Poilievre is more bark than bite

The anti-‘woke’ crusade, the war on journalism, and the cozying up to Shopify are all copies of the U.S. president’s political strategies.

CALGARY—Pierre Poilievre is not running to become the prime minister of Canada, he’s running to become the governor of the 51^st state of the United States of America.

Poilievre and the Conservative Party are not like us.

Ever since Poilievre won the Tory leadership in 2022, he’s been a mini-Trump in rhetoric, policy, and marketing. He and his team have turned their backs on Canadian values to birth a new right-wing, fascist-adjacent opposition. This a man who said the N-word in Parliament, so this alone should disqualify him for office (he was never censured by then-speaker of the House, Anthony Rota).

There are numerous instances of mimicking Trump’s diction and political strategies. Let’s begin with the “anti-woke” crusade, which aims derision and destruction at social and racial justice for Black, Indigenous, and people of colour. A Journal of Language and Politics paper titled “From Social Awareness to Authoritarian Other: The Conservative Weaponization of Woke in Canadian Parliamentary Discourse” by Patrick McCurdy, Kaitlin Clark, and Bart Cammers examines the conversation around the anti-woke, Trump-like rhetoric. The weaponization and manipulation of the word “woke” has a function, they write. It is “the strategic redefinition … to construct a moral panic around an anti-Canadian ideological Other.” With this framing, one can extend this to the delegitimization of immigration policy, thwarting traditional Canadian values.

Like Trump, the Conservative leader has also started a war on journalism and journalists. Poilievre constantly threatens to defund the CBC, while Trump’s new chair of the Federal Communications Commission “announced he is launching an investigation into NPR and PBS,” as reported by Rabble.ca. Coincidence? I think not. Continuing Poilievre’s crusade against Charter rights guaranteeing a free press, the Toronto Star noted: “Like Trump and [Florida governor Ron] DeSantis, Poilievre uses his media-bashing to scoop hundreds of thousands of dollars through hateful social media appeals using the CBC as his whipping boy.” Evidently, reporters shouldn’t challenge him, they should be in public relations for the Conservative Party and its right-wing policies.

For Poilievre, aligning with the far-right wing is nothing new. He supported the 2022 Ottawa convoy, and last spring was even seen entering an RV sporting representation of the flag of Diagolon, a known neo-fascist militia, according to Global News. Poilievre even went as far as marshalling “a far-right march through a residential area of suburban Ottawa,” as reported by PressProgress. He also “marched alongside a former official from Trump’s White House who also served as a top convoy occupation organizer last winter. Another convoy organizer, Tom Marazzo, also joined the march and helped with crowd control.”

Poilievre has cozied up to Tobi Lütke, one of the founders of Canadian tech company Shopify. The company was previously the sales platform of choice for right-wing news organization Breitbart, and Trump’s merchandise store in his first term. In addition, Shopify refused to act on removing the anti-LGBTQ extremist Twitter account Libs of TikTok, as well as Nazi memorabilia.

In The Breach, tech journalist Paris Marx pinpointed the rightward shift of tech companies in the United States, writing, “One of the central stories of that cycle has been the solidifying alliance between Trump’s MAGA movement and the billionaires of Silicon Valley.” Tech billionaires had front-seat preference over lawmakers at Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.

When it came to reacting to Trump slapping tariffs on Canadian goods, Poilievre pivoted to interprovincial trade. As I wrote in this paper, this is not satisfactory. Is that a tacit admission that Trump can roll over on Canada, and its trade relationship with the U.S.? For such tough talk on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for years, Poilievre sure cowered to Trump’s threats using deflection to blame the PM as he usually does. Everything wrong with Canada is Trudeau’s fault. Too bad he doesn’t have that smoke for Trump.

Elon Musk, who fashioned a “Seig Heil” salute at Trump’s inauguration, seemed to think Poilievre is one of them when he endorsed the Conservative leader on Twitter.

Poilievre is more bark than bite. Sure, he’s revealed his “Canada First” rhetoric; however, it took him a while to get there. And that was after the polls indicated that Canadian pride was back—and the Liberals took it, and now own it. Poilievre’s best bet was to wedge himself within a divided Canada, hoping to create a schism and run up the middle to electoral victory. The man is an opp who will bend the knee to Trump if he gets elected. He’s not one of us.