taxes, delivering “powerful paycheques” to Canadian workers, adding thousands of affordable housing units and increasing military spending — appears immaterial to his supporters. Their focus is on removing Trudeau from office, and the assumption that alone will improve their lives.

All of that highlights one of the key mistakes the Liberals and their friends in the media have made in responding to Poilievre’s leadership and the concerns of the coalition that supports him.

After forming government in 2015, the Liberals acted as if they were smarter and more virtuous than ordinary Canadians. Those with positions or perspectives at odds with Trudeau government policy were often ridiculed by the PM, his cabinet ministers and media supporters as stupid, insensitive or worse.

You don’t make friends and attract supporters by acting that way. To the contrary, the Liberals’ approach has fuelled resentment across the country and turned off voters they need — and that explains in part why the Conservatives have received more votes than the Liberals in each of the past two elections.

Trudeau’s team forgot or ignored the political rule that you attract more votes with honey than vinegar. They have failed to recognize that caustic attacks against Poilievre are perceived by his supporters as attacks against them and their values. That only serves to further harden their support for the Tory leader and his party’s candidates.

That’s something for cartoonists and columnists to keep in mind as the next federal election draws nearer.

Deveryn Ross is a political commentator living in Brandon. deverynrossletters@gmail.com X: @deverynross