Tapping into anger can work, but it’s risky

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney this week became the latest political leader to fall, in large part due to the anger over COVID restrictions. In opposition and in government, Kenney cultivated the image of a fighter who would stick it to Ottawa, to foreign-funded environmental groups, to overpaid public servants. But then came COVID.

The premier’s desire to keep the province open and safeguard individual liberties was met with the stark reality that his actions would contribute to the preventable deaths of many more, if the spread of the airborne virus wasn’t contained. So Kenney changed lanes last September and brought in a vaccine passport. Many of his supporters never forgave him.

Tapping into people’s anger is a tried and true political strategy. As Toronto Star reporter Stephanie Levitz and former Conservative cabinet minister James Moore note in the latest episode of the Star podcast “It’s Political,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau successfully gave voice to those upset with nine of years of Stephen Harper’s government in the lead-up to the 2015 election.

But fermenting anger and catering to it is risky.

Former Reform party leader Preston Manning likened it this month to the oilpatch, where relief wells can be used to relieve pressure from rogue wells that catch fire.

“The angle has to be right. If it’s too shallow, it won’t take off enough pressure. If it’s too deep, it can turn into a rogue well,” he told reporters at the Canada Strong and Free’s networking conference (formerly the Manning Centre).“There’s a lot

of energy there if you can harness it, but it’s dangerous and populism can be like that.”

Thornhill MP Melissa Lantsman, a supporter of Pierre Poilievre, described the Conservatives’ strategy at the same conference in similar terms. “It’s about taking some of that anger that has been bottled up and making sure that we capture that in a bottle and it comes out more as perfume than a Molotov cocktail.”

That’s hard to do, as Kenney showed.

My colleague Susan Delacourt noted this week there are lessons here for Poilievre, the perceived front-runner in the Conservative leadership race, who tailored his message toward a disenchanted group that feels attacked and isolated by federal policies.

But challengers Leslyn Lewis and

Roman Barber should take note.

Lewis, the MP for HaldimandNorfolk, is promoting conspiracy theories about the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Economic Forum, as she tries to peel votes away from Poilievre. Rather than acknowledge that international treaties help ensure countries work more effectively together, she suggests national sovereignty will be upended by a new pandemic treaty. Like most conspiracies, there are seeds of truth, but they lack context. NATO membership means Canada’s human and financial resources may be used to defend another country, but is that cost greater than the benefit to our territorial integrity? Successive Canadian governments have said no.

Baber, the Ontario MPP who was thrown out of Doug Ford’s caucus for opposing vaccine mandates, is also attracting attention from a crowd that seems to get its news from the dark corners of the internet. A supporter at one of his events told me Trudeau fraudulently won the last election because of mail-in ballots.

Neither Baber, Lewis nor Poilievre seem interested in correcting their supporters’ beliefs.

People upset with the status quo gravitate toward leaders who want to fight the system. But, as we saw with former U.S. president Donald Trump, fighters don’t make good leaders. Leadership means compromise, standing up for minority rights, bridge building.

“No one gets everything they want,” said Conservative leadership challenger Jean Charest, this week’s guest on “It’s Political.” He describes his entry into the race as one driven by a desire to bridge divisions (“which isn’t going to lead to anything good”) and give Canadians a sense of country.

He said he knows he must acknowledge the anger and frustration flowing from COVID, “which I do, but then we need to talk about the future.”

Without pointing the finger directly at Poilievre, Charest said he’s very concerned about politics that cultivate feelings of anger.

“We should not do that. We should acknowledge it, recognize it … Obviously, (former Democratic presidential candidate) Hillary Clinton didn’t understand that in her election campaign and Mr. Trump did. That being said, once that’s done, I mean, there is a world out there to build.”

There’s a lot of energy there if you can harness it, but it’s dangerous and populism can be like that.

PRESTON MANNING FORMER LEADER, REFORM PARTY