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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre gave a lengthy interview to psychologist and media personality Jordan Peterson, touching on his vision for Canada and how he plans to implement it.
Here's what we learned from the interview, which was recorded on Dec. 21 and released Friday:
Election now
Poilievre has no qualms with a federal election taking place during a possible Liberal leadership race. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing increasing calls, including within his own caucus, to step down.
"The Canadian people are not obliged — 41 million people are not obliged to wait around while this party sorts out its s--t. Like, these guys could have got rid of Trudeau a year and a half ago."
Big energy companies have been "complete idiots" about carbon policy
Poilievre chided Canada's energy sector for seeming to go along with Liberal policies such as on the environment.
"The Big Five oil companies in Canada have idiot lobbyists. They have brilliant workers, incredible workers, but idiot lobbyists. And they've been trying to suck up for the last 10 years and did nothing to support the right policies in the prior years. So that's going to have to change."
He deems his opposition to be communist
Poilievre says Trudeau has governed with "an extremely radical ideology" that is "basically authoritarian socialism," and says the NDP would have done exactly the same if they were in power.
He also says "it is a classic for socialists" to try to disown what they've done and change their names.
"First they were communists, and then they became socialist, and then they became social democrats, and then they became — they stole the word liberal, and then they ruined that word. They changed their name to progressives, and then they changed their name to woke. And now they claim they don't want to be called woke anymore," he said.
Poilievre added that his appeal to young voters is that "they've learned that (government) help is the sunny side of control."
Lots of land
Poilievre argued the lack of homes in Canada is an "entirely political" problem because the country has such a large land mass.
"It should be dirt cheap, because we have the most dirt. We just need to get the government out of the way," he said.
"There is no physical, geographic reason why Canada should struggle to supply people with great opportunities of home ownership and family formation."
He won't moderate
Poilievre says he won't try to shift his policies to the centre or left, saying it would only lead to bad results and is "the mistake that conservative parties around the world have made countless times."
"Does the temptation exist to try and take on the political policies of the socialists in the short term? Sure, but it's one that I will fiercely resist, because I know that by the fourth year of my mandate, people would be enraged, because their lives would be even worse."
He also said he would focus on problems facing Canadian families instead of on tackling issues on the global scale.
"People are sick and tired of grandiosity," he said, rejecting "this horrendous, utopian wokeism" that serves "egotistical personalities on top" instead of "common people."
No hyphens, please
"We're not interested in the world's ethnocultural conflicts," Poilievre said, praising multiculturalism but saying people who come to Canada need to leave their baggage back in their home countries.
"Most people come here to get away from those things. So by getting back to a common sense of values and identity, and reminding people that they are — when they get here, they are Canadian first. Canada first. Leave the hyphens; we don't need to be a hyphenated society."
He urged Canadians to "put aside race, this obsession with race that wokeism has reinserted."
Poilievre also echoed comments he previously made when asked about Pride events, saying he wants people to be "judged based on their individual character and humanity, rather than by their group identity."
His plan to grow the economy
"We're going to cut bureaucracy, cut the consultants, cut foreign aid, cut back on corporate welfare to large corporations. We're going to use the savings to bring down the deficit and taxes and unleash the free-enterprise system," Poilievre pledged.
He plans to slash the Liberals' reform of regulation for megaprojects "to cause a massive resource boom in our country" and generate enough electricity to power data centres.
"We're going to bring back a monetary discipline to bring down inflation (and) stop the money printing," he said, arguing that because Parliament does not vote on whether to print money, "the inflation is adopted secretly."
The Bank of Canada has pushed back on claims that it is printing cash to finance the federal government. It said purchasing bonds has lowered interest rates so people could weather the COVID-19 pandemic, and this did not involve printing cash.
He lists his stars
When asked to list "people who will be key" in a Poilievre government, he noted four MPs from his front bench:
Former leader and House Speaker Andrew Scheer, who can navigate "procedural manoeuvres" in Parliament.
