He has explicitly advocated for the interests of newcomers
In 2015, Poilievre was a minister within the Harper government and defended the proposed “tip line” and niqab ban. That has come back to haunt him as Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, who is also running for leadership of the Conservative Party, recently argued that Poilievre’s previous support for Islamophobic policiesBrown’s arguments have some heft.
For both Freeland and Poilievre, I think the answer is no. Though I personally believe that it’s important to repudiate bad decisions one was forced to support in the past — because principles should ideally matter more than loyalty — I also understand that that’s much easier said than done and is perhaps politically naive.Article content
All this being said, it seems that Poilievre’s right-wing populism is a genuine outlier — a kind of movement that doesn’t care what colour or creed you are, so long as you hate “gatekeepers.” Rather than sling around baseless accusations of racism, Liberal and NDP partisans would be better off understanding why immigrant communities might be attracted to Poilievre.
An immigrant doctor who has to drive an Uber to survive, and who has no shot at homeownership, is right to feel that the system and its “gatekeepers” have failed him. He needs to be listened to, rather than patronized with scaremongering.