The latest survey from the firm Abacus Data which focuses on Canadians’ impression of the main federal political leaders made some conservative strategists smile. The seduction operation that Pierre Poilievre has been carrying out for several months seems to be bearing fruit. The Conservative Party of Canada’s (CPC) advertising campaign highlighting Mr. Poilievre’s family would have helped soften his image with voters. More and more Canadians have a good opinion of the Conservative leader. He succeeds where his two predecessors, Erin O’Toole and Andrew Scheer, failed. He is now more popular than Justin Trudeau.
Still, Mr. Poilievre’s annoying habit of going on the attack at the slightest provocation raises serious questions about his character. His tendency to attack journalists by systematically trying to discredit their work reflects a paranoia towards the fourth estate that would make Stephen Harper blush, although he had never hidden his distrust of the media. Although Mr. Poilievre denies taking inspiration from Donald Trump, he uses the same political tactics as the one who, during his tenure in the White House, so often described the American media as “enemies of the people.”
During a press briefing Thursday in Toronto, Mr. Poilievre attacked a journalist who asked him if he had acted “responsibly” when he spoke of a “terrorist attack” at the Canadian-American border, the day before, in the House, while authorities from both countries were still trying to determine the exact cause of the explosion of a car on the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls. The event, we finally learned, was indeed an accident.
By immediately speaking of a terrorist attack, the Conservative leader sought to support the argument that Canada has become a more dangerous country since Mr. Trudeau came to power. Of course, Mr. Trudeau could not have been held responsible for an event that occurred on the other side of the Canada-US border. But Mr. Poilievre’s exit highlighted another strong tendency on the part of the Conservative leader, that of not caring about details when it suits him.
The Conservative leader began his response to the Canadian Press journalist by specifying that the press agency she represents had published “three falsehoods” in a single article, a feat, according to him, worthy of Guinness Book of Records. He then accused the CTV network of having misled him by writing on the X network that Canada favored the hypothesis of a terrorist act. However, this information was only published about fifteen minutes after Mr. Poilievre’s intervention in the House. Instead of explaining, Mr. Poilievre again chose to shoot the messenger. CPC Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman even posted a video of the exchange between Mr. Poilievre and the Canadian Press journalist, declaring: “Trust in the media is very low and this is another example that explain why. »
This incident recalls that which occurred last October, when Mr. Poilievre decided to take advantage of an exchange with a journalist from a small local newspaper in British Columbia who had questioned him about the similarities between his political style and that of Mr. Trump. In the video of this exchange that he published, the Conservative leader seems to take great pleasure in humiliating this obviously nervous, but unfailingly polite, journalist. The video had gone viral on the Internet and figures from the American right praised the finesse with which Mr. Poilievre had supposedly put his interlocutor in his place.
It depends. Mr. Poilievre’s contempt for journalists no doubt delights his most loyal supporters. And the enthusiasm of the latter will constitute an important lever to mobilize the conservative base during the next electoral campaign. Public trust in the news media has been in free fall in recent years, especially among voters most likely to vote for the CCP. Very often, they rely only on sources of information (or disinformation) that confirm their prejudices. Conservative strategists know exactly how to reach them.
However, Mr. Poilievre’s almost permanent aggressiveness risks putting off many Canadians for whom decorum and respect still count in politics. They are perhaps fewer in number at this time when American political mores have become more and more widespread in Canada. Politics is an extreme sport, they say. But there are limits to always playing the gladiator.
Based in Montreal, Konrad Yakabuski is a columnist at Globe and Mail.