The new leader of the Conservative Party has become well-known for churning out short one-and-two-minute videos that are entertaining, educational and tell a strong message. His team is putting out TikTok and YouTube videos that are often simply Pierre Poilievre standing up and asking straightforward questions or offering colourful commentary in the House of Commons. The videos rack up tens of thousands of hits by the end of the first day online. The man is connecting with the people, especially young people and even drawing in disillusioned Liberals and NDP supporters who no longer have the stomach for the woke agenda.
The short clips have been working because they are short and because Poilievre gets to the point and explains economic issues that can be easily digested while you’re watching a baseball game. The man is also believable and isn’t superficial. He doesn’t treat the viewer like he’s stupid. Take this recent analysis of the carbon tax and how it worked out for SunTech Tomatoes at Manotick. In just more than two minutes in the House of Commons he explained the consequence of the carbon tax in a real-life story and it was fun to watch.
Poilievre noted that SunTech’s costs have been driven up relative to its foreign competitors as a result of the federal carbon tax applied to the carbon dioxide that SunTech needs for its greenhouses. “This CO2 does not actually go into the atmosphere, it goes into the plant life, something the Liberals may have missed in Grade 4 science class,” Poilievre said with a grin.
What is the consequence of the tax on these tomatoes? He then asked. “Well, it is at times more expensive to buy a Manotick tomato in Manotick than a Mexican tomato in Manotick. Why? Because the taxes are lower in Mexico even though the pollution is higher.”
That’s not good. He goes on: “What does this price signal do? It tells the customer to buy a tomato from the other side of North America, which has to be trained and trucked all the way up to Canada, burning fossil fuels the whole way there and increasing emissions along the way.”
What happened to the 100-mile diet? he then asked. “Well, this tax makes that diet more difficult and less affordable. Thus, the big logical fallacy of the Liberal carbon tax. It drives up the cost of domestic production and drives that production to foreign, more polluting jurisdictions that then require higher transportation costs and more emissions to bring them back here.”
Succinct, to the point and another easily understandable economics 101 lesson for the viewer’s edification. To the applause of his partisans, Poilievre ended with a solution that so obviously appeals to anyone who owns a Canadian business. “Our approach should be exactly the opposite,” he boomed. “We should bring our production home. Our food, our energy, Our resources right here in Canada.”
More importantly, Poilievre believes what he says. Freedom is his most cherished right and it’s what most Canadians want most right now. He has vowed to make Canada “the freest country on earth.”
The other side of the aisle, however, is convinced it knows better than you and all we see is government getting bigger, amassing more wealth for itself and those who feed off it.
Poilievre is good with timing. He has wonderful anecdotes. He’s a great story teller. He explains the problems of our times so simply and clearly, he’s eating Trudeau’s tomato sandwich. Like him or not, Poilievre speaks common sense, which means, he speaks to the common man, the everyday woman, Joe and Josie Canada. He’s one of them.
That’s a hard act to beat on the other side of the aisle where they continue selling dreams to people who don’t believe them anymore because they’ve woken up to too many nightmares.
Patrick Meagher is editor of Farmers Forum and can be reached at editor@farmersforum.com
