Canada's Vance

Canadian politics often echo those in the United States, though sometimes with a time lag and softer edges. With the rise of social media, that's been less true recently. A good example, is Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the federal Conservative Party of Canada. I've sometimes referred to him as Canada's "Trump-mini", but as the Toronto Star points out, a closer comparison might be to J. D. Vance. 

Yet these everyman pantomimes are substantively lacking. There is an obvious hollowness to them. The two men are both clinically deficient in what the kids call “rizz.” That is: charisma. Whatever one may think of Donald Trump (I happen to despise him), he is no doubt magnetic. He’s full-up with the kind of sleazy, snake oil salesman charm that abounds across America’s long history of charismatic con-men. By contrast, both Poilievre and Vance seem ill-at-ease among the large crowds they draw. Trump can whip people into a frenzy doing a baffling bit about “the late, great Hannibal Lecter,” during an extended tirade against asylum-seekers.

Personally, I can't stand Poilievre. His voice sets my teeth on edge, and his speeches are full of right-wing talking points with no substance. More troubling are Poilievre's connections to and courtship of far-right extremists.

Of course, “being a bit of a dweeb” is no disqualification in politics. Some would argue it’s a prerequisite. More troubling than a paucity of raw, animal magnetism is the manner in which both Vance and Poilievre have leveraged their modest appeal. The two have, in different ways, hitched their political wagons to extremist movements that have crept into political life. In 2021, Poilievre threw his lot behind the so-called “Freedom Convoy,” which saw Ottawa jammed with truckers protesting COVID-19 mandates. On Facebook, he called the truckers “peaceful, kind and patriotic.” The protests were sometimes peaceful. But they also featured white supremacist and Nazi symbols, with some organizers having long, checkered histories of Islamophobic agitation. Vance has likewise courted various fringe far-right figures, including Holocaust denier Charles C. Johnson. Recently, he blurbed a book by Jack Posobiec, an online troll who successfully propagated the conspiracy that top Democratic operatives were performing Satanic child abuse rituals in the bowels of a Washington, D.C. pizza parlour.

Unfortunately, Justin Trudeau shows no sign of emulating Joe Biden and stepping down before the next election, and the Liberal Party lacks anyone who has the chops and popularity to take on Poilievre. I'd love to see the NDP leader, Jagmeet Singh,  in power but the NDP don't have the national base to overcome both the Liberals and Conservatives. If we're lucky, they'll spoil a Conservative majority in 2025.