Trump hands Poilievre’s Conservatives the bully’s blueprint to power

HALIFAX—Pierre Poilievre, the "My Pillow Guy" of Canadian politics, is at it again. But the man who specializes in taking selfies has nothing so useful on offer as the head-huggers Mike Lindell flogs in those cringeworthy TV ads. In the Conservative leader's latest “video,” shot in a subway station, what Poilievre presents—with that ever-pointing little index finger—is more falsehoods about important public issues. As adroitly pointed out by Gary Mason in The Globe and Mail, Poilievre’s claims that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is responsible for the housing crisis is patently false. Speculative and predatory international investors, one of the main causes of high housing prices, do not make an appearance in the videos. As usual, these videos are emotion-heavy and fact-averse. Nor is Trudeau keeping drug addicts on the street and in a mess by giving them the very substances that have ruined their lives. That’s how the opposition leader depicts safe injection sites, despite the informed opinions to the contrary of addiction specialists and police, who know that such sites save—not take— lives. That is done not, as Poilievre claims, by giving these addicts dirty drugs, like the lethal ones they buy in dark allies. They get the clean variety, and they get them in a rehabilitative setting. Again, Poilievre rates a 10 on the Pinocchio scale for this dangerous populism. But it plays well with people who like to think of Trudeau as a pusher. Apparently, all it takes for Poilievre to spin out the whoppers like a sleepless Donald Trump ranting on Truth Social is his rage coach, a set of facts to mangle, and a target whose demise would be to his direct political advantage. It is always the same target: Justin Trudeau. Whether a Canadian has no roof over their head or not enough grocery money, it's Trudeau’s fault. Poilievre’s political future depends on Canadians buying his junk political analysis. If they do, the Conservative Party of Canada will have done the same damage to Canadian democracy as Trump has done to American democracy. The irony of Poilievre relentlessly training his “firehouse of falsehoods” on Trudeau is that it is totally unnecessary. There is a far better way to get Canadians to vote for you, Poilievre. Talk about Trudeau's policy decisions, why you oppose them, and how you would have done a better job. You, too, can converse without sneering. Lord knows there is a lot to talk about, including pipelines that should or shouldn’t have been bought; the success or failure of Canada’s aspirational carbon emission targets; whether Ottawa is or isn’t paying its fair share for health care; and so on. That way, people would see how your mind works, apart from the low art of sloganeering. They would see what you actually stand for, and why you would make a better prime minister than your favourite whipping boy. But the Conservative Party and its leader seem transfixed by what happened in the United States back in 2016. Trump proved that it is possible to lie and slander your way into the White House. He handed his Canadian political cousins the bully’s blueprint to power. By vilifying Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi, by convincing Americans that everything was broken in their once-great country, and by waging war on any newspaper, TV station, or journalist that outed his egregious lies, a greedy and ruthless real estate developer with multiple bankruptcies behind him became president. The consequences of Trump’s approach have been catastrophic for the Republican Party. They have tied their fate with a twice-impeached president. Since leaving office, Trump has been twice indicted, and faces the likelihood of being indicted again for election interference in Georgia this August. The GOP is stuck with a guy who says that, even if he is convicted, he will not drop out of the presidential primaries. However popular Trump may be in wackier zones of the Republican Party, felons do not make the ideal candidates in presidential elections. The consequences of Trump’s misrule have been equally disastrous for the U.S. Under his non-stop torrent of lies and rabid partisanship, racism has reappeared in American politics. Congress has become dysfunctional. Bigots and Trump flunkies now run important committees, like justice and oversight. Faith in the intelligence and justice system is at an all-time low, and journalists are seen as objects of suspicion—if not loathing—by MAGA loyalists who are no longer interested in the facts, unless they reinforce their cult's most dearly held views. A study for The Hill in the U.S. presented a stunning number. While just seven per cent of people who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 said that living in a democracy was not important to them, that figure rose to 22 per cent for Trump voters. So why not just suspend the Constitution, as Trump has suggested? Although he likes to talk about making Canada the “freest” country in the world, Poilievre, like Trump, has little use for the media. Strange, because the media remains one of the country’s central marketplaces of discourse. The current Liberal government has given financial support to keep several sectors of the troubled newspaper industry alive, including the pro-Conservative National Post. It is a public policy that has both pros and cons. Poilievre, by comparison, has committed to shuttering the CBC. Not reinventing it, not modernizing it, not reforming it. Killing it. If Poilievre’s commitment to free speech is dumping one of the country's most important institutions, one of the few that knits the country together in both television and radio, then the question is this: Whose free speech benefits from that? Could it be politicians who don’t like being fact-checked, questioned, and held to account, who prefer the one-way manipulation of talking selfies? The point is this. The Washington Post’s motto, “democracy dies in darkness,” is only part of the story. Democracy also dies in deceit. When people seek the top political job of running a country, they have every right to criticize and hold to account the government of the day. But they don’t have the right to carry hyperbole into a much darker place. No one should confuse lying about your opponent’s alleged sins and misdemeanours with holding them to account. At least, not in a democracy. One of America's founding fathers, John Adams, was rather pessimistic about democracies. The second president of the United States observed that they don’t last very long, and in the end commit “suicide.” Electing candidates who lie, as Trump has shown the world, is the most direct route to the demise of democracy. As former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole said in his farewell speech in Parliament about the conduct of politics in this country: it is time to adopt a higher standard. Michael Harris is an award-winning author and journalist. The Hill Times

Trump hands Poilievre’s Conservatives the bully’s blueprint to power

Those seeking the highest office have every right to criticize and hold to the government to account, but not to carry hyperbole into a much darker place. It is time to adopt a higher standard.

Canada’s aging crisis and a call for reform in eldercare

Reflections from a new citizen

Public Safety Canada’s dealing with natural and communication infrastructure disasters

As COP29 wraps up, will Canada finally stop funding fossils this fall?

Addressing the threat of antimicrobial resistance

The wisdom of Homer Simpson and Aaron Sorkin

U.S. election offers Liberals a glimmer of hope

Trump’s support among young men in Canada is troubling

Harris’ flip-flops small potatoes compared to Trump’s tawdry rap sheet

Project 2025 could render trade and other agreements with U.S. uncertain, say political players

U.S. election outcome doesn’t change policy issues, but Trump harder to predict, say pundits, lobbyists

News

Get free news updates

Opinion

Submit a guest opinion article

resources

Advertise

subscribe

get help

Get free news updates

Submit a guest opinion article

Trump hands Poilievre’s Conservatives the bully’s blueprint to power

Those seeking the highest office have every right to criticize and hold to the government to account, but not to carry hyperbole into a much darker place. It is time to adopt a higher standard.

Get The Foreign Policy Newsletter