The Medium is the Message (Stupid).

If the Trump-style media tactics weren't your biggest red flag in Election 45, you've been watching the wrong campaign.

Every Canadian schoolkid hears Marshall McLuhan’s famous phrase sooner or later, it’s practically etched into our cultural memory (complete with its own Heritage Minute on TV). In the 2025 federal election, that old slogan proved more than a dusty theory. It became a warning. If you haven’t noticed Pierre Poilievre’s Trump-style media strategy by now, congratulations, you’re probably firmly inside it.

“The medium is the message.” - Marshall McLuhan

By this final Sunday before voting day, Poilievre has so thoroughly shaped the campaign’s media environment that many Canadians are swimming in his narrative like fish oblivious to water. He’s effectively the chief editor of his own campaign coverage, beaming out a carefully crafted image of himself while casting traditional news outlets as villains. And if voters still don’t recognize the game he’s playing, it might be because the medium has become his message – and millions are hearing only him.

Canadian Media as a Defence Against American Influence

Canadian media wasn’t born yesterday. In fact, one of the reasons we even have a national press (especially the CBC) was to guard Canada’s cultural space against the overwhelming influence of the United States. From its inception in 1936, the CBC was intended as a shield – a publicly-funded source of Canadian stories and facts so that we wouldn’t be inundated by American news and rhetoric.[1] The logic was simple: without our own “tool kit” of media institutions, “Canada will be overwhelmed by American news and culture.”[2] Or in the famous aphorism of Graham Spry (one of the CBC’s founders): “It’s the state or the United States.”[3]

The CBC Was Created by Conservatives to Stand Up to America. We Need It Now More Than Ever.

For decades, that strategy largely held. Generations of Canadians could turn on the CBC each night and hear our own accent, our own perspective – a subtle reinforcement that we are not merely the 51st state. Our public broadcaster and press at large became part of the national glue, promoting what policy wonks like to call “cultural sovereignty.” It wasn’t perfect (far from it), but it was a conscious defence against getting drowned out by the louder voice next door.

Fast-forward to 2025: that long-standing defence is under direct attack from within. Pierre Poilievre has made dismantling the CBC one of his marquee promises. He isn’t talking about reforming the Mother Corp or fixing its flaws – he’s talking about gutting it altogether. Poilievre has openly promised to defund the CBC, effectively pulling the plug on a key instrument of Canada’s cultural sovereignty.[4] He’s not shy about it either; at rallies, he leads chants of “Defund the CBC,” treating Canada’s 89-year-old national broadcaster as a partisan punching bag.[5]

Playing the Trump Playbook in Ottawa

Poilievre’s approach to the media could have been cribbed straight from Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign notes. Like Trump, Poilievre loves to demonize the mainstream press. He routinely labels any critical coverage as biased “fake news,” and he encourages his followers to disregard it entirely.[6] When Twitter (now X) briefly tagged CBC as “government-funded media” in 2023, Poilievre cheered.[7] The point of such attacks is clear: if Canadians haven’t lost faith in the independent press yet, Poilievre is working hard to make sure they do.

https://x.com/PierrePoilievre/status/1893355580015927799

He hasn’t hesitated to attack individual reporters either – another hallmark of the Trumpian style. Rewind to his very first news conference as Conservative leader in 2022: when journalists dared to ask him questions he didn’t like, Poilievre lashed out.[8] Throughout this campaign, Poilievre’s team has severely limited media access, often allowing only a handful of pre-screened questions at his events.[9]

Views, Rage, Repeat: How the Conservative Party Became a Media Powerhouse

Meanwhile, Poilievre has been cultivating his own media empire to bypass traditional journalism. He is arguably the most prolific Canadian politician ever on YouTube and social media, pumping out slick videos, partisan podcasts, and Facebook posts to millions of followers.[10] He’ll do livestreamed town halls with hand-picked questions or release tightly edited videos. The strategy is to speak directly to Canadians through friendly platforms – unfiltered by pesky reporters or fact-checkers.[11]

The ‘Un-Canadian’ Choice for Prime Minister

All of this amounts to a campaign that, in tone and tactics, feels profoundly un-Canadian. Pierre Poilievre has deliberately imported a far more aggressive, polarized media strategy into our politics. He has Trumpified the Conservative playbook: delegitimize the press, peddle a narrative of a nation in ruins, and position himself as the sole truth-teller fighting a corrupt elite. It’s a strategy that might be right at home in the American Republican Party, but in Canada it sticks out like a maple leaf on Mar-a-Lago’s lawn.

