EDITORIAL – What Mark Carney must do to defeat Pierre Poilievre

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

MARK CARNEY’s cute video with comedian Mike Meyers is just the sort of thing the new prime minister will have to do more of if he’s to beat Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives on April 28.

Carney made it official today — we’re going to the polls and the date is April 28. The Liberals enter the election, believe it or not, ahead of the Tories in the public opinion surveys. Their comeback since the resignation of Justin Trudeau is already legendary. Whether it will carry through to election day remains to be seen.

Although we don’t vote directly for our prime ministers, party leaders are the Number One consideration of Canadians at the ballot box. So, the choice will be Carney or Poilievre. Certainly, there will be many issues surrounding that choice, the main one being who can do the best job against Donald Trump.

But how we relate to the two leaders as people will be the big thing. And they’re polar opposites. Poilievre is a political pitbull, effective with trite slogans and one liners that have captured the attention of Canadians for the past couple of years in a highly effective way.

But people have grown tired of that approach, and his “Axe the Tax” brand of rhetoric has been dealt a serious blow by Carney’s promise to remove the tax from consumers. That leaves Poilievre with the rather weak response that we can’t trust Carney to keep his promise.

At any rate, Poilievre, though not necessarily in a likable way, is a polished speaker. He’ll very probably out-perform Carney in debates. Carney isn’t a strong public speaker and he has less than an ounce of charisma. He reminds us, alarmingly, of the egghead Michael Ignatieff, who took over as Liberal leader with great hopes and soon crashed and burned in 2011 due largely to his unrelatable countenance.

“Most crucially,” a National Post columnist wrote after Ignatieff had left the scene, “he lacked the political skills to persuade Canadians he was one of them.”

What Carney has going for him, though, is that he’s personable and engaging in one-on-one situations. He has a sense of humour that doesn’t often emerge when he’s at the podium. Watch the recent interview he did with Jon Stewart, for example, and compare it with one or two of his speeches.

If Mark Carney the regular guy can be show cased on top of his obvious intellectual genius and impressive achievements, he can carry the momentum against the sarcasm of lifelong politician Poilievre.

That’s why the little video skit that Carney issued yesterday of himself and Meyers, in which Carney tests Meyers on his Canada knowledge, is so smart. If you haven’t seen it, Carney runs into Meyers at the rink, both of them wearing hockey jerseys.

Carney, pointing out that Meyers lives in the U.S., fires a few test questions at the defensive Meyers, who insists he’ll always be a Canadian. Carney throws a few queries at him about Mr. Dressup, the Tragically Hip, Stompin’ Tom Connors and other Canuck icons, with the capper being, “You’re a defenceman, defending a two on one. What do you do?”

Meyers nails the answer with, “Take away the pass, obviously.” But now it’s Meyers’ turn for a question: “Will there always be a Canada?” And Carney responds reassuringly, “There will always be a Canada.”

Then they wrap up with an “elbows up” salute.

Besides being funny, the whole thing is a subtle acknowledgement of the Canada vs. U.S. debate currently dominating the news. And it shows off Carney as a human being. With more of that, he’ll be a formidable opponent.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.