Pierre Poilievre has racked up endorsements from a who’s who of fascists, fraudsters and alt-right influencers

Earlier this year, National Post columnist Michael Taube argued that it shouldn’t matter that Alex Jones endorsed Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre. “Politicians can’t control who chooses to endorse them,” he wrote. “Intelligent and rational Canadians understand this.”

At the time, I chuckled at Taube’s obvious attempt at removing the dreaded stain of a Jones endorsement. Canadians who questioned it, the pundit implied, were neither intelligent nor rational. Even as his list of troublesome supporters continues to get longer, should we be concerned? After all, it’s not Poilievre’s fault if these grifters like him.

Let’s be serious for a minute.

Of course it matters who endorses you in a political race! An endorsement is a sign of agreement, of similar value systems and political priorities. It’s a public declaration of support for your platform and what you stand for as a politician and potentially as a person.

One can certainly argue that a single shady endorsement shouldn’t be enough to alienate potential voters. But how many contentious people championing you are too many? 

At some point, does it become obvious that a lot of morally objectionable and politically dangerous people are supporting Poilievre?

Grifters, fraudsters, billionaires and shock-jocks 

Far-right radio host Alex Jones endorses Poilievre. The Infowars founder and conspiracy theorist is a morally bankrupt gun nut who’s claimed that mass shootings were “suspicious” and “used to try to create guilt on the part of the average gun owner.”

Jones alleged the U.S. government faked the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that left 20 students and 6 staff members dead at the hands of a mass murderer. Jones’s lies led to the parents of the Sandy Hook victims being harassed and threatened for years. Who inflicts that kind of pain on people who’ve already suffered a parent’s worst nightmare?

Jones has linked the LGBTQ community to pedophilia, hosted leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers (both groups took part in the January 6 insurrection) as well as white supremacists and antisemites. The number of lawsuits against him are too long to list here. If I were a politician aspiring to credibility, an endorsement from Jones is not what I’d be looking for.

Convicted fraudster and occasional National Post columnist Conrad Black endorsed Poilievre as “someone who has a plan to fix Canada.”

We already know why Black waxes poetic over “his old friend” Donald Trump, the man who granted him a federal pardon in 2019. But Black has been a fan of Poilievre for years, claiming that attacks on him “are just part of the frenzied and contemptible effort of the mindless, sophomoric, left-wing media of Canada.” 

While Poilievre tries hard to position himself as a champion of working-class Canadians, a quick look at his track record as a long-standing MP and what he’s consistently voted against says otherwise. 

Bill Ackman, an American billionaire who’s backed Trump, recently endorsed Poilievre on X, saying he should be Canada’s next PM — “the sooner, the better.” 

Billionaires rarely have the average person’s best interests in mind. 

Elon Musk: supporting fascism and praising Poilievre

Elon Musk may or may not have performed a Nazi salute during Trump’s inauguration, but he’s definitely allowed neo-Nazi and far-right sites to flourish on X. He’s also spent considerable time criticizing the Canadian PM and our government, while heaping praise on Poilievre. 

Musk has retweeted prominent race scientist adherents on his platform X, amplified racist accounts and outright lied about undocumented immigrants in the U.S. 

Weeks before Germany’s general election, Musk claimed on X that “only the AfD can save Germany”. The fascist party recently stuffed thousands of fake “deportation notices” in immigrants’ mailboxes. Musk recently spoke at the party’s campaign launch, telling partisans that Germany should move past its Nazi guilt, a claim the Holocaust memorial chair says is “dangerous.” 

Musk has claimed Britain was a “tyrannical police state” and called Trudeau an “insufferable tool.” Why is he so interested in meddling in democratic countries’ free elections and what does his support for Poilievre spell for us, given what Musk supports so openly?

Ben Shapiro is another winner placing his support behind Poilievre, calling him a “man for the people.” Like many conservative pundits, Shapiro makes a lot of money speaking at college campuses, complaining about his freedom of speech being stifled. He supports a ban on abortion, thinks homosexuals and trans people suffer from mental illness and endorses the death penalty. 

Podcaster Joe Rogan also endorsed Poilievre, calling him a “common sense” guy. Rogan has also called Canada a “communist” country and Trudeau “a fucking dictator” while admitting that he has “zero understanding of Canadian systems of governance and politics” — so make of that endorsement what you will.

‘Masculine energy’ and macho meanness 

Canadian conservative pundits Jordan Peterson and Gad Saad have also consistently praised Poilievre while mocking Trudeau. That is, when they’re not busy having temper tantrums on social media. For “global thought leaders,” they certainly bristle at criticism. Saad has called people “retarded” online more times than I can count. Even my seven-year-old nephew knows not to use that derogatory term and yet this middle-aged man seems to delight in its use.

It’s not accidental, of course. Use of the slur “retard” tripled on X after Elon Musk shared the word in a post. 

This fake bravado, this notion that nasty and derogatory are somehow signs of strength is on the rise. 

Watch Poilievre during certain much-praised interviews and what fans refer to as his “no nonsense” approach to answering reporters’ questions. It’s the cocky, smug attitude they’re praising, the way he’s angrily chomping away at an apple while being interviewed.

Musk thought that video “was fire.” Those looking for someone to cosplay “masculine energy” (everyone wave to Mark Zuckerberg!) will find the video pleasing. 

In the exchange, Poilievre pretends to “take down” mainstream media, even though the man he’s disrespecting is just the editor of a small community newspaper. 

Poilievre was recently interviewed by Peterson, whom he thanked for his convictions as a “free-speech champion.” Peterson’s speech has never been impeded. He was merely ordered by the College of Psychologists of Ontario to undergo a remedial coaching program after he implied someone should kill themselves online, conduct deemed to be “degrading, demeaning and posing a risk to the public.”

What all of these endorsers have in common are their conservative views, self-identification as libertarians, their frequent use of culture wars to assist their grifting — and fawning over Trump.

People have noticed. 

Vox referred to Poilievre’s tactics as “Canada’s polite Trumpism.” The Daily Beast called him “MAGA’s Canadian sweetheart.” Le Monde calls him “Canada’s Trump-inspired Conservative leader.”

Watching the chaos now unfold south of the border, do Canadians really want their next leader to be someone compared to Trump or endorsed by so many people gushing over him? ■

This article was originally published in the Feb. 2025 issue of Cult MTL.

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Read more weekly editorial columns by Toula Drimonis.