Koch Industries, Elon Musk’s X Corp., Loblaws, Enbridge, Pathways Alliance, the Canadian Gas Association, Rumble Canada, Rebel News, Canada Proud, and Facebook.

These are just a handful of the corporate interests and right-wing communications platforms linked to the inner circle of Pierre Poilievre and his federal Conservatives as Canada heads into a snap federal election scheduled for April 28.

Today DeSmog is publishing an interactive map illustrating, for the first time, the web of connections between federal lobbyists, political operatives, social media strategists, industrial polluters, tech giants, and the man who could become Canada’s next leader.

Poilievre has for years portrayed himself as a champion of the country’s blue-collar workers  who comes from “humble origins,” claiming during a speech last year that “when I’m prime minister, my obsession — my daily obsession — will be about what is best for the working-class people of this country.” 

Yet Poilievre and his party are linked to oil and gas companies that have made record profits from gas price inflation, grocery chains accused of price-gouging, and companies owned by the world’s richest man, Musk, a key figure in the Trump administration.

To use the DeSmog map, hover your cursor over one of the circles. It will show in thick red lines the connections to other players in the Conservative universe. Click on a name in the map to get more information about the person, company, or organization.

Stacked with Lobbyists

Using the map, it’s clear that the Conservative Party’s National Council, the party’s highest authority on governance matters, is a hotbed for corporate lobbyists. That isn’t a coincidence, as Conservative party members several years ago voted down a resolution barring lobbyists from the council, as The Breach reported.

As a result, the organization has members such as Aaron Scheewe, managing director at the lobby group Capitol Hill Group, whose clients include X Corp. — the social media platform formerly known as Twitter — as well as MBDA Missile Systems and the Canadian International Pharmacy Association.

Another council member, Anthony Matar, is a current lobbyist at Crestview Strategies, which represents cigarette companies, the oil and gas sector, and the Canadian arm of the far-right social media platform Rumble.

The council’s president, Stephen Barber, is a vice president at the lobbying firm StrategyCorp, whose clients include Pathways Alliance, an industry group comprised of Canada’s six largest oil sands companies.

Poilievre himself has close ties to lobbyists.

His former director of policy, David Murray, is now a senior vice president with the advocacy, marketing, and research group One Persuasion, which the National Observer reported was behind an anonymous ad campaign on Facebook claiming that “government regulation is making you poorer by stifling investment in Canada’s oil and gas sector.”

Murray states on the One Persuasion website that his previous connections to the Conservative leader are an asset to his clients.

“Mr. Poilievre has been clear that the old ways of doing [government relations] will not work with Canada’s next government. There are many who speculate on how to approach this. David already knows,” the website says.

“That’s why when it comes to crafting your story, building a coalition, or presenting the right plan in the right way, David will take you from just being heard to making a real impact,” it adds.

Stephen Harper Connection

For the first decade or so that Poilievre was a member of parliament, he served under Conservative leader Stephen Harper.

That connection persists to this day through political operatives such as Hamish Marshall, a partner at One Persuasion, who says that “he was the liaison between the central agencies of government and the Prime Minister’s Office on all matters relating to public opinion research” during years when Harper was in power.

Marshall also co-founded the right-wing media outlet Rebel News in 2015.

Harper, who is widely seen as Poilievre’s political mentor, is himself the owner of the lobby group Harper Associates, which shares a staff member with Wellington Advocacy, another lobby group that counts Koch Industries, Suncor, and Pembina Pipeline among its clients.

Haley Love, a former Wellington consultant, has helped lead digital services for Poilievre. She also formerly worked with Mobilize Media, the conservative communications firm behind the Facebook account Canada Proud.

Mobilize was previously retained to work on Poilievre’s leadership campaign for the federal Conservatives. Canada Proud has been running multiple Facebook ads attacking Liberal leader Mark Carney by insinuating he has connections to Jeffrey Epstein.

In mid-March, Canada Proud posted a screenshot of Poilievre apparently “meeting with Canadian workers in a small Franco-Ontarian village,” next to a headline of Carney arriving in London to meet the King of England.

“The contrast couldn’t be clearer,” stated Canada Proud.

Cultivating an impression of working-class relatability is key to Poilievre’s political brand.

However, DeSmog’s map shows that the Conservative leader and his party are linked to a constellation of corporate lobbyists and industries far removed from the day-to-day interests of ordinary Canadians.