(Gatineau) The line of worshipers winds its way down the hallway of the hotel, but for Jérémy, 25, the wait is worth it. He drove two hours from Saint-Jérôme to attend the event. He can wait a little longer to take a selfie alongside the star of the evening.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
No, not a rock star; Pierre Poilievre, candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada.
It was April 26, in a hotel in Gatineau, where Pierre Poilievre had stopped as part of a cross-Canada tour undertaken a few weeks ago.
We would not have believed that possible: the aspiring Prime Minister galvanizes the crowds. Wherever he goes, he fills the room. The young people are there. Obviously, something is going on. But what ? Is it a flash in the pan or the beginning of Poilievromania?
So here I am in Gatineau, on this Tuesday evening, to try to understand what makes the followers of the member for Carleton run. “I’ve never voted before,” a 32-year-old teacher told me, in line to be photographed with Pierre Poilievre. This is the first time I believe in someone. He’s coming for me! »
Like many people here, she declines to be named. She distrusts mainstream media. She tells me about the confinement, painful, and the walks she couldn’t do, after 8 p.m., because of the curfew. She speaks to me of the power that sows fear in order to better reign. Adolf Hitler, she slips me, did the same thing.
She was never interested in politics. It was her boyfriend who made her discover the capsules of the conservative candidate, on YouTube. “He said to me: you have to look at him.
– Who is he ?
“It’s Pierre Poilievre. »
“Are there any wokes here?” »
With a smile on his lips, the candidate addresses the audience knowing that they will give him a “NO!” resounding. “Wokes want to divide people. They want you to be afraid of your neighbors, your friends, he denounces. Because it empowers the state. Divide to conquer! »
Decidedly, the “wokes” have wide backs. Who are they, exactly? Pierre Poilievre speaks of it in vague terms, as when he speaks of the “gatekeepers”, these political-media-bureaucratic elites who would haunt the corridors of parliament and whose sole objective would be to make our lives more miserable.
These invisible enemies, Pierre Poilievre tells us, are not there to help us, but to crush us. They work underhandedly against the people.
The MP for Carleton has clearly decided to borrow the populist recipe that propelled Donald Trump to the White House in 2016.
First, exploit the anger and insecurities of those left behind. Then, denigrate the “elites” en bloc. Twist the facts and the truth. Propose simplistic solutions to complex issues, such as using bitcoins to fight inflation…
But if Pierre Poilievre stings without embarrassment the populist recipe of Trump to reach the head of the Conservative Party, it must be recognized that many of his ideas have little to do with those of the former president.
Take immigration, for example.
Vanessa, 29, voted NDP in the last federal election. Next time, she is considering voting for the Conservative Party, if Pierre Poilievre becomes its leader.
She was born in Burundi. Her husband, Camy, 26, is of Congolese origin. He’s the one who dragged her here tonight. “As a young person, you feel a little suffocated at the moment, he explains to me. We look at the real estate market and we lose a little hope. »
Vanessa especially liked the moment when Pierre Poilievre said that the race of the Canadian nation is freedom.
This freedom, he added, is not a zero-sum game: if you give more to the Muslim, the Christian will have more, too. If we offer more opportunities to an immigrant, it can give one more doctor in our neighborhood…
We are far from the pre-election speech of Donald Trump, who promised to build a wall between the United States and Mexico and who called Mexican migrants thieves and rapists. Before each of his speeches, Pierre Poilievre is introduced by his wife Anaida, who recounts how her father abandoned his career in Venezuela to rebuild his life in Canada. Every morning, when she was a child, her father climbed into the box of a pick-up to pick up vegetables in the fields of Quebec…
On many other points, Donald Trump and Pierre Poilievre do not share the same ideas. But the ideas have nothing to do with populism, the essence of which is to adapt to the wind and circumstances.
This time, the circumstances are the price of gasoline, inflation, the real estate boom and, of course, the pandemic.
This isn’t the first time this year that Jérémy has taken highway 50, heading west.
The first time was in January, to take part in the freedom convoy. He had slept in his car, in the heart of downtown Ottawa, in the middle of January.
For the young man from Saint-Jérôme, that was really what it was: a struggle for freedom. Not an illegal demonstration, especially not a siege. “For me, it was discouraging, what we were able to impose. Freedoms violated, reduced to their minimum, like animals that are put in a cage…”
Jeremy doesn’t know much about politics. He discovered Pierre Poilievre on social networks. His message hit home.
Like Éric Duhaime in Quebec, Pierre Poilievre is blithely surfing on pandemic fatigue. He woos the unvaccinated and those who feel socially ostracized for challenging health restrictions.
And like Éric Duhaime, he is a hit. It remains to be seen whether populism will take root here, as it has taken root in the United States and several European countries.
There, as at home, it is said that the traditional parties can only blame themselves for their misfortunes. They did not understand the anger of the popular classes. They did not know how to respond to their revolt. They didn’t take them seriously. Worse: they despised them.
There is undoubtedly some truth in these reproaches. That said, let’s not lose sight of the fact that the populists themselves are primarily responsible for the rise of populism.