Populist ex-contender committed only to power
It is unkind to kick someone when they’re down, as failed Conservative party leadership contender, disgraced snitch-line peddler and hapless alt-right band conductor Chris Alexander certainly is; but what is one to do when they kick themselves, determinedly and with great gusto, only to accuse you of committing bodily assault?
As few people could reach his heights, few could ever fall so far as the preternaturally intelligent, accomplished and worldly Alexander could. In this, at least, he fulfilled his unique potential.
Alexander’s abilities are clear. Sadly, they are not quite so clear as his record.
The man who once advocated for the freedoms, rights and dignity of all Afghans became the man who wanted Canadians to phone in “barbaric cultural practices” they imagined occurred behind neighbours’ doors; who, through a policy a court found “cruel and unusual,” wished to deny child refugee claimants medical care; who, when asked by a journalist about resettlement of Syrian refugees, hung up on-air; and who, having spoken at a rally held by an extremist-leaning media organization, indulged extremists in a chant to jail their political opponent.
For this, he was voted out of office and laughed out of a leadership race. Now here’s the kicker:
Alexander, the man who refuses to go quietly or with any semblance of dignity, has written a Maclean’s op-ed in which he implores people to please quiet down and conduct ourselves with greater dignity.
“Journalists should show sustained concern for Canadian politicians,” he writes. Mainstream “scribes” give the extremist right “its opening,” he writes. There’s not enough “credible news” here, he writes, and not that much extremism. And we should all come together, for he of the barbaric cultural practices hotline hates “inflammatory” attempts to divide.
He does say, in a pantomime of an admission, that his government was “tone-deaf.” But he knew exactly what tune the far-right sings to — he adjusted his pitch accordingly.
The best defence for Alexander, then, is that he was insincere: perceptive enough to see opportunities to win and ambitious enough to go for them.
Alexander’s problem isn’t that he’s an unforgivably bad person ( by all accounts, he isn’t), that he did an unforgivably bad thing ( by reasonable historical standard, he didn’t) or even that he hasn’t issued a mea culpa.
The trouble is Alexander is still scapegoating supposed elites, a favoured tactic of far-right populists he insists he always despised, because they don’t “reflect (Canadians’) reality.” Which is to say, a reality that could have won him an election.
He won’t be the last Western politician to do this, now that the success of the far right is more precarious than it recently seemed.
Having made documented appeals to demagoguery, and their appeals having failed, these populists of convenience may, like Alexander, make contradictory excuses for their conduct: That they opposed demagoguery all along; but also, that demagoguery isn’t a big problem here; but also, that the demagoguery here is understandable; but also, that demagoguery — the thing they hate but that also is not real but that they sympathize with, you understand — was primarily the fault of those people demagogues always target. Fake news! Mainstreamers! Not-oneof-us folk!
Adding insult to self-inflicted injuries, perhaps they should be pitied and politely ignored. Only, in largely blaming others for their own fall just as they blamed them for social decline, populist misopportunists diminish the truth and the social cohesion they claim to desire — these are expendable to the populist without a cause, whose truest political commitment is to his own power, even once he’s lost it.
The decent thing to do is wish them well in life but not their future electoral endeavours. Safe travels, then, to all the Alexanders. Don’t let your foot kick you on the way out.
Shannon Gormley is an Ottawa Citizen global affairs columnist and freelance journalist.