An embarrassing attempt at journalism from the usually upright Canadian Press over the weekend was desperate to convince readers that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is moving conspiracy theories from “the fringes of the internet to mainstream thinking.” It didn’t offer a single piece of evidence to support this thesis.
What is offered instead is Poilievre’s well-known criticism of how influential the World Economic Forum (WEF) has become. It is a position that is identical to any number of NDP and Liberal MPs, including Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, not that reporters targeting Poilievre would include that bit of information.
This latest story was apparently prompted by a Conservative party fundraising email, which read, “It’s far past time we rejected the globalist Davos elites and bring home the common sense of the common people.” There were also mailers with a poll asking people, in The Canadian Press’s words, “to tell Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who they think the prime minister should stand with: working Canadians or the World Economic Forum.”
Just in case you didn’t get it, The Canadian Press then explains: “The wording implies Trudeau’s cabinet is beholden to the latter.”
apple.news
It seems clear enough that Poilievre is nodding to supporters who believe the unsubstantiated, unproven and plain bonkers notion that the WEF is directly controlling the Canadian government. But nowhere has Poilievre or the party actually endorsed the conspiracy theory of a secret global cabal.
In fact, Poilievre has done little more than oppose the WEF in and of itself. The Canadian Press quotes the Opposition leader at a rally in British Columbia: “There will be no mandatory digital ID in this country, and I will ban all of my ministers and top government officials from any involvement in the World Economic Forum.”
Ottawa was indeed exploring the possibility of digital IDs, a policy advocated by the WEF, though it wasn’t considering making them mandatory. And, yes, former prime minister Stephen Harper did send his ministers to the WEF’s annual conference in Davos, but that doesn’t mean that because Poilievre doesn’t want to do the same, he is somehow spreading conspiracy theories, as The Canadian Press story seems to imply.
The WEF is a global think-tank that advocates reordering the world economy to force corporations to follow strict ESG investment guidelines. WEF leader Klaus Schwab calls this “stakeholder capitalism.” In contrast to “shareholder capitalism,” it would replace providing value for investors with doing what is supposedly beneficial for stakeholders, such as environmental groups — essentially turning private businesses into agents of government.
You don’t need to be a conspiracy theorist to understand why Poilievre wouldn’t want to associate with this agenda. Schwab is influential, but influence does not equal direct control, even if he sometimes talks like he runs the world.
To bolster their case, The Canadian Press marched out an “expert,” in the form of Calgary political scientist Duane Bratt, to explain that while conspiracy theories are hardly new, “The big shift that we have seen is that it is now being promoted by someone who could be prime minister.”
Yet, there is still no evidence that Poilievre has actually said anything that could be considered a conspiracy theory. What he does do is push ideas about the nature of the WEF’s influence — that it is advocating a global agenda that is privileged over local concerns. This is a message that Poilievre’s progressive opponents would find agreeable if were coming from anyone else.
A typical response to The Canadian Press story came from NDP MP Charlie Angus, who accused the Conservative leader of “promoting BS conspiracy to nutters.”
The hypocrisy must have burned out his memory. It was only 2018 when Angus himself tweeted more or less the same views of the WEF as Poilievre: “So @justintrudeau is hanging out with the uber-rich at Davos. He says he is there to talk about the middle class. He would do better to sit down with #Sears pensioners and learn about the reality of the modern Canadian middle class.”
Are Angus’ words substantially different than the Conservatives asking Canadians to tell Trudeau to choose working Canadians over the World Economic Forum? If he was in anyway consistent, Angus would be applauding Poilievre’s pledge to keep his ministers away from the Davos conference, given he criticized Trudeau for attending.
If anyone is worried about someone with this perspective on global politics being in power, there is no need to imagine. Just look at the current government.
Freeland’s 2012 book, “Plutocrats,” despaired over the way in which government leaders and corporate executives mingle behind closed doors in places like Davos, seemingly against the interests of regular people.
The book outlines, as its subtitle suggests, what Freeland viewed as, “The rise of the new global super-rich and the fall of everyone else.” It’s a classic Marxist argument, viewing the global economy as the story of class struggle, as capitalists, who she’s dubbed “plutocrats,” exploit the lower classes.
Where do the super-rich learn to be plutocrats? According to Freeland, it is “the international conference circuit.” The “best known of these events,” she tells us, “is the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.” An invitation to Davos “marks an aspiring plutocrat’s arrival on the international scene.”
Globalization, according to Freeland, disincentives these plutocrats from having to concern themselves with inclusive economic systems. “Western businesses are less dependent on a prosperous domestic middle class because they can now sell to the rising middle class of the emerging markets,” she writes in her conclusion.
For these arguments, Freeland won awards and was launched to the top of the Liberal party recruitment list. If Poilievre were to recite passages from the deputy prime minister’s book, he’d be accused of spreading misinformation.
