Canadian politics and the influence of Elon Musk

Photo: Joe Raedle Getty Images via AFP At the age of 17, Elon Musk moved from South Africa to Canada. He obtained citizenship through his mother, Maye Musk (maiden name Haldeman), who was born in Saskatchewan. He began studying economics and physics at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, before moving to the United States.

After playing a significant role in Donald Trump’s campaign, billionaire Elon Musk, who holds Canadian citizenship, occasionally meddles in Canadian politics. But how much influence does he have?

In addition to investing over $100 million to mobilize Trump supporters, Musk has leveraged his social media platform X, which he owns, including hosting a live interview with the former (and future) president and posting partisan posts throughout the presidential campaign.

“Trump/Vance MUST win. I can’t stand seeing and hearing Kamala/Walz for 4 years. That would be cruel and unusual punishment!” he wrote on October 2. His post has been viewed over 78 million times, liked 709,000 times, and shared by 91,000 accounts.

“Elon, on his own network, has a ‘super user’ status, meaning that everything that is published is seen more than what the average user would publish,” notes Nadia Seraiocco, a doctoral student, lecturer and author specializing in questions of cybercultures, datafication and social networks.

Elon Musk is not only interested in American politics. He is also watching with interest what is happening in Canada. Two days after Donald Trump’s re-election, the richest man in the world responded to a user’s comment asking him for “help to get rid of Trudeau” on X.

“He will be defeated in the next election,” Musk replied, in English. His response has been viewed over a million times.

Two days later, he shared a graph showing the evolution of GDP per capita in Canada, highlighting a decline since the election of Justin Trudeau, whose face was superimposed on the graph.

The next day, Musk published another graph on the decline in the fertility rate in Canada, demonstrating, according to him, that “Canada is dying.”

Nadia Seraiocco believes that “one has the right to ask if he intends to influence” the next elections in Canada. “This kind of interference in politics is quite peculiar. And now we’ve just seen the impact it can have,” she worries.

“If Musk hadn’t bought X and used such a powerful platform for the Trump campaign and right-wing people in the United States, we could well be in a scenario where Kamala Harris would have become president,” believes Aengus Bridgman, director of the Media Ecosystem Observatory at McGill University.

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A Canadian interest

Moreover, Elon Musk's interest in Canadian politics is not new, especially since he himself lived in the country during his youth.

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At the age of At the age of 17, Elon Musk moved to Canada from South Africa, where he was born and raised. He obtained citizenship through his mother, Maye Musk (maiden name Haldeman), who was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, in the late 1940s. He began studying economics and physics at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, for two years before moving to the United States.

Since becoming the richest man on the planet, the CEO of Tesla has continued to take an interest in Canadian politics, not shying away from sharing his criticism of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in recent years.

“This isn't the first time Elon Musk has referred to Trudeau as something that pisses him off,” says Nadia Seraiocco.

In 2022, Musk compared the prime minister to Adolf Hitler, posting a meme of the Nazi leader that read, “Stop comparing me to Justin Trudeau” written above his head and “I had a budget” below.

The latter was responding to a post about the Trudeau government’s order to banks to freeze the assets of some organizers of the Freedom Ride that paralyzed downtown Ottawa for nearly a month

In 2023, Musk also labeled CBC on X as a “state-funded media outlet,” less than a week after Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) leader Pierre Poilievre asked him to do so.

“It’s worrisome to see Pierre Poilievre asking him for favors, because, in fact, without Musk’s intervention in the United States, one might wonder whether the results would have been the same,” says Nadia Seraiocco.

“And there, is he going to go so far as to intervene in our own policies? ? One thing is certain, it opens the way to those who want to seek support that is a little unusual,” she continues.

The Conservative Party indicated to Devoir that the leader of the opposition, Pierre Poilievre, “is not and has not been in contact” with Elon Musk.

Elon Musk's interests in meddling in Canadian politics are also part of the broader context of a war against “wokeism,” of which Justin Trudeau embodies, for some, the symbol.

The advances in diversity and inclusion that the Prime Minister has been promoting for his rise to power are perceived by the American billionaire as “a danger to society,” explains Aengus Bridgman of the Media Ecosystem Observatory.

Canadian Disinformation

In the Canadian election, Elon Musk could not only leverage his influence on X, but also spread disinformation there, worries Laurence Grondin-Robillard, associate professor at the School of Media at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).

She gives the example of the “election integrity community,” a group created at the end of October by Musk on his platform. While the group was supposed to allow users to report potential incidents of electoral fraud, it has instead become a place to share conspiracy theories and false information, according to checks made by several American media outlets.

“This is something he could also do in view of the federal elections in Canada, or even in other countries. It’s worrying, because it can really influence our perception if we get information about X, in particular,” argues Laurence Grondin-Robillard.

In response to the election of Donald Trump and the proliferation of fake news, millions of users have chosen to leave the X network for the Bluesky platform — the largest exodus of users since Elon Musk bought the platform in 2022.

However, the political parties in Ottawa do not plan to follow suit for the moment. A government source told Le Devoir that there is “no plan” for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his communications team to leave X.

The Conservative Party simply stated that it “communicates on the platforms used by Canadians.”

For Laurence Grondin-Robillard, it remains important for politicians and the media to continue to ensure a presence on X, despite the increasing polarization. “If politicians, researchers and the media start to leave the platform, there is a danger of cutting ourselves off from people [more to the right] who have an opinion, a right to vote and with whom we must continue to communicate as much as possible.”

With Jean-Louis Bordeleau