Pierre Poilievre, the class tourist who didn't read the guidebook

Pierre Poilievre, the class tourist who didn’t read the guidebook

SHANNON PROUDFOOT
OTTAWA
PUBLISHED AUGUST 11, 2023
UPDATED AUGUST 13, 2023

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-pierre-poilievre-the-class-tourist-who-didnt-read-the-guidebook/

"SNIP..........

(Poilievre) "That’s what it’s like to be out with the people, in the rain, attending their festivals, listening to their stories, hearing their dreams.”

If I know anything about the working class, it’s that they constantly refer to themselves, in the manner of a particularly cringey museum exhibit, as “common people” who delight in primitive “festivals.” And they absolutely view dirty boots as something to preen about, like an especially successful Halloween costume.

But the bigger problem with Mr. Poilievre’s class tourism is this: He has grasped a real thing that is simmering just below a boil. Too many people feel like they can’t afford any sort of reasonable life or even pin the hopes of such a thing to their children. And many people – some included in the group above, some not – feel ignored, maligned and scolded by the current federal government.

But in seizing on those feelings without an evident shred of real empathy, perspective or authenticity, Mr. Poilievre seems to see them as smouldering embers of resentment to be fanned for his own purposes, rather than a set of real problems in need of solving.


..........SNIP"