Link. Above, etc….
What is offered instead is Poilievre’s well-known criticism of how influential the World Economic Forum (WEF) has become. It is a position that is identical to any number of NDP and Liberal MPs, including Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, not that reporters targeting Poilievre would include that bit of information.
This latest story was apparently prompted by a Conservative party fundraising email, which read, “It’s far past time we rejected the globalist Davos elites and bring home the common sense of the common people.” There were also mailers with a poll asking people, in The Canadian Press’s words, “to tell Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who they think the prime minister should stand with: working Canadians or the World Economic Forum.”
Just in case you didn’t get it, The Canadian Press then explains: “The wording implies Trudeau’s cabinet is beholden to the latter.”
Carson Jerema: The left is upset Poilievre stole their WEF conspiracy theories — National Post
Progressives have long had a view of global politics that is inherently paranoid
It seems clear enough that Poilievre is nodding to supporters who believe the unsubstantiated, unproven and plain bonkers notion that the WEF is directly controlling the Canadian government. But nowhere has Poilievre or the party actually endorsed the conspiracy theory of a secret global cabal.
In fact, Poilievre has done little more than oppose the WEF in and of itself. The Canadian Press quotes the Opposition leader at a rally in British Columbia: “There will be no mandatory digital ID in this country, and I will ban all of my ministers and top government officials from any involvement in the World Economic Forum.”
Ottawa was indeed exploring the possibility of digital IDs, a policy advocated by the WEF, though it wasn’t considering making them mandatory. And, yes, former prime minister Stephen Harper did send his ministers to the WEF’s annual conference in Davos, but that doesn’t mean that because Poilievre doesn’t want to do the same, he is somehow spreading conspiracy theories, as The Canadian Press story seems to imply.
The WEF is a global think-tank that advocates reordering the world economy to force corporations to follow strict ESG investment guidelines. WEF leader Klaus Schwab calls this “stakeholder capitalism.” In contrast to “shareholder capitalism,” it would replace providing value for investors with doing what is supposedly beneficial for stakeholders, such as environmental groups — essentially turning private businesses into agents of government.
You don’t need to be a conspiracy theorist to understand why Poilievre wouldn’t want to associate with this agenda. Schwab is influential, but influence does not equal direct control, even if he sometimes talks like he runs the world.
To bolster their case, The Canadian Press marched out an “expert,” in the form of Calgary political scientist Duane Bratt, to explain that while conspiracy theories are hardly new, “The big shift that we have seen is that it is now being promoted by someone who could be prime minister.”
Yet, there is still no evidence that Poilievre has actually said anything that could be considered a conspiracy theory. What he does do is push ideas about the nature of the WEF’s influence — that it is advocating a global agenda that is privileged over local concerns. This is a message that Poilievre’s progressive opponents would find agreeable if were coming from anyone else.
A typical response to The Canadian Press story came from NDP MP Charlie Angus, who accused the Conservative leader of “promoting BS conspiracy to nutters.”
The hypocrisy must have burned out his memory. It was only 2018 when Angus himself tweeted more or less the same views of the WEF as Poilievre: “So @justintrudeau is hanging out with the uber-rich at Davos. He says he is there to talk about the middle class. He would do better to sit down with #Sears pensioners and learn about the reality of the modern Canadian middle class.”
Are Angus’ words substantially different than the Conservatives asking Canadians to tell Trudeau to choose working Canadians over the World Economic Forum? If he was in anyway consistent, Angus would be applauding Poilievre’s pledge to keep his ministers away from the Davos conference, given he criticized Trudeau for attending.
If anyone is worried about someone with this perspective on global politics being in power, there is no need to imagine. Just look at the current government.
Freeland’s 2012 book, “Plutocrats,” despaired over the way in which government leaders and corporate executives mingle behind closed doors in places like Davos, seemingly against the interests of regular people.
The book outlines, as its subtitle suggests, what Freeland viewed as, “The rise of the new global super-rich and the fall of everyone else.” It’s a classic Marxist argument, viewing the global economy as the story of class struggle, as capitalists, who she’s dubbed “plutocrats,” exploit the lower classes.
Where do the super-rich learn to be plutocrats? According to Freeland, it is “the international conference circuit.” The “best known of these events,” she tells us, “is the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.” An invitation to Davos “marks an aspiring plutocrat’s arrival on the international scene.”
Globalization, according to Freeland, disincentives these plutocrats from having to concern themselves with inclusive economic systems. “Western businesses are less dependent on a prosperous domestic middle class because they can now sell to the rising middle class of the emerging markets,” she writes in her conclusion.
For these arguments, Freeland won awards and was launched to the top of the Liberal party recruitment list. If Poilievre were to recite passages from the deputy prime minister’s book, he’d be accused of spreading misinformation.
Link. Above, etc….
