Will Pierre Poilievre’s makeover be a hit with voters?

Do voters make passes at politicians who wear glasses?

Please forgive the shopworn cliché and its outdated innuendo, but the question is suddenly relevant again. Conservative party leader Pierre Poilievre, 44, has been faithfully consistent in his public image dating back to his election to Parliament in 2004. His glasses are his signature look, along with a dark suit over a simple no-frills white shirt with a solid-coloured, steadfastly medium-width tie. No big flourishes, no sartorial statements.

Then, at a June 29 press conference, we saw a refreshed Poilievre, suddenly sans glasses and wearing a black T-shirt underneath a dark sports jacket. He was speaking more softly, less confrontationally. A transformation was afoot for the usually more assertive pol.

On Canada Day, Poilievre’s Instagram feed filled up with shots of the Conservative party leader, again spec-less, and wearing a patriotic track jacket with aviator glasses hooked on his T-shirt. Last weekend at the Calgary Stampede, his old stomping grounds, Poilievre took the new look further, swapping his glasses for shades and adding a tight white T-shirt. It was all very “Top Gun: Maverick”: laid-back, masculine, approachable. The new image is a clear effort to grow Poilievre’s likability ratings for a broader electorate.

But do we still believe in the Clark Kent in a phone booth image transformation?

It’s instructive to look back at the spec-less faces of politicians over the decades. In 2010, the Star reported that when Stephen Harper briefly started wearing his glasses in public, no leader since Diefenbaker had regularly worn spectacles in office. Preston Manning, David Peterson and Bob Rae all reportedly opted for laser eye surgery. In the U.S., only three presidents — Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Harry S. Truman — regularly wore glasses while in office.

What gives? Most studies show that people who wear glasses appear more honest, trustworthy, intelligent, of higher social class and less threatening than those who don’t.

But that data doesn’t necessarily hold with conservative voters.

A 2019 study published in the Social Psychology journal showed that glasses “increase perceptions of confidence” and could thus help candidates win elections. However, according to a CNBC report on the details of the study, its lead author, Alexandra Fleischman, stipulated that liberal and conservative biases matter. “Liberals tend to value intelligence in a candidate more,” she wrote. “Conservatives place a higher value on strength and dominance; they like a strong successful leader.”

So there it is: a potential reason behind Poilivre’s groovy new look. After all, he’s up against Justin Trudeau, a celebrity PM who can roll up his shirt sleeves to indicate he’s getting down to work with the flick of a wrist. Trudeau can toggle between different images effortlessly, both positive and negative. (Poilievre is making sure that Canadians never forget the ill-conceived 2018 India tour during which the PM wore traditional garb and caused an international embarrassment.)

Consistency is the key to the most successful imaging brands deployed by politicians — experimenting only works if it’s part of your brand. Justin Trudeau, apparently, can get away with a few hair tweaks, like his pandemic beard, or last year’s summer Beatles haircut, possibly because we loved his father Pierre Trudeau’s dramatic style flourishes — the capes, the hats, the lapel rose. Conversely, we admired the sartorial comfort provided by Barack Obama’s steady diet of navy and grey suits while he was in office. Remember the outrage when Obama wore a tan suit? Once!

Pierre Poilievre is smart to start to tool around with his image. With no election on the horizon, this is the moment to workshop ideas and see what sticks. But Poilievre should be aware that the public has a keen sense of what is actually natural on a politician. Authenticity in dressing is the great equalizer — you can focus group stuff, and you can hire consultants, but in the end, if the new look you’re trying to sell feels genuine, it will fly. If not, there will be a cleanup job to do.

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