By Bruce Anderson

May 13, 2026

Americans are impatient with their chaotic president. For a shockingly long time, they seemed willing to shrug off his juvenile framing of complex issues. Some winced, many looked away. Millions marched, and the rest of the world wondered why it wasn’t millions more.

Trump will never stop being Trump. But he’s got fewer cards.

He’s spending billions on a war Americans didn’t ask for and don’t believe will accomplish much. A billion on a ballroom they were told would be free. He’s close to owning the highest gasoline price in history. (In 1918, as refining was just getting started, gas was $5.41 in today’s dollars. He’s sitting at an average of $4.55.) The man who campaigned to cut gas prices in half has driven them up 46% since the day he was sworn in.

But he tells people gas prices are low and coming down quickly. That the war with Iran is over, and it’s a giant victory. That the ballroom is under budget.

Trump’s political strategy has always been, in a nutshell: “Treat people like they’re stupid and you’d be surprised how far you can get.”

Here in Canada, there are a lot of different ways to analyze the wide gap between Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre. Resume, experience, knowledge… are all important.

But here’s another that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Carney speaks like the thoughtful person in your neighborhood, circle of friends, or extended family. The one who listens. Is polite. And who, when they lean in, says things that give you pause. Because they sound logical, and you can tell they’ve given it some thought.

But more than anything because human beings also react to the subtle chemistry of a conversation. They sense when they are being treated like they are gullible or dumb.

Carney treats people who disagree with him like decent people who happen to disagree with him.

Poilievre has adopted the opposite style. He mocks people who ask him challenging questions. He distills complex issues to simplistic slogans. He endlessly repeats that Carney has done nothing in office, despite the fact that most voters think Carney is running harder at the job than anyone they can remember. When Poilievre says Carney is poorly educated, voters think the Conservative leader must be high. Poilievre sells a PIPELINE YESTERDAY as the answer to everything.

Trump’s political strategy has always been, in a nutshell: ‘Treat people like they’re stupid and you’d be surprised how far you can get.’

The number of voters who believe Carney is a poorly educated layabout and the key to the future comes down to a pipeline is… microscopic. Except on Conservative social media. The echo-chamber effect can make anyone feel like they are winning a political prize fight. For several federal Conservative MPs who you would have thought would know better, it’s become an opiate. They offer quarter truths and love the resulting embrace of the angry. They won’t get competitive doing this.

This weekend, Carney gave a speech that wound through the values and priorities that drive his choices. It was a standard for a speech we should want all of our leaders to hit — whether they have the same prescriptions or otherwise. Here are some excerpts:

“Sovereignty requires more than a country just being able to feed, fuel, defend itself, as important as that is. It requires access to those critical minerals, to space-based communications, to sovereign cloud, A.I., payment systems, clean energy, and vaccines. And all of that demands partnership, and there’s no one-stop shop for that partnership, we need a variable geometry, a dense web of partnerships across those core strategic capabilities and issues, drawing on common values and interests, because it’s those common values and interests that will assure alignment and respect to those agreements.

We’re focused on building sustainably, because reducing emissions is not just a moral duty, it’s an economic imperative. So that means those low-carbon homes, low-carbon trade corridors, low-carbon manufacturing, zero carbon energy. We’re building in solidarity with workers; our focus is on creating good union careers for electricians, welders, carpenters, pipefitters, the engineers who will build the homes, the ports, the energy systems of this country.

…Those whose politics is to destroy, to demolish, dismantle, they’re not going to change their instincts, this is, many respects, this is their moment, right? We can’t match them by being timid imitations of them, we can’t answer them by pining for an old order that’s not going to return. And the loss of control that people feel, that feeds our age of anxiety, it can only be answered, only be answered by positive action, by building that which comes next.

… In this more uncertain world, building for all, actual building, concrete, steel, and code, is the new progressive politics. And our message, our message to Canadians, right from the start, has been reflecting back what we’ve heard; it’s a more dangerous world, we have to take care of ourselves, and as Canadians we will always take care of each other. Building a country that’s not just strong, it’s good. Not just prosperous, but fair. Not just for some most of the time, but for all Canadians, all of the time.

I personally happen to agree with these points, but whether you do or not, my point is this. It’s a grown-up conversation.

It assumes that people want to know the things you believe in, the problems you are trying to solve, the values you consider to be most important. If you tell them something is complex, this builds trust and interest, because they know it’s true. If you give them the overly simplistic, they feel disrespected.

Before Carney got into politics, some wondered if he would be able to express his thoughts in a way that would capture attention in a time where competition for attention is so intense.

Turns out many have been looking for something they haven’t been finding in the jibber-jabber that a lot of modern politics indulges in. A serious, thoughtful, conversation, with plenty of optimism, but plenty of truth too.

Policy Contributor Bruce Anderson is Founding Partner and Chief Strategy Officer of Spark Advocacy. He has been a pollster, strategy and communications advisor for more than 40 years and is a regular on The Bridge podcasts. He was an active supporter of Mark Carney during the Liberal leadership campaign and federal election.