WTF is with the CPC and the WEF?
The Conservative Party of Canada is playing footsie with conspiracy theories.
As much as Canadian liberals try to insist otherwise, the Conservative Party of Canada is not nearly as right-wing as the Republican Party in the United States.
The Tories and the GOP have found common ground on several issues in the past, especially where foreign policy and defence are concerned, and most socially conservative Canadians end up supporting the CPC more or less by default. Opponents of abortion and same-sex marriage are a minority within the Conservative party (again, contrary to what #TruAnon would have you believe) but they’re at least tolerated, kind of like the relatives you try to avoid on Thanksgiving.
But despite some regional variations1 the Overton Window for Canadian politics is a few degrees left of its US equivalent, though not as far left as Europe. (And the difference between “left” and “right” in Europe and in North America would require a completely separate essay.) Most CPC politicians are ideologically somewhere near Joe Biden, even if their rhetoric might sound more at home at a (pre-2016) GOP event.
That’s how it’s traditionally been, at least. But there are some worrying signs that the CPC, which I have supported since its creation in 2003, might be living down to its opponents’ stereotypes.
Which was one of my greatest concerns as Donald Trump rose to prominence and power in 2016. There are many differences between the Canadian right and the American right, but some cross-pollination was inevitable. And it might cost the Conservatives their best chance at replacing the Trudeau government.
If the election were held today, the Conservatives would almost certainly win and possibly even form the elusive majority government we haven’t seen in many years. 338Canada, which is to FiveThirtyEight what MuchMusic was to MTV, has the Tories farther ahead than they’ve been in years:
So far, so good. Problem is, I think this isn’t so much about a groundswell of support for Tory leader Pierre Poilievre, but has more to do with a tired Liberal government that seems increasingly determined to live down to its worst stereotypes for arrogance and advanced nanny-statism.
If Poilievre keeps going on about the World Economic Forum and stuff, that lead could quickly evaporate:
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has been hitting the summer barbecue circuit with ramped-up rhetoric around debunked claims that the World Economic Forum is attempting to impose its agenda on sovereign governments.
It is, some experts suggest, another sign that some conspiracy theories are moving from the fringes of the internet to mainstream thinking, as people's distrust of government grows.
In speeches to Conservative supporters across Canada, Poilievre has promised that none of his ministers will attend the international organization's conferences, including the annual meeting typically held in Davos, Switzerland.
"It's far past time we rejected the globalist Davos elites and bring home the common sense of the common people," said a Saturday fundraising email.
The Conservative party also recently sent out mailers with a poll asking people to tell Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who they think the prime minister should stand with: working Canadians or the World Economic Forum.
The wording implies Trudeau's cabinet is beholden to the latter.
[…]
Duane Bratt, political science professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary, said some people have long embraced conspiracies, but now they have moved into mainstream politics.
"The big shift that we have seen is that it is now being promoted by someone who could be prime minister," said Bratt.
Poilievre peddled the WEF control claims during the Conservative leadership race in 2022, and it has emerged again as a regular talking point following the federal byelection in southern Manitoba, said Bratt.
In that contest in Portage-Lisgar, the Conservatives were looking to beat back a growing challenge from the People's Party of Canada.
Maxime Bernier, the leader of that party who has long accused the WEF of having a globalist agenda, ran in the byelection. The Conservatives attacked him for having attended the Davos summit when he was Harper's foreign affairs minister in 2008.Bratt said Poilievre's embrace of conspiracy theories could be because he's attempting to steal back votes from the PPC.
"The question is does he really believe it or is he just pandering to people, and will he pivot again if he becomes prime minister," Bratt said.
Kawser Ahmed, a politics professor at the University of Winnipeg with a research specialty in conspiracy theories, said the number and uptake of conspiracy theories began to grow after the 2016 presidential election in the United States, aided by social media and encrypted messaging apps.
But Ahmed said the biggest trigger was the COVID-19 pandemic.
The World Economic Forum is basically a giant networking event for rich people to pretend they’re solving the world’s problems while hitting the ski slopes. It is extremely elitist, pompous and my God I would give my right arm for an invitation.
I’m old enough to remember when it was left-wingers who got their backs up about Davos, even founding the Brazil-based “World Social Forum” directly in response.
That was then. This is now:
And it's not just Poilievre. One of his predecessors as party leader, Andrew Scheer, sees conspiracy theories where the rest of us see different media websites using the same Canadian Press headline for the same Canadian Press story:
The next Canadian federal election, which could happen as soon as the New Democrats rediscover their dignity and stop propping up the Trudeau government, will come down to which major party leader costs dislike less.
We are not so different from you, my American readers.
Justin Trudeau has been Prime Minister for eight years, and while I think much of the criticism directed against him has been unfair and over-the-top, most Canadians - even those who swooned over him in 2015 - are ready for some housecleaning.
If the next election is a referendum on Trudeau, the Liberals will lose. And if the Conservatives would just send their craziest fringe members on fact-finding missions to Baffin Island, sit back and let the Trudeau government implode, they will win.
Poilievre, alas, appears determined to make the next election a referendum on him. He's working so hard at bringing back defectors to Maxime Bernier's conspiracy-addled People's Party that he risks turning off the swing voters - sick of the Liberals, but uneasy about voting Conservative - he needs to win.
I've been following Canadian politics for a long time, and I've become numb to the fact that whoever is leading the Conservative Party at any given moment is the new Hitler and even worse than his predecessor, who by an amazing coincidence was also the new Hitler.2
It is frustrating for anyone trying to lead the Conservative Party, but the best course of action is to shake it off and show voters, through one's own words, actions and policies, that this is just the usual desperate fearmongering.
Trying to prove the fearmongers right, or at least trolling them to impress the right-wing fringe, will ensure we're stuck with the Liberals in office for years to come.
For example, the Bay Area is arguably further left than most New Democratic Party strongholds in Canada, while Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage before some Canadian provinces.
The Venn Diagram for people who say they miss “Progressive Conservatives” like Brian Mulroney and those who called Mulroney a literal traitor deliberately trying to have the United States annex Canada during the late-eighties free trade debate is a near-perfect circle.