Coming in late March: “Ripper: The Making of Pierre Poilievre”

My new book, "Ripper: The Making of Pierre Poilievre," will be published in late March by Biblioasis. The publishing house and I have worked hard to get a 135,000-word book ready for press in a very short time, with constant changes and updates as the political ground shifts.

This week's Bibliophile, Biblioasis's weekly newsletter, tells the story of how the book came to be, and hints at the toil, tears and sweat that went into it. Everyone in that small boutique publishing house put their backs into the project. I worked on it seven days a week. One day, I wrote 13,000 words. It's among the top-three hardest things I've done in my life.

When I was studying public policy and administration under Richard Phidd at the University of Guelph, he taught me about using systems theory in policy-making. Instead of seeing a horse, you look at the whole barnyard: where the feed comes from, who mucks the place out, who decides what the horse will do. I apply that structure to my analysis of why Poilievre is where he is. So I do a deep dive on his life, but also on the place and time where he lived, the political and media environment, the conventional wisdom and mythologies in his community and peer groups, the media that seized upon him as a dial-a-quote, the pandemic and the opportunities it gave him to accelerate his career.

I'm very critical of the media, but also understand its financial limitations and its inability to adjust.

Poilievre has been a "dial a quote" since he was a teenager. He's got a talent for giving short, nasty comments that reporters love. That was a talent that moved him forward much quicker than others in his peer group. In this century, two media environments exist: older, semi-professional corporate media working within a framework that allows limited fact-checking and challenging -- and hires people uninclined to do so. John Ralston Saul called this the courtier press. These are people who see themselves as part of the process of political marketing, rather than as conduits of facts for the public.

Poilievre was at the right place at the right time for an accelerated political career. He has superb Opposition critic skills. He's fast on his feet, can be funny, and is unafraid. He’s smart and he works very hard. He's also cruel, ruthless, and doesn't worry about being precise with facts or even truthful. If he'd got into law school, they would have beat that out of him.

Until 2020, Poilievre seemed destined for, at most, a middling cabinet job, rather than an important economic portfolio in an Erin O'Toole government. But his attack on the Trudeau administration during the Covid pandemic propelled him far above his abilities and expertise.

He used his ability to play the media to help destroy WE Charity in Canada, just so he could add a name to the list of real and fake Trudeau scandals. Then he was the political face of the so-called convoy that bullied the people of downtown Ottawa and ended Erin O’Toole’s political career.

I got a lot of eye rolls from journalists and political types last summer and fall when I said Trump could finish Poilievre. But there were only two realistic scenarios: A Trump win, or a vicious fight, far worse than 2021, if he lost. Neither would be good for a Trump-style Opposition leader.

Poilievre has lost all his face cards since November. The carbon tax is a dead issue. Trudeau has quit. And Canadians, unless they are way out on the far left or far right, have a patriotic streak, especially when it comes to threats from the U.S.

Poilievre has been wrong-footed by events. He might bounce back. He might not.

But, for now, I'm finished writing about him.

The book has some clear warnings about media failings, pseudo-media, disinformation, and polarization. I also describe the toxicity that has driven most of the decent, capable people out of of politics and public space -- and journalism -- and challenge people to try to reverse that trend. Or at least reject those who are the biggest liars and the worst bullies.

Just look south. Is that what we want? American working people thought they were going to drive out the hacks and grifters and, instead, got a con man who's controlled by a Bond villain-level billionaire who sends teenage crypto-bros into government offices to fire public employees and download personal and secret information from what were supposed to be secure databases.

I need a rest. Now, to cancel my Canadian newspaper subscriptions, sand some floors, and, in six weeks or so, collect some fossils

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