Poilievre Reframes Media Hatred as Populist Rhetoric

On Sunday, September 26, CTV News aired a broadcast on the federal Conservatives. In this broadcast, there was an edit made of Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre's statement on why his party tabled a non-confidence motion against the Liberal government. The reporter stated that, in the next election, there are concerns about the future of dental care. After this, Poilievre is quoted as saying "That's why it's time to put forward a motion."

Poilievre's full statement, however, was "That's why it's time to put forward a motion for a carbon tax election."

There are legitimate concerns over whether Poilievre and the Conservatives would keep pharmacare and dental care were they to form government. But that's not the stated purpose of Poilievre and the Conservative's motion. Framing it as such is, indeed, misleading. Correcting and apologizing is the proper way to address this mistake.

Let's be clear, a mistake is what it appears to be. According to Stephen Maher, writing in the Toronto Star, two sources independently told him the equipment that transfers clips from the camera had a technical error, forcing the editor to "patch together scraps of the audio." Since it appears that the mischaracterization of Poilievre's statements was due to an honest mistake, any other politician would have let the matter end there.

But Poilievre, who despises news media, could never have left it alone. Any opportunity to smear the press is too good to pass up, and thus he began playing put-upon victim. He twisted himself into the helpless target of greedy CEOs and liberal media. A baby, if you will.

"I know that the media has worked hard to try and avoid me saying the words carbon tax, as we saw in the extremely dishonest and fraudulent report from Bell Media-controlled CTV," Poilievre exaggerated in the House of Commons on Sept. 24.

"The reason why he and his other cronies at that company are going after me is because he knows that I am standing up for the people against the crony capitalists and insiders like him."

CTV has since released a statement announcing that, after it investigated the situation, it found "two members of the CTV News team are responsible for altering a video clip, manipulating it for a particular story." Those two staffers were then let go.

Referring to this mistake with words like "fraudulent," and "manipulating" are extremely tenuous at best. But since CTV is more than happy to bend to the will of a prominent politician, they prioritized fealty over defending their staffers. Judging by their history, they're pretty happy to let people go at the drop of a hat.

Poilievre enjoys the benefit of the doubt, no matter how toxic his rhetoric and his public persona. As opposition leader, he's granted a level of respect few subjects of news reports ever hope to attain. His rhetoric, no matter how incorrect and misleading, must be treated with the seriousness of a reputable politician. Since CTV hopes to have access to him in the future, they chose the path of least resistance. Poilievre, for his part, has vowed to blacklist CTV anyway.

Masterful gambit.

What goes unmentioned in Poilievre's tantrum, however, is how dishonestly he's framing himself as a champion of the people. As I've written before, Poilievre and the Conservatives have no issues with executive compensation. In fact, their anti-Carbon Tax foaming at the mouth is merely a play to lower the burden on Canadians with higher income, as most people in Canada get more from it than they put in. Poilievre also regularly meets with lobbyists for the energy sector, who roll in bonuses.

Indeed, before this opportunistic self-victimization, Poilievre supported millions of dollars in relief for Bell Media. Conservative and NDP MPs both supported an amendment to the Online Streaming Act in 2022 that saved private broadcasters approximately $120 million a year. One Conservative spokesman told The Canadian Press, "This money was supposed to support Canadian jobs and Canadian media and yet the Liberals have squandered hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars only to see the opposite results."

So not only did the Conservatives support millions of more dollars going to Bell Media, they also were upset the Liberals sent millions of dollars to these companies. All while playing the victim. Are we supposed to take this seriously?

CTV's mistake absolutely deserved scrutiny and a correction. However, since none of us live in a sensible political landscape, everything Poilievre can mine for political capital has to be a scandal. His message isn't just that CTV should pledge fealty, but that every other news outlet should watch themselves. Poilievre and the Conservatives have made their playbook easy to predict. Channel public discontent into targeted attacks on any outlet and any journalist if they can plausibly claim self-defense. It began with CBC, painting it as a government funded propaganda outfit. Now, CTV has made the mistake of tripping into his crosshairs.

Poilievre clearly feels the need to claim every slight as a character assassination. Since the news media has been his favourite punching bag, CTV caving is only showing that his tactics work. At this rate, he won't stop until we're left with True North, the National Post and J.J. McCullough. Since Conservatives are poised to take the next election, the CTV/Poilievre beef is proof that, in this industry, things can always get worse.