As a titan of industry and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk wields influence across the global economy. He is now leveraging this success to expand his influence in the democratic process in Canada and elsewhere.
In the past week alone, Musk has delved into Canadian politics on his social media platform several times; Endorsement of the Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, Shower him with praise, Repost his tweets And applause for his speeches Media interactions.
Meanwhile, he mocked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for his stance resignationBorrowing the language of President-elect Donald Trump to refer to him as “the governor.” He’s even called Trudeau “An unbearable tool.”
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that Musk has turned his attention to Canada. He was born in South Africa, and his mother, May Mask, is from Saskatchewan. Musk moved to Canada in 1989 and attended Queen’s University for two years before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania.
Musk’s influence project took off in 2022 when he bought Twitter, renamed it X and scrapped rules governing content moderation and misinformation. Musk described this move as a defense of freedom of expression, and he quickly recounted the calculations of Canadian influencer Jordan Peterson and President-elect Donald Trump.
He then spent more than $200 million to support Trump’s successful campaign to regain the US presidency.
His reward? It is a role that takes the helm of Trump’s proposed Department of Government Efficiency and, perhaps more importantly, serves as president-elect.
Despite having more than 210 million followers on his own platform, and a friendship with Trump, Musk seems to want more ears than Trump’s, and he’s getting involved. Political debates around the world.
“It’s about putting yourself on the world stage as a thought leader, inverted commas, who can rise above politics but also go along with it when it suits him,” said Andrew Chadwick, professor of political communication at Loughborough University in the UK. .
“I think Musk (his defense) has become aligned with what he sees as political movements around the world that share his anti-state, anti-regulation, anti-legacy libertarian media ideology,” Chadwick told CBC News.
Chadwick says Poilievre vowed to abolish The Liberal government’s online harms legislation, which conservatives say is too broad and risks violating freedom of expression, appeals to Musk, who describes him as an “ideological platform mogul.”
Christopher Cochrane, a political science professor from the University of Toronto, believes that “vanity” may push Musk into political discussions at home and abroad.
“It is remarkable that he was in a position to buy an entire social media network, as if it were an alternate universe, and turn it into his own playground and a place to amplify his political views,” he said.
“Just as he was able to discover electric cars and build a successful rocket company, now he has discovered another area that others are not smart enough, brave enough, daring enough or anything else to solve,” Cochrane said. . “There’s kind of an element of arrogance to that.”
To be fair to Musk, Cochrane says, “It would be hard not to feel overconfident when you’ve had the success he’s had with PayPal and Tesla and SpaceX and all the other things.”
Cochrane explained that Musk has been so successful in making his voice heard, not just because he is wealthy, but because people may think that his success naturally translates to other areas.
“Clearly there are people with very, very high levels of political sophistication who know absolutely nothing about rockets and electric cars, and there are certainly a lot of people who know a lot about rockets and electric cars who are not particularly high in political sophistication.” Cochrane said. “That’s what’s happening here.”
Chadwick has been watching Musk closely in recent months, as Malik turns against him When Farage refused to support Far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
He says that when it comes to Musk’s interest in Canada, his posts on X align closely with Trump’s comments and the attacks the president-elect has directed toward his northern neighbour.
“It is important to see this as part of the alignment between Musk’s interests as a media owner and platform owner and the Trump administration,” he said.
The irony of Musk’s editorial stances, Chadwick says, is that when social media platforms emerged, their founders went to great lengths to argue that they shouldn’t be held to the same standards as media organizations.
“And yet, here we have the owner of a platform with 210 million followers, who is now perfectly willing to use that platform to amplify his personal political views,” he added.
In Germany, Musk supported the leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, Alice Weidel, who strongly criticizes multiculturalism. Some prominent AfD members were as well forsaken For their failure to condemn the war crimes committed by the Nazis.
Last year, a German court said the AfD was officially suspected of extremism, allowing German security services to continue monitoring its activities and communications.
It was musky Accused in Germany of interference In that country’s next elections on February 23 for his endorsement of the Alternative for Germany party and his promise to host a live interview on Channel X with Weidel on January 9.
Current21:11Why does Elon Musk interfere in world politics?
Elon Musk recently pushed the false claim that the UK Prime Minister is “deeply complicit in mass rape” and suggested that the country needs to be liberated by the US. This is just one example of how the tech billionaire uses his position and influence to interfere in the country’s affairs. International politics – what is the end of it?
By comparison, Musk’s interest in Canada has been much more moderate, Cochrane says.
“He controls a very large platform and has a huge audience. For Canada, things are not going well, so if he focuses here on promoting Pierre Poilievre, that’s not the worst thing he could ever do,” Cochrane said.
During a press conference on Thursday, Poilievre was asked if he would accept Musk’s endorsement.
He replied, saying that his young son wanted to go to Mars.
“I think Mr. Musk would be a good person to reach out to,” Poilievre said.
He continued: “The truth is that it would be nice if we could convince Mr. Musk to open some of his factories here in Canada, and create some high-paying jobs for our people.”
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