Party conventions are places where leaders serve red meat to delegates..That’s what delegates go there for. (Did you think it was to discuss policy?).And Justin Trudeau, embodying as he does the many hypocrisies of wealth and privilege, makes Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s job easy..Too easy, even… Poilievre started out in politics as the reliable party attack dog, saying things that needed to be said perhaps but that senior members of government couldn’t say. So in this, his first party convention as leader, the expectation was that he would and should tell the prime minister’s fortune. And he did..But nevertheless the question was always going to be, “Fun. But can you see this guy as prime minister himself?”.The short answer is ‘yes.’.But, first a story..More than 20 years ago, I went to a Stephen Harper event-in-a-basement not long after he became leader of the Canadian Alliance. It was a good enough show but when he slipped into French, I could still understand him. And I thought, ‘If I can understand his French, he’s not ready.’ There were a few other things that needed work, too..However, in a repeat performance only a couple of years later, it was evident that Laureen Harper was now selecting his ties. And when he offered the obligatory French section, he lost me completely in three seconds. This was in Calgary’s Carriage House Hotel so in an uncompromisingly un-francophone audience, he lost everybody else too and didn’t go long..But what I remember with perfect clarity, was reviewing the overall impression of the man with neither a hair nor an emotion out of place and thinking, ‘Now, I can picture Stephen Harper as prime minister.’.It’s like that with Pierre Poilievre..I believe he was also in the audience that night at the Carriage House. (We were acquainted, even then; he was a student at U of C and highly involved in conservative politics.) And shortly after, in the 2004 election, he won his seat in Parliament, knocking off high-profile Liberal defence minister David Pratt..Talk about chutzpah..I think I knew back then that this man could be a contender. But I didn’t think it would be any time soon and sure enough, there were times when I wondered whether the mockers and the scornful would have the last laugh, after all..However..People evolve. Passionate young men acquire wisdom. Without losing their fire, they clothe themselves with discretion..And so it is with Pierre Poilievre. The student there at the Harper event would go on to take chances, make mistakes, even make his friends wince..But of those of his peers who did none of those things, whose caution kept them from the edge, we don’t hear much these days. Poilievre on the other hand always had the guts to be bold. Years ago they might have doubted where his was at, but never his heart. That, and his single-minded commitment to gaining the office of Prime Minister of Canada have not changed in 20 years..You circulate in political circles and you'll hear people say that they like the Conservatives, but wish they had someone other than Pierre. Women don't like him, you know. That's actually just what the talking heads at the CBC, the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail would like you to think. And people who don't know any better sometimes repeat it..In my view, that condescension has to stop. Not because it's mean-spirited, although it is. No, it needs to end because it's actually not correct..The picture with this column shows a smiling Poilievre. Pictures like that are easy enough to get. He knows how to do retail politics. And I like him, personally..But, like Poilievre or not, he has a mind like a steel trap. He has a grim determination that takes no prisoners: Lead, follow or get out of the way..And he has natural authority. In 2017, I had occasion to call on him in the lobby of the House of Commons. As Harper's one time manager of speechwriting, he had made room for me in his sked, but there was something going on and whatever it was, he was running it. And what I witnessed then was someone in command. A succession of MPs and staffers filed in, got their orders in clear, crisp language and then went their way to carry them out. Remember, we're talking about a man in his thirties to whom men in their fifties were deferring. And there was no joking around. It was all business..Power flows from the one who knows. I watched what going on there that day in Centre Block. And I thought back over the years... and I thought, yes, with neither an instinct nor a word out of place, I can picture this man as prime minister..And I'm still thinking that ..This man could be Canada's next prime minister..We'll see if instinct strikes twice.
