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Pity the New Democrats. It must be frustrating for them these days.

Surely it seemed they had it all figured out. The Senate scandal finally made Thomas Mulcair’s unblinking stare terrifying in the right way, as he confronted the prime minister over what went on under his nose in the PMO that led to his chief of staff’s resignation and the unwinding of a sordid tale of entitlement and wasted taxpayer dollars.

The hypocrisy was delicious: A party that came to power promising Senate reform and lamenting that the chamber was nothing more than cold storage for aging Liberal cronies now had its own “unelected, unaccountable” cronies mimicking the worst of the behaviour it once denounced. The script wrote itself, really.

Even as the summer started, all of that work the NDP did in the spring still seemed to be holding. An Ipsos-Reid/CTV poll in early July put them ahead of both the Liberals and Conservatives on matters like honesty and representing the party of the future. But this week the NDP leader was popping up around the country on what the party is calling its “Roll Up The Red Carpet Senate Tour” — and nobody seemed to care. What happened?

Two polls have emerged since Trudeau made his comments about smoking pot while an MP. One, via Forum, taken a day after the remarks were published, showed 38 per cent of Canadians would favour the Liberals if an election were to be held that day, against 29 per cent who liked the Conservatives and only 22 per cent who would vote NDP. A Harris-Decima and Canadian Press poll, released Thursday, put Trudeau well ahead of his two federal foes; a full 54 per cent of those asked said they preferred the Liberal leader, versus only 31 percent who said they did not.

For Harper those numbers were essentially reversed; 56 per cent had a low opinion of him, versus 36 per cent who liked him. Mulcair, as usual, failed to convince anyone either way. Thirty-six percent of those polled had a favourable impression of him, versus 30 per cent who did not. Crucially, 32 per cent polled said Trudeau shared their values. Only 17 per cent said the same of Mulcair. In sum: If the polls are to be believed, Canadians remain interested in what Trudeau is saying and doing.

I guess the simplest explanation for these numbers might be that Justin Trudeau told the Huffington Post he’d smoked marijuana in the recent past. But that seems a bit too easy. More likely, it’s a combination of a few things. First, it’s probably a reflection of Mulcair’s consistent inability to appeal to his own base in any serious way. Second, it suggests Trudeau’s honesty somehow feels more authentic than Mulcair’s. But why?

Perhaps it’s no surprise that the politician who seems the most honest would be the one who most obviously mimics (our) own behaviour … which now happens to include revealing unfiltered personal details whenever someone asks.

At the Liberals’ summer caucus retreat this week, Trudeau reportedly told a crowd of partisan friends that the response to the pot smoking admission “blew my mind,” and that “only in Stephen Harper’s Canada could people actually argue that being honest was a calculated risk.”

Surely if he were being serious and the least bit objective, Trudeau would have been the first to admit that statement was somewhat hilarious. Of course his ‘honesty’ was a calculated risk. No doubt it was a calculated everything.

A week or so ago, Trudeau tweeted a picture of himself fixing a dimmer switch. It was rather silly — no different, on the surface, than a pile of other pictures and tweets sent out by a number of other MPs. But it was still interesting. There were, as of 2010, 16 million Canadians on Facebook, meaning about half the nation is in some way familiar with curating a public persona via strategic (or at least considered) confessions. Those using Twitter surely would be even more accustomed to it.

So when it comes to assessing the perceived authenticity of our leaders (or potential leaders), perhaps it’s no surprise that the one who seems the most honest — or, if Thursday’s poll holds, who appears to share Canadians’ values — would be the one who most obviously mimics their own behaviour. And rather than, say, working in a factory or kissing babies, that behaviour now happens to include revealing unfiltered personal details whenever someone asks. Perhaps this is the key element on which Trudeau’s professed honesty appears to hinge: There’s simply something more familiar about his personal image management than that of either Harper or Mulcair.

But let’s not confuse ourselves. It’s still image management, and it would be calculated no matter whose Canada we’re in.

Which must make the New Democrats slightly crazy. Try as they might to make their leader a personable and likable man based on what appears to be an equally narrative-friendly (albeit imposed) construction of his personal life (the hockey coaching, the lovable dad, blah blah blah), they can’t beat a fairly obvious bit of equally calculated, though better executed, humility from the Liberals.

No wonder they’re so keen to have Parliament resume. The Mulcair of the Commons is the most compelling version they’ve struck yet.

Colin Horgan is a writer for CTV’s Kevin Newman Live, launching in October (catch it at 9pm ET on CTV News Channel), and was formerly a full-time Hill reporter with iPolitics.ca. He is a frequent contributor to the Guardian and Maclean’s.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.