Timber

 

I saw a reasonably balanced account of the Ottawa July 1 protesters on CBC. They ended, fairly enough, by noting that, although the parade of ‘freedom fighters” looked large, they really represented only a small proportion of Canadians.

This seems to be true enough, according to the polls, according to the last federal election, according to the recent Ontario election. Even the spring surge in CPC membership does not prove anything. It makes the Conservatives the largest party in Canadian history, but its membership is still a tiny proportion of the general population, perhaps 2%.

However, I recall a university class back in 1974, which hosted a guest speaker from the PLO. I pointed out after her talk that polls showed the great majority of Palestinian Arabs actually supported Israel. 

“Wait ten years,” she said. She was right.

It takes time for any very new message to percolate through the population. 

The priority now is to get the message out. The leftist elite knows this, because they are doing everything they can to prevent the message from getting out. 

I retain a visceral dislike of Erin O’Toole, because he took the opposite path, declaring the conservative message wrong and promising no change. It was a betrayal; all the more so since he ran for the leadership as a “true blue” conservative. Had the party faithful wanted to run centre-left, they would have done better with Peter MacKay. O’Toole sold them and the Canadian people out for personal ambition.

Pierre Poilievre, by contrast, is a brilliant communicator; and he knows how to use social media. This allows him to bypass the media control and speak directly to the people. He has long reminded me of John Diefenbaker with his inquisitorial fire in question period. His latest video reminds me of Ronald Reagan.

He speaks in clear and simple terms of things we all know in our hearts.

We need is to get the message out, and Canada will quickly tip to the side of freedom. Poilievre looks like our best chance yet to get that message out.