Conservatives, conspiracies, and the coming election

Forget policy: Canada's Conservative party has decided conspiracies about crickets will win them the upcoming federal election. 

Last month, I found an informal petition that leveraged an announcement about layoffs at Canada's largest edible cricket farm to attack Canada's keystone climate policy – the carbon tax – with a slew of debunked conspiracy theories. Plastered atop the picture of eerily large crickets, the text suggested that a federal loan granted to the facility in 2022 was part of  so-called " woke agenda" Trudeau is supposedly trying to impose on Canadians through climate measures. 

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As a reporter covering disinformation and food systems, the conspiracy itself was old news. Right-wing influencers and self-described "media" outlets have been pushing the cricket conspiracy and the idea of climate authoritarianism for years. 

Days earlier, Dalhousie professor Sylvain Charlebois – Canada's self-branded "Food Professor" and conservative darling — made a dramatic post on X about the layoffs. He didn't even need to mention the conspiracy directly: his 45,700 followers helped pick up the slack. 

Still, I was disheartened to see the federal Conservatives endorse the conspiracies outright. Just like their Trump and his acolytes – the party favored by pollsters to win Canada's next election prefer weird lies over inconvenient details like reality. (Un)surprisingly, I heard nothing but crickets from the party's spokesperson when I asked him to back up the petition's conspiratorial claims. 

Their choice is telling. Millions of Canadians are hurting from what polling expert Greg Lyle described to me in September as a "per-capita recession," as people take home less pay relative to living costs compared to a few years ago. 

Progressive policies on inequality and climate are our best tools to tackle this social ill. Instead, conservative politicians (and podcasters and influencers), aided by rich allies like tech barons and fossil fuel execs, have spent the past decade transmuting people's fear and anger into conspiratorial beliefs – and votes. 

With an election around the corner threatening to put the Conservatives in power, it is more important than ever for reporters to be able to hold the right to account. If elected, conservative politicians here, like their U.S. friends, have hinted they will pursue policies to fuel climate chaos, deepen inequality and stoke hatred and conspiracies. Will they help struggling Canadians? That remains to be seen. 

But what is certain is that my reporting and the stories of my colleagues will shine a light on the problems that could come from a Conservative government. We will continue calling out their efforts to manipulate people's pain, crickets and all. We will take the time to talk to Canadians to fully understand how they are surviving the dual crises of high costs and climate change – and why some might believe conspiracies or support the right. 

We need your help to make this work possible.

This winter, we are working to raise $150,000 to fund critical reporting on the stories that matter most to Canadians. Every dollar you contribute helps us uncover the truth, debunk misinformation, and give Canadians the information they need to understand what’s at stake.

Your support is essential for this work to continue and my colleagues and I appreciate your help.