Poilievre has leaned heavily on American rhetoric and allies, ironically borrowing the style and tactics of an American demagogue, all while tearing down a uniquely Canadian institution meant to protect us from that very thing.

SIDEBAR: “The Medium Is the Message” — Still Sending Signals

In 1977, Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan delivered a lecture elucidating his famous phrase, “The medium is the message.” He argued that the form of a medium embeds itself in the message it transmits, influencing how the message is perceived and understood. This concept suggests that the medium itself, not just the content it carries, should be the focus of study.

Fast forward to today, and McLuhan's insights remain strikingly relevant. The rise of social media platforms has transformed political communication, where the medium—be it a tweet, a live stream, or a viral video—often overshadows the actual content. Politicians craft messages tailored to these platforms, understanding that the medium's characteristics can amplify or distort the intended message.​

McLuhan's perspective encourages us to critically assess not just what is being said, but how it's being delivered. In an era where the medium can shape public perception as much as the message itself, his theory serves as a vital tool for media literacy and critical thinking.

On the eve of this crucial election, the choice before us isn’t just Liberal red vs. Conservative blue. It’s Canadian traditions vs. American-style tribalism. Poilievre has made himself the candidate of anger, suspicion, and spectacle – effectively inviting Canada to join the post-truth carnival that has consumed our southern neighbours. That makes him the un-Canadian choice for Prime Minister, by his own actions and attitude.

As we reflect on McLuhan’s old adage, remember: the medium is the message. Pierre Poilievre’s medium – his whole media strategy of distortion and division – is his message. And if that message doesn’t sit right with our idea of Canada, we already have our answer when we head to the polls.

Sources

[1] Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. (n.d.). Time capsule: 14 moments that marked our 85-year history. Retrieved from https://cbc.radio-canada.ca/en/your-public-broadcaster/blog/85-years-of-cbc-radio-canada-history

[2] Canadian Communications Foundation. (n.d.). The History of Canadian Broadcast Regulation. Retrieved from https://broadcasting-history.ca/the-history-of-canadian-broadcasting/industry-government/history-of-canadian-broadcast-regulation/the-history-of-canadian-broadcast-regulation/

[3] Library and Archives Canada. (n.d.). Spry, Graham - Address - Collection search. Retrieved from https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record?app=filvidandsou&idnumber=74291&wbdisable=false

[4] Conservative Party of Canada. (2025, April 22). Canada First. For a Change. Retrieved from https://www.conservative.ca/change

[5] CBC News. (2025). Observations from Poilievre Campaign Rallies. Retrieved from https://cbc.ca/news/canada/poilievre-rally-coverage-2025

[6] Poilievre, P. [@PierrePoilievre]. (2025). Official Campaign Social Media. Retrieved from https://x.com/PierrePoilievre/status/1893355580015927799

[7] NPR. (2023, April 18). CBC 'pausing' Twitter after 'government-funded media' label. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2023/04/18/1170574311/canadas-public-broadcaster-pauses-twitter-after-government-funded-media-label

[8] National Observer. (2022, September 15). Who calls a press conference then tells reporters no questions? Poilievre. Retrieved from https://www.nationalobserver.com/2022/09/15/opinion/who-calls-press-conference-then-tells-reporters-no-questions-poilievre

[9] Global News. (2025, March 20). Poilievre won't allow media to travel with him on election campaign. Retrieved from https://globalnews.ca/news/11088197/poilievre-conservatives-election-campaign-media/

[10] Northern Variables. (2025). Views, Rage, Repeat. Retrieved from https://axorc.substack.com/p/views-rage-repeat-how-the-conservative

[11] Policy Options. (2025, April 17). The high stakes of defunding the CBC. Retrieved from https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/april-2025/cbc-fate-federal-election/