Pierre Poilievre publicly took aim at industry lobby groups, including the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), in a social media post published last Saturday.
“One reason Trudeau & the NDP/Liberals have been able to attack our resource sector and kill thousands of jobs and billions in wages with impunity is that energy companies rely on groups like CAPP, the Business Council and the national Chamber of Commerce who are worse than useless,” wrote the Conservative Party leader.
“All businesses should cancel their memberships and stop paying dues to these money-sucking lobby groups and start actually fighting for workers and communities.”
Despite publicly distancing himself from CAPP and other business industry groups, Poilievre has met with its board members at multiple fundraising events in the past two years, an IJF investigation has found.
“There's a lot of hypocrisy there,” said Duane Bratt, professor of political science at Mount Royal University, in response to Poilievre’s social media post.
Bratt pointed out that lobbying firms are filled with former political staffers and past politicians, including Conservatives like former prime minister Stephen Harper and Poilievre’s advisor Jenni Byrne. “It's always good politics to go after lobbyists.”
“He's playing a populist game,” added Bratt. “I don't think his behaviour is going to be any different in office than what we saw with Trudeau, Harper, Mulroney and the rest of them.”
At one fundraising event held in Calgary this past July, dozens of oil and gas executives gathered with Poilievre in a log cabin atop a hill offering picturesque views of the Elbow River.
Several CAPP board members, including Kent Ferguson, Bill Clapperton and Brendan McCracken, attended the event.
They weren’t the only representatives from energy industry associations. Executives from the Canadian Gas Association and Pathways Alliance were also in attendance. Other guests included senior employees of companies like Enbridge Inc., Cenovus Energy, Imperial Oil and New Stratus Energy.
Another guest was Cynthia Moore, the president and CEO of InFormed, a lobbying firm that helps businesses with “navigating the intricate world of government interactions, fostering relationships, and shaping policy outcomes.”
“Kicked off Stampede right having a chat with Canada’s next Prime Minister, Pierre Polievre [sic] and his wife Ana. Thank you to Greg Ebel, President and CEO of Enbridge for hosting and speaking so forthrightly about the need for a change of Government in Canada,” Moore wrote on Instagram after the event alongside a smiling photo with Poilievre and his wife Anaida.
Poilievre’s recent social media post aligns with several other public statements he has made in recent months condemning corporate lobbying organizations.
In an op-ed for the National Post in May, Poilievre said that as leader he refuses to meet with the Canadian Business Council, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
Poilievre urged business industry groups to focus their efforts on communicating with the Canadian people, rather than testifying “at a Parliamentary committee,” hosting “a ‘Hill Day’ to meet MPs and Senators,” or holding “a luncheon 15 minutes from downtown Toronto/Ottawa.”
Poilievre’s office did not respond to the IJF’s questions about whether his ban on meeting with industry association members equally applied to the CAPP and, if so, whether this ban would extend to its executives attending his fundraisers.
As the IJF reported in May, Poilievre met with lobbyists for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and Canadian Business Council during his time as an MP despite the organizations being among the industry groups he has recently criticized.
“It’s a question of image and wanting to maintain this image of a politician that will stand up to any and all interest groups. And so, to stand up to ones that you might think are closest to you sends a powerful message, especially probably to some of the NDP-Conservative vote switchers out there who’d be skeptical of organized corporations,” said Peter Graefe, an associate professor of political science at McMaster University.
Graefe said this type of “anti-elitist discourse” is nothing new in Canadian politics and has been seen in the past with neoliberal politicians such as former Ontario premier Mike Harris, former Alberta premier Ralph Klein and MPs with the Reform Party, a predecessor to the modern Conservative Party.
Graefe also compared Poilievre’s recent public stances around cracking down on the influence of lobby groups with Donald Trump’s “drain the swamp” slogan from 2016.
Stéphanie Yates, a communications professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal, said this type of rhetoric is seen across the political spectrum. “Distancing oneself from lobbies is a common tactic in politics. Justin Trudeau did so in 2015 when he announced that the new version of Canada’s Food Guide would be developed by experts shielded from industry influence. Barack Obama had done the same in 2008 when he promised a wave of change in how things were done in Washington.”
Despite this rhetoric from both sides of the aisle, Trudeau and Poilievre are both connected to several current or former lobbyists in their inner circles, as revealed in an IJF investigation from June.
Beyond the July fundraising event, several CAPP board members attended fundraisers hosted by Poilievre in 2023 and have donated hefty sums to the party over the past two years.
CAPP board member and senior vice president at Suncor Kent Ferguson attended a Poilievre fundraiser held at a private residence and made a $1,600 donation to the Conservative Party in April 2023.
CAPP board member Brian Schmidt is CEO and president of Tamarack Valley Energy and attended a fundraising event featuring Poilievre in July 2023. Donation records suggest a Brian L. Schmidt with the same postal code has made several substantial contributions to the Conservative Party over the past few years, having donated $1,725 in 2024 and $1,700 in 2023.
Nonetheless, Bratt said he suspects CAPP members’ support for the Conservative Party and its leader will continue even as Poilievre criticizes the association. “Their support will be there. This is, as I said, political games. It’s easy for elected officials to criticize lobbyists and industry groups and still work with them,” said Bratt.
None of the CAPP board members mentioned nor CAPP itself responded to requests for comment from the IJF.
Graefe said he suspects that should Poilievre become Canada’s next prime minister, the support will once again be mutual. “Governments are not going to suddenly shut the door to these organizations,” he said.
“Certainly when you're in opposition, it's always effective politics to play on a public sense of estrangement from the democratic institutions by criticizing the presence of powerful insiders.”