Please Calm Down About Kellie Leitch

Everybody needs to calm down about Kellie Leitch.

Look, I get it. We're all a little on edge at the moment. A billionaire supervillain peddling the refreshing taste of Diet Fascism was elected President of the United States and the world, generally, seems to be spinning off its axis.

For the time being, though, Canada's fine. Ish. A big ish. We're a year into Justin Trudeau's mandate and all signs point to most Canadians digging on the country's new image as the Dudley Do-Right of international liberalism. (Pay no attention to the colonialism behind the curtain).

But media abhors a Canadian Content vacuum. So in the absence of any interesting political drama in this country we're giving a hilarious amount of free press to Kellie Leitch, M.D., and her bid to become Canada's Donald Trump.

This proto-fascist fire would probably burn out faster if we stopped giving it oxygen. This should have happened months ago, when Leitch was barely polling. Even now, as an ostensible front-runner in the Conservative leadership race, this intense scrutiny doesn't make a lot of sense.

Kellie Leitch is not a Donald Trump-like political star. She's soullessly performing—and butchering—Trump's political script in a morally and intellectually bankrupt bid for personal power. Full stop.

Haha, just kidding—we're not going to stop. Leitch's leadership campaign is so absolutely cynical, so thoroughly hollow, that it's genuinely breathtaking. The whole thing is banked on a slim plurality of Conservative voters being A) unspeakably racist, and B) unspeakably stupid.

Read More: We Went to Kellie Leitch's Campaign Launch

The racism gets all the attention, but we really should start by focusing on how dumb Leitch—and her advisors—evidently thinks her base is. You will notice that where Trump was running against "the establishment," Leitch's campaign is deliberately focused on throwing out "the elites" who are keeping the common man down.

It's a subtle but important difference. Before his presidential bid, Donald Trump was literally a world-famous New York billionaire. His argument wasn't against "the elite" as a social category, because that wouldn't make sense—Trump would be the first person to insist he was the most elite, top of the pyramid, really huge assets, just fantastic.

Instead, he was emphatic that America's political establishment was a cesspool of corruption. Mainstream politicians in both parties are in bed with corporate lobbyists and shadowy plutocrats. They're all crony capitalists conspiring together to rig the system in their favour. Trump used to be one of these corporate puppet masters, but now he was going to expose the charade and drain the swamp in order to Make America Great Again. Partly this is a crock of shit (Trump is a scam artist), but it's true enough to be compelling to a large swathe of middle America (the US political system is a scam).

Meanwhile, Leitch is emphasising "elites." Presumably she's not complaining too much about the Canadian political establishment because she was part of that establishment. She served two years in Stephen Harper's cabinet as Minister of Labour and Minister for the Status of Women. She helped roll out the "barbaric cultural practices" hotline in last year's federal election, which turned out to be a much higher-profile announcement than she'd probably hoped.

But she's also a pediatric surgeon, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, and the founding chair of the Ivey Centre for Health Innovation and Leadership. Teaching at the U of T medical school and founding business school programs is extremely elite shit, like only a few steps removed from being named to the British House of Lords, or hanging out in Andrew Coyne's castle on the moor sipping brandy bottled at the Battle of Trafalgar. Leitch either needs to own and weaponize her own elite standing ("I know how these people work, only I can fix it…") or find another angle.

Unfortunately, the other angle is racism. The anti-elitist piece is really just a thin veil for the xenophobia underpinning the campaign. It's a politically-correct punching bag for when you really want to freak out about Muslims. The real bread and butter of Leitch's campaign is ruthlessly screening foreigners for "anti-Canadian Values."

Read More: I Look to Trump's America and See the End

Or it would be, if there was any substance. Leitch, famously, is unable to express to anybody what the fuck Canadian Values are supposed to be and how any of this ambiguous new immigration system would actually be administered.

The few statements we have on the record about this all boil down a half-hearted defence of liberal tolerance, which is shocking in its absolute banality. The post-1982 Canadian political universe is based around the idea of multiculturalism bounded by liberal laws and norms. (Writing about this is literally Will Kymlicka's career). Boiled down to its substance, Leitch's "Canadian Values" pitch doesn't make sense except as a cipher for xenophobia.

Case in point: former immigration minister Chris Alexander, who rolled out the "barbaric cultural practices" hotline alongside Leitch in last year's election, has emphasized that the immigration system is already set up to screen for problematic applicants. Say what you will about Alexander (and his current redemption tour on the CPC leadership circuit), but as the ex-minister for immigration, he probably knows a little bit about what's up.

There is no actual policy, no legitimate depth to any of this—just Kellie Leitch hoping that the Trump formula of throwing a lot of racist bluster at people will propel her into Stornoway. But where The Donald had 30 years of rep and an obscene, perverse charisma, Leitch is… ghoulishly forgettable. She's got Rob Ford's old campaign manager and "a script she found on the floor of a suburban Boston Pizza" and that's about it.

Anyway, the fixation on Leitch as the Canadian Trump is overblown and totally bogus, and tells us more about the dearth of high political drama in Trudeau's Canada than anything else. Despite all our breathless coverage of her leadership campaign, I don't think she's going to win.

Here's the thing: Kellie Leitch is closer to the mark than she knows. I don't think she genuinely believes any of the things she's saying, which prevents her from being actively dangerous. But like in America, where Donald Trump has tapped into the deep well of white supremacy baked into the institutional and cultural foundations of the country, it's very easy to make a case for a white nationalist reading of Canadian Values.

For those of you unfamiliar with Canadian history, this country is super racist. The Fathers of Confederation took as many intellectual cues from John Calhoun as from Walter Bagehot. British North America was always meant to be a "Kingdom for the Northern Races."

Canada was founded as an explicit rebuke to the ideals of American mass democracy. Canada loves elitism because as far as the Fathers were concerned, it's what separates us from the mongrels. Why do you think we appoint the Senate?

Most of those reading this have grown up after the Pearson-Trudeau cultural revolution of 1964-1982 and know Canada for its commitment to group rights and official multiculturalism and warm, fuzzy notions of progressiveness. But for any aspiring race-baiter looking to wrap themselves in the flag, there's plenty of material to work with.

You can tell Kellie Leitch is a hack because she wound up on the cover of Maclean's holding the Maple Leaf. A demagogue who really cared about Canadian Values would be holding the Red Ensign.

And when that person finally and inevitably does appear, I have no doubt the media apparatus will put them at the centre of our national conversation, too.

Follow Drew on Twitter.