Pierre Poilievre outlines goals, strategy, key players in Jordan Peterson interview

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.

The interview was recorded on Dec. 21, five days after former finance minister and deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland resigned from the Liberal cabinet.

Since then, opposition parties like the Conservatives and the NDP have vowed to bring down the government at the earliest opportunity through a vote of no confidence, which would likely trigger a snap election — something Poilievre briefly discussed with Peterson.

Here's what we learned from the interview, which was released Friday.

Calling for an election

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 shit. Like, these guys could have got rid of Trudeau a year and a half ago."

Liberal MPs will meet on Wednesday for the first time since Trudeau told them he would take the holidays to reflect on calls for him to step down as party leader.

According to an email from Liberal national caucus chair Brenda Shanahan, which was shared with CBC News, the meeting could run as long as six hours.

MPs say they still have no indication of the prime minister's intentions. One MP told CBC News they would not be surprised if Trudeau intends to stay despite efforts to remove him.

Tough talk on oil lobbyists, crime

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."

Poilievre also 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."

What's in a name?

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."

Last September, Poilievre released a housing plan that he claimed would fast-track the construction of new homes. Under his proposal, cities would have to increase the number of homes built by 15 per cent each year — and if local governments miss that target, their federal grants would be withheld at a commensurate rate.

Staying on the right

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 more hyphens

"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."

Growing 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.

Listing his stars

When asked to list "people who will be key" in a Poilievre government, he noted four MPs from his front bench.

The Conservative leader named former leader and House Speaker Andrew Scheer, who can navigate "procedural manoeuvres" in Parliament.

He also cited 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.

Poilievre also highlighted "newcomers like Jamil Jivani," a former radio host who has a direct relationship with U.S. vice-president-elect J.D. Vance.

Finally, Poilievre named deputy leader Melissa Lantsman, who is "extremely well-liked in Toronto (and) very well-known across the country."

Compliments for Peterson

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 non-binary 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." 

Reaction to the interview

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. 

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.

In another post later in the day, Singh took aim at American billionaire Elon Musk, who praised the interview on social media.

"Elon Musk and other billionaires back Pierre Poilievre because if he wins, they'll get richer," Singh said.

"Poilievre is clear in this interview that he will cut health care and more. He will cut from you, to give CEOs what they want."

The Liberal party similarly posted about Poilievre going on "a podcast sponsored by an anti-abortion group."

Abortion did not come up in the interview.