Poilievre's Musk, Peterson backing about as helpful as a KKK endorsement

Support from Musk and Peterson might be a valuable signal to U.S. Republicans, but it's a big backfire among Canadians

His strategists thought a discussion with celebrity identitarian Jordan Peterson would let Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre reach Canadians directly, unchecked by pesky reporters and their pesky journalistic standards.

It did. And it was a big mistake.

Peterson provided no check on Poilievre’s claim that “socialist programs” like healthcare, dental care and pharmacare subsidize the rich. Peterson let pass unchecked Poilievre’s claim that hate crime is caused by “wokeism” and racism didn’t exist in Canada before wokeism recently invented or imported it.

Peterson didn’t push back or ask for elaboration on any of Poilievre’s weird claims. Viewers were left to accept them (or not) based on trust, if not in Poilievre then in Peterson. And that is exactly the problem.

Peterson won’t fix Poilievre’s low score with young women voters

Maybe Poilievre doesn’t care that he does so poorly with young women voters. An Angus Reid poll released last week showed Jagmeet Singh’s NDP at 48 per cent among women aged 18 to 34, well above Poilievre’s Conservatives at 27.

But that demographic dynamic isn’t surprising for a politician who wants to be associated with Jordan Peterson, whose foul mouth and plague of bad advice to young men runs in anti-women directions. With many young women voters, levels of trust in Jordan Peterson is so low it’s anti-trust.

So if young women voters are concerned Conservatives will cut healthcare, childcare, dental programs and others, watching Peterson nod while Poilievre calls them subsidies to the rich won’t allay them.

If young women suspect Conservatives won’t fight discrimination and hate crime, seeing Peterson endorse Poilievre’s strange logic on the blame for racism will only confirm them.

Peterson scores low trust among Canadians

And mistrust of Peterson isn’t confined to young women. Among those who know him, a big majority of Canadians surveyed have low trust in Peterson’s views on politics, according to a survey by the Canadian Digital Media Research Network.

Their November 2024 poll showed just 18 per cent had high trust in Peterson’s Canadian political opinions while 40 per cent reported low trust. Others couldn’t say.

In contrast, 65 per cent held high trust in Barack Obama’s opinions on Canadian politics. Even entertainers Celine Dion and Ryan Reynolds, with high trust among 41 and 40 per cent respectively, were twice as widely trusted as Peterson.

75% have low trust in U.S. billionaire Elon Musk

Peterson may be the wrong Poilievre pitch-man to Canadians, but he did catch the eye of U.S. billionaire Elon Musk.

Amid Musk’s megalomaniacal frenzy last week — endorsing the far-right German AfD, attacking the U.K. Labour Party, calling for the release of racist thug Tommy Robinson — Musk did find a moment to endorse Poilievre’s chat with Peterson and push it out on Twitter.

And probably Conservative strategists thought that was a win, too.

But a massive 75 per cent of Canadians have low trust in Musk’s opinions, according to the CDMRN survey, unsurprising given he is one of the world’s largest purveyors of disinformation.

Support from Musk and Peterson is about as helpful as the endorsement of the KKK. Yet Poilievre strategists thought it was a win. Maybe it was a win it it was intended to signal to U.S. Republicans that Poilievre is their guy.

But it’s hard to see how that’s worth being identified with two such malevolent and broadline disliked characters as Jordan Peterson and Elon Musk.

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