They changed the headline on this article. It originally read, “Polievre launches campaign with a pitch to heal, ‘a divided country’” which made me laugh because he’s spent so much time whipping up the white grievance that carried Trump to power in the US and trying desperately to ride the same wave of populist bullshit with the same message as Trump. When he’s railing about the, “woke” and “political correctness” that suggests that we can expect an all out assault of LGBTQ+ rights, brown people, books, and anything else they don’t like.
I guess they think “respectful and firm” is their best shot at taking a stand without alienating their base.
I don’t think it’s going to play.
I’ve never seen Pierre dish out respect.
According to moral foundations theory, there are six pillars through which humans perceive morality
The first three are known as individualizing foundations and the last three are known as binding foundations.
Liberals tend to prioritize the first three. Conservatives tend to prioritize all equally which can lead to some contradicting world views. But the last three are less important to liberals so are more apparent among conservatives.
Conservatives in general have higher threat sensitivity. They are very in-group focussed. They believe that authority is morally just for maintaining order within a group, loyalty can often matter more than caring or fairness and that the sanctity of the group and its traditions are paramount.
This is where Poilievre needs to be very careful. Canadian conservatives perceive America as a legitimate outgroup threat and so their love language right now would be authority, loyalty and maintaining the sanctity of Canadian traditions.
Essentially, they would swoon over the Canadian version of Trump but that doesn’t exist so what are our options? Right now, Carney has the advantage of being prime minister and taking a relatively strong stance against Trump.
Trudeau and Ford rushed over to the US to beg for exceptions while Carney has said he isn’t going there to talk until they at least acknowledge our sovereignty. He’s speaking a conservative love language by being authoritative.
Unless Poilievre can flip that script, he’s going to have to get used to going from front runner to underdog at the flip of a switch. Starting with being “respectful but firm” is a weak response which will hurt his perception among conservatives.