There are lessons for leaders on the right to learn here. Firstly, have convictions and secondly, have the courage to ‘live’ them. Political conviction acts like a ballast for when a campaign is derailing. Conviction prevails. In the case of Poilievre, he exposed himself to having weather-vane beliefs. He talked big but didn’t see the big picture. As one critic put it, he is ‘a minor man with big dreams and a self-regard at odds with the limits of his talent’.
He is not the only such one. The establishment ‘right’ in the UK too is beset by self-regard and ‘Trump derangement syndrome’. A dangerous mix.