Visiting Alberta to “liberate Canada” this week, American right-wing star Tucker Carlson shared the stage with Prime Minister Danielle Smith. A large mass that Pierre Poilievre carefully avoided, notes an expert.
The former Fox News anchor is one of the most influential voices on the American right, but also one of the most controversial. He told the public who would listen that Justin Trudeau is a “fascist” who “hates you” and that “all your media are controlled by the state.”
Unlike Danielle Smith, Pierre Poilievre did not “fall for it,” analyzes Frédéric Boily, political scientist at the University of Alberta.
“With the consequences that this has on the national discourse against the federal Conservatives, it does not surprise me that Pierre Poilievre stays further away from all of this. There are other ways to get the conservatives a little further to the right.”
Mr. Poilievre did not appear on site, did not comment on this visit, in short, stayed away from the thing like the plague.
It was probably a judicious choice: in the middle of the day of the national caucus on Thursday, a group of Liberal ministers seized the event and prepared an outing to denounce the cronyism of one of the figures of the ” American far right” with the Conservative Premier of Alberta.
“We no longer wonder if American far-right politics will come to us: it is here,” declared Pablo Rodriguez on Thursday. The Quebec lieutenant also asked Pierre Poilievre to condemn the comments of Tucker Carlson.
“It was telegraphed in advance that we were going to try to associate Pierre Poilievre with this American right, especially in the context of a presidential election. Tucker Carlson’s visit was the perfect opportunity to do so. If the liberals had wanted to organize it, they could not have done better!” launches the expert on conservative movements.
But since he refused to play the game, the repercussions of the star’s notable visit to Canada will probably remain confined within Alberta’s borders.
If the Liberals continue to lag in the polls, they will be tempted to pursue this strategy.
“It gives the Liberals ammunition to try to deploy the idea that the Alberta Conservatives, who represent part of the stronghold of the federal Conservatives, are people who are looking towards the American right, and the American right, we could say, perhaps the least respectable,” analyzes Mr. Boily.
The one who could suffer is Danielle Smith. “It seems like she didn’t think about all the consequences this could have outside of Alberta. It looks like she thought strictly in terms of the most radical currents on the Alberta right.”