Infrastructure critic Leslyn Lewis, whom he praised for her work in that file. She ran for party leadership against Poilievre, and has backed a petition calling on Canada to pull out of the United Nations.
"Newcomers like Jamil Jivani," a former radio host who has a direct relationship with U.S. vice-president-elect JD Vance.
Deputy leader Melissa Landsman, who is "extremely well liked in Toronto (and) very well known across the country."
Some sort of crackdown
Poilievre pledged "the biggest crackdown on crime in Canadian history, a massive crackdown" but was sparse on details when Peterson asked what that means, other than saying that "habitual offenders will not get out of jail anymore."
He says Peterson is a free-speech champion
Peterson was directed by the College of Psychologists of Ontario to undergo a remedial coaching program after social-media conduct that the college deemed to be degrading, demeaning and posing a risk to the public.
Peterson has lost three attempts to appeal the 2022 ruling, saying his freedom of speech has been impeded. His tweets included referring to a nonbinary city councillor as an "appalling self-righteous moralizing thing" and saying that "no amount of authoritarian tolerance" could make him deem one plus-size model to be beautiful.
Poilievre thanked Peterson for his "immense courage" in standing by his convictions.
"You've had a spine of steel, and there are countless other people who will have the freedom to express themselves because you paid the price for them."
Stronger than yesterday
When asked how he'd changed since becoming Conservative leader in fall 2022, Poilievre said he had learned to "take a punch" while taking on "vested interests" across Canada.
"I would say I'm tougher," he said. "I withstood those punches and as a result, I feel stronger now."
Little pushback on policy
The Liberals and NDP reacted to the interview by denouncing that Peterson's podcast episode had support from an Indiana-based Christian anti-abortion group that seeks to protect "pre-born" babies.
The Friday interview includes an ad from the group PreBorn, seeking donations. It includes the story of a woman who tried to order an abortion pill but it never arrived "by God's design" and the group ultimately convinced her to give birth.
"The Conservatives and Jordan Peterson are coming for women's rights," NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said in a post on X that focused on the advertisement but said nothing about the interview itself.
The Liberal party similarly posted about Poilievre going on "a podcast sponsored by an anti-abortion group."
During the interview itself, abortion did not come up.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 3, 2025.
Comments
Someone, PM Trudeau or another Liberal, has to make a decision about who will run the country. I’d like to think Canadians are smart enough not to go down the MAGAhole with Poilievre, but with him ahead in the poles, there is no guarantee of a sensible decision by the public. He, like most Alberta politicians, is an oil company shill and represents the worst of prairie populism. If we want a country, not a state in four years, we can’t have PP running the country.
Usually the National Observer is better than other news organization and doesn't just post unhelpful crap like this. You would think reading this article that Jordan Peterson is some reasonable interviewer and Poilievre is responding with intelligent answers. That's how they get away with this. The press never challenge what comes out of these extremists' mouths.
Agreed about the press NOT meeting the moment at all, choosing instead to mostly ignore the new, dangerous political reality--that conservatives here have changed drastically by basically devolving into the "Convoy Party of Canada," i.e. derivative, pathetic apologists for both the Ottawa occupation and the full-on Jan. 6th insurrection in the States, the anniversary of which is being marked today.
Democrats are going high again by enabling this peaceful transition in stark contrast to what THEIR transformed GOP (now monstrous "MAGA Trumpists") did four years ago, a reflection of the stark political reality that started there and has spread around the world at the worst possible time in our human history.
It's sickeningly worrying for the other half of us, the progressives who, regarding Poilievre's contemptuous observation about us changing what we call ourselves, never NEEDED to until the right wing lost its mind and became alarmingly REGRESSIVE. But that's not like what has happened with the shorthand for conservatives now being "cons," dedicated users of social media chaos to rage farm, and lie outright about everything that matters, even while declaring themselves Christians more than in other parties, especially with "devout" Jordan Peterson being fully embraced here.
