After a humiliating election defeat, multiple defections from his caucus and a widening lead in the polls for Mark Carney’s Liberals, Pierre Poilievre has finally decided to make some changes. He debuted the new look at a recent speech at the Economic Club of Canada, one in which he cited the writings of Marcus Aurelius, name-checked Pierre Trudeau in a favourable (or at least, non-petulant) light and even criticized Donald Trump by name. If he’d done all that a year or so ago, of course, he’d probably be prime minister today. 

The biggest sign of this new and potentially improved Poilievre was his decision to appear on Peter Mansbridge’s podcast, The Bridge. “This is my first time on your show,” he told Mansbridge. “I made a decision on interviews that I’m going to go everywhere and talk to everyone.” This is a striking (and strategic) shift from his previous approach, where he remained ensconced inside a tightly controlled informational bubble populated mostly by influencers, sycophants and other online cheerleaders. Even when he made the occasional foray outside that safe space, it was only so he could dunk on journalists from the mainstream media for their supposed lack of objectivity and intelligence.  

He’s also trying to reinvent himself as a more........

© National Observer