The enigma of Pierre Poilievre.
There is a surge of curiosity over Pierre Poilievre’s exceptional ability to gather whole multitudes to his various rallies. Notwithstanding that he obviously has the star status of a young Elvis, (I would choose the “You Ain’t Nothin’ But a Hound Dog” phase as the basis for this comparison) it is still something of a mild puzzle to the political mind why so many people, so enthusiastically attend large rallies many months before the Conservative party leadership vote actually takes place.
We must first ask the obvious questions in exploring this phenomenon.
Is it the socks?
I cannot give a definitive answer on this point. Most of the film from his rallies offer only what people in the TV business call “head and shoulder” shots, thus limiting our ability to make a firm judgement on his hosiery. Nor so far as I can tell, is there any fixed moment in his many appearances where he makes it a point to highlight the footwear. I think his campaign team have determined that the socks appeal is something they can bypass. We must look to other factors.
Some of the more experienced mages of our political culture sense — and they proffer this observation in the tone of severe warning — that he is deliberately playing a “populist” hand. I willingly allow this leaves me confused, being not certain, at all, why playing to the people — if that is indeed what he is doing — should be seen as a negative.
There’s a lot of ground being covered with the verb here, that “playing” to the people. Of any politician who directs his interest and passion to the concerns of the great broad generality, to those at lower income, those on farms or in fishing boats — those who used to be referred to as the working class — could not that interest be a sincere and honest orientation, a genuine effort to direct government priority to those most in need?
Neither am I sure what the difficulty is supposed to be for a politician to be populist. Can it be that liking the people you are asking to vote for you has become in this increasingly upside down world a flaw?
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See Also:
(1) Poilievre has a point on central-bank digital currencies
(2) Three Conservative leadership candidates excluded from final list
(3) Patrick Brown under fire for comments about Israeli-Palestinian conflict
(4) How the COVID-19 pandemic is shaping who will be the next Conservative party leader
(5) Conservative leadership hopefuls share stage at GTA event
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