As I keep saying, the whole mess we're in is reflected in the fact that the Globe and Mail, our flagship "national" newspaper endorses the conservatives no matter what. Even when that "what" has appeared. So the conundrum for journalists is that conservatives own all the media, and the CBC refuses to accept its responsibility as a last bastion institution for the precious IDEA that is "Canada," an idea that so many of us are devastated to see drifting off quietly under EVERYONE'S "watch."
I would defend the National Observer though because this interview with extremist Christian Peterson also shows complete solidarity with AND allegiance to the whole MAGA psycho worldview. So many of us vainly keep imagining that this will cause people to actually connect the dots, but look what just happened in the States. It was "the bros vs. the hos" and the bad boys WON!
I keep hearing people comment, puzzled, that the world has "gone crazy" but few of them seem to see how and why; maybe because, as Bill Maher always said, "it's a slow-moving coup." Even though it's speeded up considerably, an alarming number of people can't think critically AT ALL or just have such a weird, built-in aversion to approaching catastrophe that they just deny it.
Also, Poilievre's "answers" here are neither intelligent or reasonable, to be fair.
Notice how the radical populist oligarchs have changed their name to "conservative" and ruined the name! We have a Trump wannabe here.
Pierre basically is having the PM office handed to him as both the Fiberals and the NDP self implode. Pierre is walking around with his chest stuck out gloating and basking in the meltdown of Canada; its clear he has no idea what Canadians and Canada are really going through.
Peterson has a weird spell on many Canadians who see him as a superstar bc he stood up against the Pride gay agenda, but many of his other views are deeply disturbing; the fact that he, without question or concern, supports Israel and the genocide in Palestine. Peterson is also a climate change/destruction denier. his personal life is also a basket case, he suffers from mental disorders in which he can barely function after numerous mental breakdowns.
A smart guy Pierre is, though he's a wolf in sheep's clothing living in a bubble of wealth and comfort, ignorant to the realities of the issues of the world; I noticed a few things;
he's not willing to discuss the shift from fossil fuels to renewables, like Jordan, Pierre is a climate destruction/change denier, meanwhile while solar wind and wave energy explodes around the world, canada is deny delay depose the zero emissions shift.
second both Jordan and Pierre are saying Canada doesn't and can't ship lng over seas, when in fact the Site C dam that tax payers paid for is not for Canadians, but for foreign own LNG production sites in BC, Two LNG processing plants a couple of pipelines, and a port, all paid for by taxpayers that is scheduled to come on line in 2025, for which after elected, I'm sure Pierre will claim he did that.
funny how LNG was tanking a few years ago, a foreign-owned company building processing plants walked away from building the LNG ports and processing bc of the tanking lng; but look how conveniently LNG price and demand has skyrocketed since the Ukraine/UN war with Russia.. then he complains its taking to long to build them, when everything in Canada takes years while the rest of the world takes months.. they can't even add an extra lane to TransCanada highway from Langely to Hope without it taking close to decade.
Pierre is eager to build AI data centers and bitcoin fishing centers that in his own admittance use HUUUUGGEEE amounts of energy, none of it benefits canadians, and it produces huge amounts of emissions. Signs of who is lobbying him and the Con-servatives
Canada doesn't import oil, another sneaky half truth.. Canada imports gasoline diesel and jet fuel bc there are no refineries in Canada, something his conservatives have kept away for decades, Pierre acts as if the con-servatives have never been in power or are responsible for any of the problems Canadians face.
a good example is the cost of housing; the cost of housing is not bc of a shortage of housing, the cost of housing is bc the Conservatives under Harper allowed foreign CORPORATIONS and individuals to buy up property, houses, and farms for the sole purpose of not living in the houses, simply right offs/money laundering, and to drive farmers off the land, making it unaffordable.
