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On Thursday, MP Kellie Leitch unveiled the latest policy concept in her Trump-inspired campaign for the Conservative leadership. You could even call it a “Trump-flavoured” campaign: it’s like a bag of boring snack chips with a chemical dash of Southern spice exhaled over it. And I can’t help suspecting that there is something slightly phony about the media panic surrounding her candidacy. Shouldn’t all news stories about the Conservative race come with disclaimers, possibly in the sub-headline, about the various contenders’ ability in French?

“CONSUMER ADVISORY: This candidate is unlikely to ever be prime minister. Candidate may squirm visibly or experience sudden breakdown when confronted with one of our official languages. Candidate’s promise to study French real hard before the next election may not be honoured.”

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Still, Leitch’s Thursday announcement struck me as a potentially elegant move in a hopeless chess game. Noting that a large number of women suffer physical violence over the course of their lives, she proposes that Canadians should be allowed to carry chemical mace and pepper spray for self-defence. “Women should not,” she wrote in a Facebook posting, “be forced by the law to be victims of violence when there exist non-lethal means by which they can protect themselves.”