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Don Martin: In the heart of Liberal-owned Toronto, an unlikely Conservative rock star takes the stage

Campaign crowds can sometimes be fake news.

Organizers can falsify the frenzy by booking a room they know is too small and fill it to capacity to create the impression of a delirious crush of support.

Or you can pick a geographical location where your candidate’s support is deepest to showcase a disproportionately large audience as a typical rally.

But this Pierre Poilievre overflowing-audience phenomenon has me stumped, particularly after Tuesday night.

So what’s the cheerleading attraction?

Poilievre is a face nine Canadians out of ten still couldn’t pick out of a two-person lineup.

He is my MP and shows up at church basement dinners, community fairs and Remembrance Day services to a subdued nod of recognition from the locals.

Yet he struts into a 700-person filled-to-capacity hall with a few hundred more in the adjacent overflow room, a crowd one Conservative begrudgingly told me even Stephen Harper could not have attracted while serving as prime minister, and Poilievre is a rock star standing on Liberal bedrock.

For what it’s worth, with apologies to Buffalo Springfield, there’s something happenin’ here, but what it is ain’t exactly clear.

The rest here -

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/don...tive-rock-star-takes-the-stage-1.5868717