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Poilievre Isn’t Ready for What AI Will Do to the Economy

He gets the disruption that’s coming. He just doesn’t have much to say about it

Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre’s recent interview with Steven Bartlett on The Diary of a CEO podcast covered a lot of ground. His childhood. Adoption. His daughter Valentina. The housing crisis. Immigration. Iran. Canada–US relations. It was a long, candid conversation that gave Canadians a more personal look at the man who came within striking distance of becoming prime minister last year. I think it might be the best interview Poilievre has done in terms of the depth and range of questions.

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But the exchange on artificial intelligence stood out—and not for the reasons you might expect.

Poilievre engaged thoughtfully at first. He acknowledged that this technological disruption might be different from previous ones. “Nobody knows,” he said. But then, somewhat surprisingly, he added: “The second thing I’d say is yes”—yes, this time is different—because of the speed of adoption enabled by the internet and global distribution.

“Nobody knows” is a reasonable hedge for a politician navigating unfamiliar terrain. But it’s less defensible as a statement of fact. We actually know quite a bit. And what we know should be making every federal leader uncomfortable.

Jamie Dimon, the chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase, put it plainly at Davos earlier this year. AI is transformative and inevitable. It will raise productivity and reshape industries. But it will also eliminate jobs, neither gradually nor neatly. He offered a thought experiment that has stayed with me: imagine 2 million commercial truck drivers earning $120,000 a year. You could push a button and replace them with autonomous systems. Fewer accidents, lower fuel use, more efficient highways. Good for the economy by most measures. But what happens to the people? If those workers are pushed into $25,000 jobs stocking shelves, should society simply accept that? Dimon’s answer was clear. Not without a plan. “Should you do it all at once? No. You’ll have civil........

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