It is not all that surprising that most politician’s today want to be seen as populist. We all want to walk the walk and talk the talk. We want to be strong on communications. We want to be down on radical wokism. We want to feed the anger in Canada today. We want to stand apart, above the crowd. We are the voice of the people. We will challenge on their behalf.
That stance is cropping up on the extreme right these days as Ontario premier Doug Ford uses bombast and lies to confound and confuse a weakened opposition at Queen’s Park. His majority position affords him three more years of free-wheeling control of the political levers in Canada’s most populous province. He has attacked nurses and teachers while pandering to the development industry and privately-owned long-term care. He uses bluff and bombast in defence of his errors.
And, sitting in the bush at the federal level is the Carleton Cowboy, Pierre Poilievre. As the new leader of the federal conservative party, he got there by befriending the ‘Freedom’ convoy and welcoming them to their romp in Ottawa in January-February of 2022. That was the height of populist posturing. Canadians were increasingly outraged at people trying to close down our borders and the Ottawa occupation was the final bit of foolishness.
Neither premier Ford nor Poilievre took the witness stand when the question of using the emergencies act to end the Ottawa occupation was examined by Ontario justice Paul Rouleau. Populism obviously does not include clearing the air. Populism as practiced in Canada lately has little to do with the facts or the truth.
Mr. Poilievre is a fan of cryptocurrencies. He told his supporters he supports Bitcoin shortly before it lost about a third of its value. He wants to fire the governor of the Bank of Canada. He believes that the bank printed money at the behest of the prime minister. This was the money used to help Canadians to get through the worst of the pandemic. It is obvious to those of us who understand the function of the Bank of Canada that Mr. Poilievre has no knowledge of Canada’s financial systems.
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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry
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