OTTAWA — In a bid to import what some might call American-style politics, the Liberals are labelling federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre “weird” with a new line of attack borrowed from the United States Democrats.
The slight, which Vice-President Kamala Harris and other Democrats have been using to some effect against former president Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance in recent days, has spawned myriad reactions and think-pieces south of the border.
Its effect in Canadian political circles is less clear, though it has at least provoked a response from the Conservatives. In a nutshell: You think our guy’s weird? Well, yours is weirder.
The Canadian weird-a-thon began late last week, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posted on the X platform that Poilievre needs to “touch grass,” or reconnect with reality, after the Conservative leader accused him of admiring communist dictatorships. Poilievre’s dig was a reference to comments Trudeau made in 2013, before he was prime minister, when he said he admired China’s “basic dictatorship” because it allowed the Chinese to “turn their economy around on a dime.”
Several Liberals MPs, including one cabinet minister, quickly took things a step further. In response to a social media attack from Poilievre, Housing Minister Sean Fraser on Thursday accused him on X of “using incel hashtags to find friends online, begging for the attention of the far-right, and posting weird wood videos.”
In 2022, Global News reported that Poilievre’s YouTube videos were being promoted using a hidden hashtag tied to the “incel” movement — composed of people who claim to be “involuntary celibates” and often have misogynist views. Poilievre’s office said he was unaware the tags existed. The “wood video” jab was a reference to an ad from the same year in which the Conservative leader used reclaimed wood beams as an analogy for reclaiming Canadian values.
“Let’s be honest, the guy is just weird,” Liberal MP Mark Gerretsen posted Friday on X, alongside a screen grab from the wood video. Fellow Liberal Ryan Turnbull broadened the attack, referring to Conservative MP Arnold Viersen’s opposition to abortion rights as “really weird.”
Jeff Ballingall, president of Mobilize Media Group and founder of right-of-centre political advocacy organization Ontario Proud, said the move speaks to the Liberals’ “desperation” as polls show them lagging far behind the Conservatives. “Nothing they’re doing is working,” he said. “And they’re just lashing out and they’re going to try anything that works. They’ll throw a lot of mud at the wall and see what sticks.”
The tactic is clearly inspired by a recent trend in the U.S., which began when Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota declared Republicans were “just weird” during a July TV appearance. Since then, Democrats have embraced the “weird” narrative to attack Trump and Vance, and much ink has been spilled assessing how much damage the brand will cause.
One Washington Post column described the word as a potent attack against a Republican party that sees itself as a bastion of normalcy. Another warned that it understates the threat of a second Trump presidency.
Regardless, the insult seems to have gotten under Trump’s skin — in an interview Thursday he insisted he and Vance are “not weird people.”
The Conservatives, likewise, have opted not to simply turn the other cheek. In a statement, Poilievre accused Trudeau of “trying to distract from the fact that he is the real weirdo with wacko policies that have left Canada broken and Canadians broke.” Poilievre was kicked out of the House of Commons last April after calling Trudeau a “wacko prime minister.”
On social media, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner posted a string of photos of Trudeau, including one of him wearing blackface at a party in 2001, and called him a “total weirdo.”
Ballingall disputed the suggestion that the Conservatives feel needled by the insult. “If they want to talk about weird, they’re welcome to, and we have a million things that we can say back,” he said.
Conservative strategist Jamie Ellerton said Canadian political parties are “constantly importing tactics from south of the border to varying degrees of success and cringe-worthiness.” But he said the Liberals are “hypocritical” for regularly accusing the Conservatives of bringing “U.S.-style politics” to Canada, all the while borrowing transparently from the Democrats.
Andrew Perez, principal at Perez Strategies and a Liberal strategist, thinks the Liberals will struggle to replicate the success the Democrats have achieved with the “weird” tactic. “I see where they’re going, because I do think that Pierre Poilievre is not a conventional leader,” he said. But nothing the Liberals have attempted lately has done much to shift the polls, Perez added.
“I don’t think it will hurt,” he said. “I’m not sure it will help.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 4, 2024.
— By Maura Forrest in Montreal.
