Puzzling Pierre

Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Official Opposition, has a new TV ad campaign. At first, I didn’t recognize him, with the camera showing such a close-up of his face. His hair is usually the best guide to his identity; it looks different every time you see it. That’s because he always sleeps on it wrong and in the morning can’t remember how it goes, so he just leaves it as is. In this ad, his hair hardly shows, so tight is the camera on his face. Good editing.
And wait, is this the strident Axe the Tax, Build the Homes, Fix the Budget, Stop the Crime Guy guy? Isn’t that a child over whom he’s solemnly hovering while wearing a distracting wristwatch the size of the child’s head? Yes, it’s Cruz, Poilievre’s son, who just turned three in September. Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of Canada belongs to such as these. What a guy. So willing to share the limelight.
But what’s Poilievre doing? “Everything feels broken in Canada,” he says in the voiceover. He’s not just preaching the cause, he’s putting a jigsaw puzzle together right under his laddie’s nose. He’s showing Cruz where the pieces go and how to push down when you find the right spot. It’s must be hard, too, because there’s no obvious pattern to guide the way. A lot of the pieces he’s using seem to be the same light blue colour. Oh wait, now I see why he’s suddenly making such good progress. He’s working near the edge of the puzzle where each blue piece has a flat side to help with the matching. Poilievre makes it look easy because it is easy.
Pierre Poilievre’s message is that he can put a broken Canada back together again. Even someone as young as his son can understand that. No nuance here. And Poilievre is no longer shouting slogans, he’s offering solutions. The thirty-second ad concludes with the completed puzzle now appearing as a map of Canada with the slogan: “Bring it home.” That’s a great slogan except the usual first two words he uses – “Common Sense” – are missing, without which “Bring it Home” doesn’t resonate as well.
No matter. Everyone knows what happens next. All finished puzzles get displayed for a little while, then they’re dismantled and put back in the box. And everything feels broken all over again.