Poilievre’s grilling of Trudeau a reminder of what’s missing from the Conservative race

Following Justin Trudeau’s testimony at the Finance Committee, "Poilievre" was trending on Twitter.

Tweets about Poilievre’s grilling of Trudeau generated a big response, with clips shared widely, and many people either praising or criticizing Poilievre.

The key here is the overall engagement generated by Poilievre. He got a reaction out of people with many of those reactions being positive, and many being negative.

In short, Poilievre showed the ability to draw a large amount of attention, which then let him spread his message, and got people to respond to that message. This is something that was missing from the Conservative campaign in 2019, and has been missing from the CPC leadership race.

The race has received a relatively small amount of attention among the general public, with none of the candidates generating many viral moments or getting their message heard far and wide.

Some may say that "going viral"or getting "engagement" doesn’t matter in the "real world." But that is incorrect. Especially with so many people at home—with internet traffic going way up—getting attention online matters big time.

After all, the President of the United States does much of his communicating through social media, giving him influence over the media cycle that was previously considered unthinkable.

In 2019, the Liberals and the establishment press effectively used social media to keep the Conservatives on the defensive. The Liberals would make attacks online, spread outrage, and then the media would pick up on the outrage, forcing the Conservatives to be "reactive" much of the campaign.

It put the Conservatives on the defensive, since Scheer was unable to generate much attention from moments on social media.

By contrast, Poilievre was able to generate moments that got attention, pushed a Conservative message against Trudeau, and forced the Liberals—and Liberal supporters online—to react. He put the Liberals on the defensive, which is a key to defeating your opponent.

That’s why—as many people have been saying online—Poilievre’s decision not to run for the CPC leadership race is such a big loss for the party.

While it’s always possible that whoever wins the leadership race will show a strong ability to get attention on social media and put the Liberals on defence, there would have been no doubt about that had Poilievre run and won.

Hopefully the remaining candidates can learn from his example.