If you talk frequently to men in their twenties, you’ll notice that the once-very-online adjective “based” is now so widely used that it has graduated from obscure internet slang to everyday IRL usage. I can’t bring myself to say it unironically, but some of my peers have started to, and it’s almost always used as a pseudo-compliment, a sign of respect.
So, what does it mean? Sometimes, I hear it in a description of one of my unhinged X posts (something I may take too much satisfaction in), or an op-ed expressing a right-wing perspective. But lately, people have been using it to describe not only public commentary but rather banal yet contrarian personal actions. A couple under-thirties having kids? Based. Proudly wearing a poppy? Based. Dressing well? Super-based (and from a former Liberal prime minister, no less).
Like its opposite descriptor—“woke”—exactly what “based” means is hard to pin down. But understanding it, “getting it,” is crucial to understanding the cultural moment that’s driving our politics, and the public policy outcomes we’re likely to see as a result.
Take Pierre Poilievre and his new conservative movement. It would be easy to mistake the energy behind him and his party as being entirely about free-market fiscal conservatism. Or at most, a free marketer with a pro-worker streak. If Poilievre were simply a watered-down free marketer, he’d be more akin to a centrist John Tory or even comparable to a Paul Martin-style blue Liberal. But he’s not. Indeed, Poilievre is frequently called hard-Right, and while he wouldn’t describe himself that way, he’s not afraid to wear the strong conservative mantle.
So, what makes Poilievre based? It’s certainly not that he’s a blue liberal, but it’s also not that he’s a traditional social conservative. Poilievre is pro-choice, and pro-gay marriage, and he’s never been part of Canada’s faith-led movements. Nevertheless, many social conservatives voted for the Poilievre in the 2022 leadership campaign. Why? Because Poilievre’s conservatism represents a new fusion of cultural conservatism and free-market realism that appeals to small-l liberals, traditionalists, and Barstool conservatives alike.
Take Poilievre’s key political priorities. It’s true his focus on pocketbook issues, from inflation to taxes, has fueled his popularity. But that’s not all he’s talking about.
First, when he talks about economic issues, he almost never discusses them without a cultural angle. He’s not just about generally keeping taxes down, but about axing the carbon tax (a statement about the excesses of climate mania) and making work pay (a statement about the dignity of work and having public policy reflect it). He’s talking about values.
Or think about housing. As often as he’s talking about financial bubbles and real estate investment, he’s talking about buying a home as a crucial step in a young person’s pursuit of the good life. In his recent interview with Jordan Peterson, he even went so far as to talk about women’s biological clocks and the importance of owning a home before being able to comfortably start a family. Pretty based.
And that’s just on the economic issues. Of the four elements of his core message, a full verse is dedicated to getting tough on crime and he speaks frequently not just about bail reform but about better drug policy, often in traditionalist language about dignity and compassion. Poilievre rails against DEI and ESG initiatives, sometimes through an economic lens, calling on corporate Canada to get back to basics, but often through a moral one, appealing to common sense values and against woke, progressive ideals.
This isn’t just talk. Poilievre and his caucus have committed to removing DEI from the federal government, going after policies like DEI requirements for university research funding. Poilievre is also a hardcore patriot, coming out against the cancel culture that tears down statues and blaming Trudeau’s post-national approach to Canadian statehood for bungled immigration policy and violent protest movements.

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks during a rally in Ottawa, on Sunday, March 24, 2024. Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press.
The new Canadian conservative movement isn’t the only national voting coalition that’s gone based. American Republicans, a group that’s been almost completely reconstituted since Donald Trump won the Republican primary in 2016, have proven difficult for analysts to pin down. Trump worked closely with social conservatives during his first presidential campaign, nominating Mike Pence as his vice president and appointing socially conservative Supreme Court justices. But since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Trump has distanced himself from pro-life policy and leaned into his more libertarian impulses, rejecting a Heritage Foundation call to ban pornography and embracing social media and big tech.
Despite his rejection of abortion politics though, during the 2024 U.S. election, Trump leaned hard into culturally conservative issues of the moment, from youth transgender policy to mass deportations. And while some social conservatives oppose big tech, it’s not hard to argue that his allegiances to Elon Musk and Peter Thiel aren’t an exception to cultural conservatism, but an example of it. Musk is a frequent commentator on declining birth rates and natalism, and while the red tape-slashing DOGE is sometimes framed as economic policy, much of the language he and Vivek Ramaswamy use to talk about their mission takes on a kind of anti-nanny state ruggedness that appeals not just to fiscal conservative voters but old-fashioned traditionalists as well.
It’s not a coincidence that shortly after Poilievre recruited cultural conservative Jamil Jivani to run to be a Conservative MP, Trump asked JD Vance, the like-minded Jivani chum, to be his running mate. Both are, the young guys I talk to assure me, the height of based.
Not to say that Poilievre doesn’t come by his based-ness honestly. It’s certainly authentically held. But if new Canadian Conservative and American Republican coalitions have similarities, it’s worth understanding the practical politics motivating successful right-of-centre leaders to put culturally conservative priorities in the window.
We’ve all heard that the North American right-of-centre electorate is looking younger and more diverse than it has in the past. And we know voters in general are concerned about affordability and like to vote on pocketbook issues. But when it comes to their values and the ways they describe themselves, most casual political observers would be surprised to know how many align themselves with cultural conservatism. Even more surprising, cultural conservative voters include many who are also more economically progressive.
For a lot of the urban intelligentsia, this feels counterintuitive. It’s the opposite of the “I’m a fiscal conservative but a social liberal” descriptor we hear deployed so frequently in our peer group. These are the same people who tend to be leaders in the media, academia, and corporate Canada, and who are less likely to personally know and spend time with unionized blue-collar unionized workers who might count pension protection, collective bargaining rights, tough-on-crime measures, and patriotic Canada Day celebrations among their top priorities.
This means that while some voters with loud voices in the commentariat might be most excited to see a Poilievre balance the budget, it may be that more of the voters likely to elect him will agree on prioritizing bail reform and defunding the CBC. This is likely to manifest not just at the voter level but at the caucus and cabinet level. It’s not hard to imagine a future Poilievre cabinet disagreeing and debating about how quickly to reduce government spending but moving quickly and unanimously to pull DEI from government departments. So people in corporate Canada, many still confounded by these new preoccupations, shouldn’t be surprised to see them take priority.
Not only will the new cultural conservatism be a part of what a new Poilievre government wants to get done, but it will also represent the easiest area to achieve political consensus and therefore to move forward quickly, with the most support, and the least backlash.
When it comes to Conservative voting coalitions, we tend to think about social issues as being divisive. And certainly, some of them still are. But with free trade and free market orthodoxies undergoing a rethink, culturally conservative issues like crime, drugs, border security, and patriotism represent solid shared priorities and therefore safe political territory. So good news for the unhinged X posters—based Poilievre isn’t going anywhere. In fact, expect to see more of him.