Populism is not the same as popular.  Students of history and political science will know this. Preston knows, but he is keeping it quiet.  Just like he keeps quiet about how he, the son of a bible-thumping premier and a mover-and-shaker in Alberta business and political circles long before he gathered like-minded cranks together to create the Reform Party can point at some other pol and refer to him or her as having membership in the  "elite".

The only "elite" that counts is the economic elite.  The decision makers.  The people that sponsor the political elites, including the Reform/Conservatives and the Liberals.

The agrarian reform movements were not populist and those same students of political science and history do not refer to them as such. They were true "bottom up" movements that spawned leadership, theory and political parties - both the Progressives and the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation sprang from agrarian reform in Canada.