Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, pictured during a rally in Montreal on June 19, has had a commanding lead in the polls for almost two years.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
Stephen Maher is a political journalist and author of The Prince: The Turbulent Reign of Justin Trudeau.
On Tuesday, when Doris Grinspun, the CEO of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, told CBC that Ontario’s decision to close 10 supervised drug consumption sites is “a death sentence for people that use substances,” the federal Conservatives were quick to attack her.
Sebastian Skamski, a spokesman for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, slammed her on X: “CBC’s so called ‘expert’ (with 23 letters behind her name) deems Trudeau’s crime ridden drug dens ‘essential’ & equates them to cancer treatment centres. These are the WACKO ‘experts’ Trudeau uses to defend his drug disaster. These are the WACKO ‘expert’ voices media peddles.”
Mr. Skamski, who is entitled to put two letters behind his name, may not fully appreciate the value of the letters after Dr. Grinspun’s name. They show, among other things, that she is a registered nurse and a PhD, that she has an honorary law degree and is a member of the Order of Ontario.
Those letters do not show that she is right about supervised injection sites, but do show that she might know what she is talking about, and is the kind of person we ought to hear from. If she has good reasons to believe that supervised drug consumption sites save lives and reduce the harm of addiction, then she has a responsibility to speak out.
Mr. Skamski is impolite, therefore, to call her names and treat her disrespectfully for doing her job.
But he is following the example set by his boss. Mr. Poilievre is going after the people working on the front lines of the opioid epidemic. It is part of a pattern.
Mr. Poilievre has previously attacked Indigenous survivors of residential schools, the chief electoral officer, former governor-general David Johnston, a small-town reporter and various experts.
Mr. Poilievre is often careless about others’ reputations. In February, for example, in the House of Commons, where he can speak without fear of defamation law, he called housing expert Mike Moffatt a “failed Liberal academic,” an ill-considered, inaccurate and unfair smear on a public intellectual who has done as much as anyone in Canada to explain the housing crisis and propose solutions.
In the online conservative world where Mr. Skamski and Mr. Poilievre likely spend too much time, it is normal to refer to some people as NPCs – non-playable characters. It’s an idea from video games: NPCs are the figures nobody is controlling, like the pedestrians who get hit by cars in Grand Theft Auto.
Conservatives who are “very online” – meaning they are excessively engaged with internet culture – use the term as an insult. Elon Musk used the phrase recently to complain about hostile media coverage of his boring conversation with Donald Trump. But in a way, many citizens are NPCs in politics; they are non-partisans who nonetheless can participate in debates. It is a bad idea to sneer at those people, or discourage them from speaking.
Mr. Poilievre has a fearsome reputation because of his unerring ability to quickly identify his opponents’ weak spots and attack them ruthlessly. He sometimes goes further than necessary, but the parliamentary system depends on no-holds-barred exchanges. It is wrong to expect the Leader of the Opposition to treat the Prime Minister and his cabinet as flawed but well-meaning. That’s not how the game has ever been played – not by John A. Macdonald, John Diefenbaker or Jean Chrétien. If you don’t want to be attacked, do not run for office.
But when Mr. Poilievre is disrespectful to NPCs – like Dr. Grinspun or Mr. Moffatt – he is making our public conversations even viler than they need to be. Our debates do not need to resemble YouTube comment sections, where nasty basement dwellers anonymously trade vicious insults with strangers.
Mr. Poilievre has had a commanding lead in the polls for almost two years. His party is united behind him while the Liberals are confused and dispirited. Everyone thinks he is going to be prime minister. He would be smart to start acting like it and direct his partisan attacks only at those who put their names on ballots.