Every politician – every successful one, anyway – has a turn.

For Jean Chretien and Brian Mulroney, it was coming up short in their 1984 and 1976 leadership races, respectively. For Dalton McGuinty and Doug Ford, it was losing their campaigns to be Ontario premier or Toronto mayor in 1999 and 2014. There are other examples.

After those losses, all of those leaders made a turn. They made changes to their staff, they revised their strategy, they modified their approach. All then went on to massive and successive wins.

But executing a turn in politics is easier said than done. It requires a willingness to take a hard look at oneself, and do what the Russians call samokritika: self-criticism.

It isn’t easy.

Pierre Poilievre has executed a turn, and it accounts for most of the considerable success he now enjoys. He has jettisoned the bumper sticker populist stuff for which he was once known – pro-convoy, anti-vaxx, volume and rhetoric always dialled up to 11 – and a different sort of politician has emerged. There’s been a turn.

At one point, this writer thought he........

© Edmonton Sun