Pierre mentions India use of coal, where do you think they get that coal, coal like oil and lng is increasing, tripling, India has no intention to spend billions converting coal-fired plants to gas, India is one of the few who are one of the leaders shifting to new technology and energy sources, such as solar and hydrogen.. places that are sunny most of the time are going solar, Australia actually has to much solar they complain, bc their government like ours is subjugated by oil coal and lng and military complex capitalist.. notice the wars.. driving the cost of energy.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-08/renewable-energy-wasted-as-austr…
why doesn't Pierre admit that there are better ways to power the world than acting as if there is only oil coal and lng? could it be who's lobby/bribing the Con-servatives< following the money speaks volumes. In reality the technology of wind solar wave and batteries is taking great leaps every year. efficiency of solar and batteries is exploding.
there was a reason lng coal and oil was tanking BEFORE the war in Ukraine and middle east,, funny how war drives profits for the rich, yet destroys the world.
meanwhile, each year is getting hotter and hotter, more and bigger super storms, floods, fires, droughts, this is the reason Canadians are struggling, farmers are being wiped out, like here in BC the fruit trees have been nearly wiped out bc now we get summer weather in the fall, fall weather in the winter, and winter weather in the spring.. the summer, well its literally hotter than hell in which nothing can survive, all the while he's "traveling" in his jets around the world deny delay depose the reality the world is facing. but he sure is a smooooth talker ;)
Peter Peter Peter... lol.. "eliminate poverty around the world will help the environment" LMFAO.. wow.. the ignorance of these wealthy silver spoon privileged Oligarchs is unmatched.
"if you alleviate poverty, the fastest pathway to a green future is to get ride of poverty through cheap energy" wow.. proves how disconnected they both are to what the world is going through. Neither of these people have gone a day without a meal a roof over their heads or know what its like to choose between paying the criminal rates for heat and electricity or putting food on the table.
meanwhile energy costs are higher than ever before, at no time does the abundance oil coal and lng drive down the cost of heating homes and driving cars.. the price of food and buying a home as raw materials are through the roof, manipulated. by the same capitalist who donates millions to all political parties, hedging their bets on who will be elected.
Both Peter and Pierre blame Trudeau for the sky rocketing cost of living, but if that were true, then wtf is the rest of the commonwealth nations having the very same issues of manipulated food housing energy and raw material prices, cost of heat and fuel tripling? Notice only places like Australia, all of UK, and Canada the ONLY ones with these problems seem to be Commonwealth nations. why is it that asia doesn't have this problem?
answer; Treason< unlimited lobbying is NOT a democracy. its treason.
Hey Pierre, lets open your books, lets see how many millions you and your party are pocketing from foreign places, you blame china and russia for influencing elections, what about Israel, Saudi Arabia and others>? how many oil coal and lng capitalist donated millions to you buddy???
again, a wolf in sheep's clothing.
speaking of pipelines, the TMX is Trudeaus baby, it was HIS decision to buy and build the pipeline that is now up and running, tripling oil shipments, buty not one word of recognition from these guys.. acting as if Canada hasn't increased oil coal and lng.
the only thing propping up Canada business is foreign workers, no one wants to work, especially for low wages,, but Pierre is going to wave his magic wand, and fix it all. kick all the foreign workers out, and bring the business world to a standstill.
Pierre is enjoying his honeymoon of politics, as the Liberals are burning down around themselves, Pierre is basking in the warmth of the fire, gloating, and bragging how great he and his ideas are. LMFAO.. but thats fine, enjoy your moment of stroking your ego Pierre, time will tell.
I'm going to predict that Pierre's pride only last a year or two, that things on the world stage, things like homelessness, food security, crime, and climate destruction fueling fires floods droughts and super storms will, as it has in last few years, decimate Canadians. I predict the world markets will collapse, the US will collapse into anarchy, and Pierre will be struggling to keep his head above water in a short time.