Pierre Poilievre Has the Least Work Experience of Any Politician in The Country
Pierre Poilievre has been an MP for over 18 years after being elected at the impressively young age of 25. The brand he has managed to build within the Conservative party is impressive and his political savvy is clearly top-notch illustrated by his recent polling, financing of whistleblowers to take down political enemies like Patrick Brown, and even the patience in choosing this cycle as an opportunity to enter the fray for Conservative leadership against Justin Trudeau’s fatigued Liberals.
Is it any wonder that he has been so successful when his life’s work has been the game of politics? As far as we can find, Pierre Poilievre has never once in his life been employed by the private sector.
Poilievre’s youth consisted of an immediate transition from an International Relations degree at the University of Calgary (serving as President of the Campus Conservative Club) to being a political staffer for Stockwell Day of the former Canadian Alliance, and then running to become an elected Member of Parliament. The only exception we can find is infrequent mentions of running a “political consulting firm” with a friend in his early 20’s.
It begs the question: If Trudeau “Just Wasn’t Ready” according to Conservative attack ads in 2015, why on earth would we consider Poilievre ready today? Poilievre is about the same age Trudeau was when first being elected Prime Minister, and his 0 years of employment is still a loser against Trudeau’s often criticized three year teaching role and other work as a snowboard instructor in his youth.
To take another step back, we actually cannot find another elected official in the country who has less work experience experience than Pierre Poilievre.
Keeping this in mind, Poilievre’s recent comments like stating a waitress in Sault Ste Marie probably makes $60,000 a year, or calling a $550,000 family home in Niagara falls a “tiny shack” aren’t surprising. To add some context, an MP’s salary in Canada has always been very comfortable for him at a whopping $141,200 even in 2004. It’s hard not to compare this to other recent comments from high profile Liberals, such as Chrystia Freeland’s Disney+ gaffe, but it’s hard to find any other politician that has not just grown out of touch, but is missing the entire foundation and framework for understanding how life works in Canada.
Poilievre has also been often criticized for his reckless advice that Canadians should invest in Bitcoin to opt-out of inflation. To date there has been zero apology or even recognition from him to those who took that advice. Maybe this is because real people losing real money, estimated at half of everything they invested, doesn’t resonate with a lifelong attack dog politician who is used to throwing anything at the wall to see what sticks?
It’s important to understand that Poilievre has never experienced actual adult life and work in the way that every other Canadian has, including every other Canadian politician. How can experience or empathy drive his politics when there is nothing in the tank? How can his policy positions be based on anything other than abstract ideology, and the instincts he has used his entire life to keep his political career alive?
The hard thing to figure out is how we can judge the character of someone when the only frame of reference we have is their political career. If we only have Poilievre’s voting record to go on, isn’t it fair that we use that to understand the kind of person he is? If that’s the case, we need to remember that this is a man who voted against gay marriage even as his own gay father was getting married. Until 2020, he had a perfect anti abortion voting record. Even in the last few years, he chose to march with the same trucker convoy that shared an official Memorandum of Understanding that advocated replacing Canada’s elected government with a junta. That version of Poilievre certainly wouldn’t be palatable to Canadians in 2023. Poilievre may claim that previous political missteps don’t define him and they are just Liberal attacks- but if they don’t, what else does? Do his pivots minimize his previous work, or just prove that his lifelong political instincts will cause him to abandon any principles for ones that ensure his survival?
We have to acknowledge that the populist rhetoric Poilievre has perfected with his life’s work is resonating across the country. The current polling is clear. If Canadians are as susceptible to populism and grievance politics as it seems, It’s hard to see how anybody could compete against a candidate who has been able to comfortably spend their life perfecting it. Will the country gamble that Poilievre will be able to graduate from scapegoating and selling anger to being a leader when he’s never had to actually lead, or even do anything else?
We have to remember that the formative experiences that almost everyone else in the country shares, like applying for jobs, struggling to pay bills, getting feedback from managers or perhaps even getting fired, are things that Poilievre has never had to worry about. Maybe we want to have a political class that knows how to push our buttons, sitting separate and above the rest of the country, starting in childhood and ending with the Premiereship. If that’s the case, then Justin Trudeau was just a stepping stone and Pierre Poilievre is the perfect choice for PM.
