Pierre Poilievre continues to follow in the footsteps of Donald Trump by making polarizing remarks. It denies that there are real differences in gender and gender identity among human beings.
What is true is that there are only two kinds of people in human beings: those who love their neighbor, regardless of their differences, and those who do not care about difference. During a recent two-hour interview with infamous Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, Poilievre revealed his insight.
Peterson is famous, among other things, for his campaign against openness on the issue of gender identity.
He sees it as a fashion, a passing trend. And Poilievre agrees.
Double talk
What is striking is Poilievre’s double-talk.
When he visits a factory in Quebec, he takes care never to use this tone.
He is too strategic to risk alienating a part of the Quebec electorate.
However, his social ideas lean not only to the right, but to the extreme right, like those of Peterson.
On energy, he will ram gas and oil pipeline projects down the throats of Quebecers.
Poilievre pretends to be respectful of provincial jurisdiction, but be careful! he thinks it is up to him, in Ottawa, to decide the details of public transportation projects in Quebec and issues such as residential construction.
If he becomes prime minister, he will be the worst mother in Canadian political history; he will stick his nose into everything and will have no use for the jurisdiction of the provinces.
-On the social side, his vision is diametrically opposed to that of a majority of Quebecers, but Poilievre has understood that he does not need an absolute majority of votes to have a good harvest of seats.
He knows exactly what he is doing and which voters he is targeting.
Anger
Poilievre, like Trump, courts people who are tired, surly and ready for radical change. This is actually what he promises. Are there fundamental differences between the mind of a voter here and the mind of an American emulator of Trump?
I sincerely believe that yes, and we only have to look at our collective approach to major social and economic issues to be convinced.
In Quebec, for decades we have built daycare, drug insurance and assistance programs for poor families that smooth out social inequalities.
Poilievre is going to scrap the federal contribution and it will hurt a lot.
We tend to be very progressive on the social side, but quite cautious on the economic side. Poilievre will try to keep the conversation on this economic side exclusively.
Election campaign
The Liberal leadership race has barely begun, but already a trend is emerging: a two-person race between Chrystia Freeland and Mark Carney, with a clear advantage for the ex-banker.
If I were them, I would opt for the longest possible election campaign so that the public could see and hear the radical societal change that Poilievre is proposing.
