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Conservative Party of Canada leadership frontrunner Pierre Poilievre joined Dr. Jordan Peterson on the Jordan B. Peterson Podcast, released Monday, to discuss his candidacy and a number of issues animating the campaign, including housing and inflation, defunding the CBC, and the Freedom Convoy protests that paralyzed Ottawa for several weeks this past winter.

Poilievre reiterated his support for the peaceful protesters among those that gathered at the nations capital, saying that the vaccine mandates targeting the truckers were unscientific and malicious and that this was never about medical science, it was about political science. It was about demonizing a small minority for political gain, and Im proud of the fact that people stood up and fought for their freedoms in that case.

To prevent future impositions on civil liberties, Poilievre pledged to reexamine the Emergencies Act:

Im consulting with legal scholars on how we can curtail the power and limit the use of the Emergencies Act in the future. I want to be very careful though in how I do it because this is an incredibly blunt instrumentin times of war or foreign attack or something like that you can understand why there might be an occasion where these powers might be neededbut I do think we need to craft changes to the Act that will prevent it from being abused for political purposes like this again.

In contrast to the first official CPC leadership debate where candidates were forbidden from speaking Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus name, Poilievre here took the opportunity to forcefully denounce Trudeau, calling him an egomaniac and objectively unpopular.

Trudeau was not the only political figure to draw criticism, as Poilievre also took aim at Steven Guilbeault, the minister of environment and climate change, labelling him bonkers and a total nut. Peterson in turn characterized New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh as stunningly and singularly devoid of ideas, and I havent seen anything come out of the NDP federally that isnt woke nonsense.

Poilievre also expounded on many of the messages that have served to draw substantial crowds to his rallies, including the importance of removing gatekeepers and increasing freedoms, commenting that there is a growing gap between the the have nots and the have yachts.

Summarizing his own motivations for leadership, he contrasted his message as one of hope for Canadians of all classes, especially the workers who are being left behind:

What bothers me most about politics in Canada is that there is a comfortable establishment that sits on top and governs for itself at everyone elses expense, and the people who do the nations workthe plumber, the electrician, the truck driver, the police officerhave almost no share of voice. I want to empower those people and disempower the political establishment. Thats my mission, thats my purpose, and I believe in it. I actually do believe in what I say. I truly believe that the ideas and the political approach that I advance are right. So having that purpose allows me to persevere through all of the nastiness and the exhaustion of political life.

Also in the line of fire was the CBC, which Poilievre again committed to defunding if he were ever to become prime minister. He says he is unworried about the backlash from Canadas mainstream media, who he claims were just as unfair to his Conservative predecessors even though they did not challenge the CBC directly.

Yeah, theyre going to come after me guns blazing, I know that, he said, But they would do that even if I werent taking the principled stand on defunding them.

Appearing on Petersons podcast might be a sign that Poilievre is doing an end-run around traditional media outlets, preferring to bypass the left-wing media, as he described them in the first leadership debate. To date, his media strategy has prioritized non-traditional, direct conversations to reach voters, such as this March 29 video from Tahini Mediterranean Cuisines YouTube channel that featured Poilievre smoking shisha and discussing Bitcoin.

Petersons podcast is a platform with a substantial reach that even outstrips traditional news channels. Petersons YouTube page has nearly five million subscribers and his videos average over half a million views. The Poilievre interview had more than 200,000 views by mid-day on Tuesday.

Peterson, who Tyler Cowen has called one of the worlds leading public intellectuals and who David Brooks described as the most influential public intellectual in the Western world, rose to prominence due to his opposition to the federal Bill C-16, which he resisted on the grounds that it legislated compelled speech.

While Peterson has generally stayed uninvolved in Canadian politics outside of his youthful dalliance with Albertas New Democratic Party, Peterson did interview the Peoples Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier during the last federal campaign.

Speaking with Poilievre, Peterson commended his courage for agreeing to be interviewed:

Ive asked other politicians, including some on the conservative side, and Ive had some agree to speak with me, but generally they seem intimidated by the span of time that stretches out in front of them. Or perhaps, [theyre] not cognizant fully of the power of YouTube dialogue.

Peterson has grown increasingly critical of Trudeaus vaccine mandates and his recent handling of the Freedom Convoy protests, calling him a liar and a narcissist in an interview at the Hoover Institution on May 9. On February 19, Peterson released an original song, Wake Up, that was Dedicated, under the current unfortunate conditions, to the Prime Minister of Canada, the Right Honorable Justin Trudeau.

At the height of the protests on January 31, Peterson took to Instagram to directly appeal to several conservative politicians, naming Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, Ontario Premier Ontario Doug Ford, and then-opposition leader Erin OToole, and urging them to support the movement and remove the vaccine mandates.

What in the world are you waiting for? Its your moment. Youve got a huge number of Canadians occupying Ottawa, expressing their dismay with the suspension of our charter rights in the face of this so-called emergency, Peterson said. Our prime minister has literally abandoned the city, run away, as far as I can tell.

He continued, Youre not going to get a better opportunity. This is your moment, conservatives in Canada.

See the article here:
Poilievre says vaccine mandates are based on 'political science' not medical science in conversation with Jordan Peterson - The Hub