Editor's note: This article originally appeared on ParliamentToday, a Village Media newsletter devoted exclusively to covering federal politics.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre stands behind the counter at a delicatessen, slicing meat as the cameras roll.
"We're cutting the ham and the taxes so you can bring home the bacon!" he says with a smile for the crowd at his campaign event in Mississauga Monday.
His campaign liked the line so much that they blasted it out on social media that evening.
Bring home the bacon! pic.twitter.com/kiCmWmH5Xy
— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) March 25, 2025
Poilievre's not the first politician to make a cheesy joke, and he won't be the last.
Lori Turnbull, a political scientist in the faculty of management at Dalhousie University, says that politicians can risk making some people cringe when they try to connect with voters and show them they're human.
"Sometimes you can do that by having a laugh and not taking things so seriously," she said.
That's a strategy she believes works well with Poilievre's ham line — because his public persona as someone who's very negative and critical of his opponents could use some softening.
Turnbull also notes that Liberal leader Mark Carney has embraced his own kind of cheesiness — nationalism that leans heavily on Canadian stereotypes.
Hockey is central to his political persona and he's released a pair of videos filmed with Canadian comedian Mike Myers. In the first, Carney quizzes him about Canadiana trivia — like the names of Mr. Dressup's puppet friends. At the end, Carney and Myers put their elbows up — a hockey move Myers called on Canadians to make in defence of Canada on a recent episode of Saturday Night Live.
In a longer cut of his conversation with Myers, the comedian earnestly talks about Canadians' nice-guy reputations: "Going anywhere in the world and people find out you're Canadian — you're the good guy," says Myers.
Canada is everything. pic.twitter.com/IUiqTqUxi2
— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) March 24, 2025
It's a strategy that's working for Carney, according to Turnbull, and John Milloy, a political scientist at Wilfrid Laurier University and a former Ontario Liberal cabinet minister, agrees.
"That whole standing up for Canada thing has a great deal of appeal right now," he said. "It's well done, and it certainly had a lot of views."
Carney's reputation as a serious person allows him to do a bit with a celebrity like Myers, Milloy says, adding that the same video could turn off some voters coming from a politician who's seen as being of less substance, like Justin Trudeau.
"Cheesy has to be balanced with seriousness," he said. "Too much cheesy can turn voters off."
It's the playing against type that allows these moments to work. For Carney, chatting with a celebrity lightens his reputation as a "boring technocrat," and for Poilievre, delivering a cheesy joke with a smile lightens the perception that he's a "nasty" political opponent, said Milloy.
In some ways, the cheesy factor can be a litmus test for voters, with those less likely to support you more likely to cringe, according to Turnbull.
"The barometer for cheesy, whether you find something cheesy or cringey, is going to be personal," she said. "What I think is cringey may not strike someone else the same way at all."
Overall, both political scientists said that leaning into a bit of cheesiness can be good for politicians who have to show their humanity on the campaign trail, even if it risks making some voters cringe.
"I think oftentimes where the cringiness comes from is when politicians try to be casual — they try to act like they know you when they don't," said Turnbull. "It's a kind of familiarity that can be a bit jarring, if you're like, 'Nope, I don't know you, and I don't want to know you,'" she said. "But if they are successful with it, it can bridge the gap between the voter and the politician."
She hopes that politicians keep trying to show their humanity on the campaign trail.
"What you're doing is trying to show vulnerability in what I would say is a very toxic and often very harsh environment."