BALLINGALL: Tone-deaf Trudeau evades tough questions in heavily-curated appearances

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When it comes to political messaging, one rule is paramount: adapt or fade into irrelevance.

This week, we witnessed a striking contrast between Justin Trudeau and Pierre Poilievre’s media strategies, offering a masterclass in what to do – and what not to do – when it come to engaging with modern audiences.

Let’s start with Trudeau.

His recent interview with comedian Mark Critch from This Hour Has 22 Minutes clocked in at a mere four minutes and fifty-one seconds, replacing his usual annual blitz of year-end interviews that were all cancelled after Chrystia Freeland’s bombshell resignation.

It was highly edited, peppered with canned laughs, and filled with sanitized responses that felt overly rehearsed. The result? CBC’s broadcast ratings are notoriously horrific, but on digital, it received just 106,000 views on YouTube, 39,000 on Facebook, and 107,000 on Instagram, as of Friday afternoon.

And it didn’t even make it onto the X feed for CBC’s 22 Minutes.

For a sitting prime minister staring down an election, those numbers are certainly nothing to write home about.

Compare that with Poilievre’s recent appearance on Jordan Peterson’s podcast. The hour-and-forty-one-minute interview was raw, unfiltered and laser-focused on issues Canadians care about. Affordability, housing and economic anxiety took center stage.

Poilievre’s line, “They get the party, I get the hangover,” referencing Liberal deficits, lands an emotive punch. And the stats speak for themselves, earning over 41 million views on X and 1.3 million on YouTube as of noon Saturday, going viral across all platforms.

It even prompted a celebratory tweet from Elon Musk, who called it a “great interview.”

Then there’s Poilievre’s mini-documentary, Wackos. It’s a no-holds-barred critique of Trudeau’s Liberals, blending cultural references from The Hangover to Breaking Bad and featuring clips of Liberal gaffes – including taxpayer dollars spent on an edible cricket factory, Trudeau’s blackface scandal, and his admission that he doesn’t think about monetary policy.

The storytelling is novel and hard-hitting, proven by its 431,000 views on YouTube, 1.2 million on X, 573,000 on Instagram, and 244,000 on Facebook as of 2 p.m. Friday.

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Trudeau, by contrast, appears stuck in 2015. His heavily-curated appearances risk coming across as tone-deaf and evasive of the tough questions Canadians want answered.

In contrast, Poilievre’s media strategy reflects lessons from the 2024 American presidential campaign, which saw both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump bypass traditional media to engage content creators.

Trump had considerable success with podcasts like the Joe Rogan Experience and Theo Von, golf YouTubers, UFC fighters and even the party pranksters the Nelk Boys. This outreach and authenticity was core to the Trump campaign’s mobilization of historically low-propensity voters.

And for Pierre Poiliere, this new media outreach sure seems to be working.

A new Angus Reid poll shows that among voters aged 18 to 34, the Conservatives hold a commanding lead with 43% support among men, compared to 28% for the NDP and just 13% for the Liberals. Among women in the same age group, the NDP leads with 48%, followed by the Conservatives at 27% and the Liberals trailing at 15%.

The online culture war matters. Trudeau’s reliance on outdated strategies is emblematic of a politician whose communication tactics haven’t kept up with the times. In an era where audiences demand authenticity and depth, Poilievre, in contrast, skillfully leverages cutting-edge social media trends and platforms, partnering with trusted influencers to engage with voters in a meaningful and entertainable way.

The lesson here is clear: the old days of relying on traditional media and scripted, superficial appearances are over. If you want to connect, inspire and mobilize, you need a strategy that embraces the platforms people actually use – and content they actually want to watch.

The game has changed and those who adapt will successfully reach voters and influence public opinion.

Those who don’t? Well, they’ll find themselves in Trudeau’s shoes – clinging to yesterday’s methods while the world moves on without them.

– Jeff Ballingall is the president of Mobilize Media Group, a digital public affairs firm that helps shape the strategies of leading Conservative politicians and corporate leaders