Some Canadian tech figureheads joined a number of business leaders and bankers in formally endorsing Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre in the upcoming federal election.
The endorsements were signed in a letter authored by the “Friends of Free Enterprise in Canada,” which ran as a full-page ad in several Canadian newspapers this past weekend.
Maverix Private Equity founder John Ruffolo, serial tech entrepreneur Amar Varma, Impression Ventures founder Christian Lassonde, and Leaders Fund co-founder David Stein represented tech on the endorsement letter.
Signatories included Fairfax Financial CEO Prem Watsa, Toronto Blue Jays CEO Paul Godfrey, who is also a past president and CEO of the historically conservative Postmedia Network, mining magnate Pierre Lassonde (father of aforementioned Christian Lassonde), Sleep Country Canada CEO Stewart Schaefer, and Midland Group of Companies president Leslie Gales, the lone woman among 33 business leaders on the list.
At least one-third of the signatories are also connected to Fairfax Financial in some way.
The letter claims that economic growth and productivity in Canada has slowed in recent years, and that the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is shrinking, but that the decline is not inevitable (Canada’s per capita GDP rose by 0.2 per cent in the most recent quarter for which there is data, but fell by 1.4 percent overall in 2024, according to Statistics Canada).
It goes on to say that Canada needs to support free enterprise, reduce regulations that “hinder investment,” “restore” fiscal discipline, lower taxes, and develop Canada’s natural resources by building oil pipelines and expanding mining.
“We have spent our careers investing in this country because we believe in it,” the letter reads. “[Pierre Poilievre and the Conservative Party of Canada] have a clear plan to address these issues and get Canada back on track,” the letter reads.
The “Friends of Free Enterprise in Canada” do not appear to have a formal online presence, and the address and phone number included in the letter are the same as Fairfax’s Toronto head office. At least one-third of signatories are also connected to Fairfax Financial in some way, including the billionaire Fairfax founder Prem Watsa and his son Ben Watsa, who chairs Fairfax India, and company president and COO Peter Clarke.
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Additionally, signatories like Bill McFarland and Brian Porter are currently listed as directors on Fairfax’s website, though their positions are not disclosed in the letter. Others, like Golf Town’s Bill Gregson and Sleep Country’s Schaefer, lead Fairfax subsidiaries, while some have had their companies or funds previously backed by Fairfax.
Ruffolo has been a vocal supporter of Poilievre in the run-up to the election. The Logic reported in January that he gathered 86 business leaders, including a number from the tech sector, at an event in Toronto last year to hear out Poilievre’s vision for the party. Other tech leaders, including Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke, have been swapping policy ideas with the Conservative Party leader, according to The Globe and Mail.
Poilievre endeared himself to some in the tech ecosystem when he pledged to scrap the Liberals’ controversial capital gains tax rate changes under a Conservative government earlier this year, which Prime Minister Mark Carney ended up ditching last month. Poilievre responded by evolving the policy to defer capital gains taxes if the proceeds are reinvested in Canada, garnering a positive reaction from industry groups like the Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) and the Canadian Venture Capital Association (CVCA).
With a federal election weeks away, the industry groups have been making their own asks of the party leaders. CVCA published a white paper last week pushing federal policy recommendations aimed at incentivizing domestic investment, including more reductions to Canada’s capital gains taxes, and CCI published an open letter signed by 150 Canadian tech leaders calling on the parties to share how they plan to build “a more sovereign, more resilient, and more prosperous Canada.”
Feature image courtesy Pierre Poilievre via Facebook.