… Vox’s Zack Beauchamp, who deconstructed Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre for American readers, comes to a less alarmist conclusion. Where Mr. Marche sees a threat to Canada’s “liberal and multicultural society,” Mr. Beauchamp cites Mr. Poilievre’s support for immigration as the clearest evidence distinguishing him from right-wing radicals elsewhere. “His populism is primarily rhetorical – rather than system-threatening – because the Canadian system for limiting extremism is still basically intact.”
Until this week, I might have agreed with that conclusion. Now, I’m not so sure. The events of the past few days do suggest that Canada has finally joined peer democracies in entering a postliberal age in which the left and the right no longer agree on even the basics of liberal democracy.
I agree with the Vox guy Poilievre is a status quo identity politics guy. That’s hardly dangerous.
Poilievre will not “alter the demographic realities”. He wants to get elected and that means following the same identity politics playbook Trudeau does. I imagine a gauntlet of court challenges would arise to stymie the imposition of common sense in immigration policy.
— Fancypants Maloney (@fancypants_s) May 1, 2024
