To this day I have a hard time comprehending how someone this stupid can even be in the running for PM

Be glad. In my country the bar to run is so high that only 2 people make it to the debates.
Lowering the barrier of entry is good

Doesn't matter the language or location, every conservative accusation is a confession.

Before you call this stupid remember where Trump started.
When your goal is to sway the uninformed, you need only sway their hearts, not their minds.
This is a tried and true tactic.

This isn't stupidity, it's intentional and calculating.
This bare-faced, obvious hypocrisy IS the point. It's right in our faces, and it forces his supporters to defend it. But it's the thin edge of the wedge...you defend this, and it shifts your tolerance window a bit, and the next one is a bit more egregious, and you defend that, then a bit more, and so on until you are defending felons and rapists who dismantle the government against your interests, because it supports your guy and hurts people you hate.
At the same time Poilievre's opponents become even more indignant and angry, and it further divides into two sides - the team, and the other. This is all intended to firm up the cult and further divide out the other.

Sadly, he's not stupid. He's evil and cynical, and callously manipulating those who are stupid.
- No, he actually is stupid, just not as much as his counterparts down south. The only legislation Pierre ever drafted Harper had to hire an army of consultants to walk him through it.
  He's being dogwalked by people smarter than him though. Make no mistake, Stephen Harper still has massive control behind the party, especially the religious wing. Anyone paying attention to Alberta politics knows that Project 2025 is already in Canada.

"His entire leadership campaign" meaning literally the last three weeks? This is the opposite of a hot take, like, a Cold Give. That really doesn't work as a figure of speech, but I guess that makes it perfect for Pierre to steal and use himself.

Ah, the classic. Occuse your opponent of doing the thing you do so it looks like both sides are the same.

Anti-tax candidates have powerful supporters: people with money.
- also people with no money
  
  Only because of tv and social media campaigns paid for with money.

Whenever I have a hard time believing x, y or z can be this stupid, I look at the United States. And then I believe it.
And this predates Trump by decades too.

Stupid, or just cynical and evil?
- I guess that depends on whether it works. God I hope it doesn't work.