Pierre Poilievre gets what many others do not

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The gatekeepers were reunited in one of their favourite spaces: the ballroom of the Ottawa’s Chateau Laurier hotel. Tuesday’s Politics and the Pen gala was the first major opportunity for politicians, journalists and corporate sponsors to enjoy each other’s company since the lifting of pandemic restrictions. But there was a shadow in the room.

The scuttlebutt is that Pierre Poilievre has signed up so many new members that he could win the Conservative leadership race on the first ballot.

Even worse, people murmured over their drinks, the Carleton MP could win the next election, unless the Liberals find a way to re-energize their tired government. The MAGA wars are coming to Canada. Trumpists have arrived among us. The Conservative Party is turning into the Republican Party.

Nonsense.

Mr. Poilievre will almost certainly win the Conservative Party leadership; he may very well become prime minister. If he does, some people in that room may lose their jobs as he trims the bureaucracy, slashes regulations and cuts funding to the CBC and other media.

But Poilievreism, or whatever we end up calling it, is not Trumpism. Not even close. If you need proof, check out last week’s Conservative leadership debate.

Moderator Tom Clark asked the candidates whether they agree with the Liberal government’s policy of increasing the annual immigration intake to more than 400,000.

“We need the work force, frankly,” Mr. Poilievre replied, “but when we bring immigrants here we need to make sure they have the freedom to own a home by getting rid of the gatekeepers that prevent housing construction and the freedom to work in their field by getting rid of the gatekeepers that prevent them from getting licences in their professions and trades. So I will get rid of the gatekeepers and give them that opportunity.”

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If both the Conservatives and the Liberals support the developed world’s most robust immigration policy, then just how polarized has politics really become? The answer is: not very.

Of course there is racism in this country, and acts of violence based on racial hatred. As Huda Idrees wrote in this paper, the evil of so-called replacement theory is alive and well in Canada. “If we cannot acknowledge that the problem exists within our own borders, we have no hopes of tamping it out.”

But Mr. Poilievre knows that no one becomes prime minister without the support of immigrant voters. His campaign actively courts visible-minority communities. At rallies where the population of the community is diverse, the crowd at the rally is also diverse.

It is true he supported the protests that paralyzed Ottawa last winter, and some of those protesters were white nationalists. But I can find no instance when Mr. Poilievre has criticized multicultural diversity. Members of his campaign staff and caucus supporters are racial minorities. Some are LGBTQ.

Sometimes he goes too far. He spouted offensive remarks about First Nations needing to embrace the values “of hard work and independence and self-reliance” on the very day in 2008 that Stephen Harper apologized for the abuse of First Nations children at residential schools. Mr. Poilievre later apologized for his remarks.

He says things he must know aren’t true.

Finance officials were impressed by his grasp of fiscal and monetary policy when they briefed him in his role as finance critic. So when Mr. Poilievre goes on about the Bank of Canada being solely responsible for inflation, and crypto currencies being an effective hedge against it, he’s talking through his hat. He knows the World Economic Forum is not the conspiratorial cabal some of his supporters believe it is, but he caters to their fears regardless.

Most Conservative leaders run to the right to win the leadership and then pivot to the centre for the election. Mr. Poilievre’s challenge will be to pivot to sane from crazy.

But many Canadians are angry at the indifference of elites in Ottawa. People struggle to find a house that hasn’t been priced out of reach; to fill the tank; to pay for groceries. Many of them blame the indifference of the people in the Chateau Laurier ballroom to their struggle.

Mr. Poilievre gets that. A lot of people in that ballroom don’t. They’re afraid of him. They should be.

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