Attribution to Mykola swarnyk – Own work

This is an outdated picture of Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. He has a new look , without glasses and his hair swept back, I guess to make him look more appealing to voters. Nothing wrong with that. Though many have mocked him for it. I guess with his new look, he has taken an even more combative stance with the media. He never was really media friendly to begin with. He is kind of like Donald Trump, in that respect. Trump does not like being challenged by the media at all. Where Trump calls out the media, saying what they report is fake news, Poilievre is smearing the CBC, warning that he will cut funding if the Conservatives come to power.

Teresa Wright is a national reporter, for Global News, with over 15 years of journalistic experience. At a PEI press conference on Wednesday, she asked Poilievre about the fact a number of experts were stating that Poilievre was pandering to right-wing extremists. Poilievre, instead of answering the question kept badgering Wright as to who these experts were. He kept this up for about a minute and eventually did not answer the question. There are now memes in the Twitterverse doing a parody of the exchange. Below is just a sample of the exchange.

“A number of your own comments and actions have been characterized as dog-whistling.”

“By who?”

“I just need to clarify by who?”

“By a number of different experts.”

“Who are the experts?”

“I’m sorry that your question seems to be based on a false premise.”

“You can’t even tell me who these experts are. It sounds like it’s just a CBC smear job. Thank you.”

If you watch the video, some will say that Poilievre sounded like a petulant child while sparring with Wright. Wright, later tweeted,

“I tried to ask Pierre Poilievre whether he is trying to court the far-right vote. He would not answer the question, saying my question sounded like a CBC smear job and a distraction from the real issues.“

Her tweet was met with scorn from Poililievre supporters, as per the following sample tweet,

“You were completely unprepared and burned a bridge with the next PM. You weren’t ready with any quotes from notable “experts”—only vague innuendo colored by your personal biases.”

I guess it is a matter of opinion based on which side of the political fence you are standing on.