The Conservatives try to rehabilitate Pierre Poilievre

The Conservative Party of Canada is leading the Liberals handily in the polls (see my take on this), and so they see the time as right to try and rehabilitate Tory leader and angry man Pierre Poilievre, and to try and re-make him as a sensitive family man. He's already abandoned the geeky glasses as the first step in re-inventing himself; now is the time to press home the ad
vantage.

With this in mind, they are throwing millions of dollars into a three-pronged advertising campaign. One features his Venezuelan wife (you know, man-of-the-people marries immigrant fleeing a repressive regime). Another shows him playing with his son, with an awkward segue from jigsaw puzzle to his "everything feels broken" meme. The third abandons the warm-and-fuzzy approach completely, and focuses on Poilievre's intention to reverse Canada's carbon tax, in the hopes of consolidating the traditional pro-oil and gas Prairie vote.

However cynical snd unconvincing you may find all this image re-vamp stuff, Poilievre has surrounded himself with a pretty savvy PR team, and you have to assume they have done their homework (and their focus groups). The next election is not exactly imminent, but Trudeau is already in a big hole, and the vote is his to lose. Probably the best thing he can do right now is to get out of the way and let someone else try and swing it. But that's not really Trudeau's style, is it?

UPDATE

In another campaign-style video (are we in an election here?), Poilievre waxed lyrical about "meeting with the common people" and "attending their festivals", in full class tourism mode. He made a big thing about wearing muddy boots, rather than his usual Italian loafers.

On another occasion, he went off on a flight of imagination, fantasizing about the personal circumstances of a Sault Ste. Marie waitress he had met earlier who, he thought, may have three kids (why?) and be pulling down a paltry $60,000 a year. Oops. The median income of everyone in Sault Ste. Marie is about $40,000, and waitresses average just over $20,000.

I mean, I guess the guy is trying, but it's rather painful to see. (Trudeau does it too, perhaps a little more convincingly.) The real "common people", Poilievre may find, are all too aware when they are being patronized.