Canada has a particularly robust immune system, but rather than rejecting what is harmful, the country’s Laurentian standard-bearers swoop in to attack anything that could be positive, particularly if it is not aligned with a mushy left-wing worldview or with the interests of the Liberal party. So it is with the hysterics over Shopify CEO’s Tobi Lütke’s expression of opinions in places where other people can read them.
On July 25, Lütke floated the idea of banning seniors from voting, posting on X: “New deal: when you get your pension deal it’s locked in and guaranteed. But now you are a dependent and that means no voting, just like dependents under age. Enjoy the deal, let people with a stake in the future decide.”
It was in response to the influence of people of a certain vintage that show up to community consultation meetings and block development. In particular, the comment was directed at a story about opposition to a housing project in San Francisco, but the phenomenon is also understood across Canadian cities. Not to mention the fact that Prime Minister Mark Carney draws disproportionate support from those over 65, no matter how bleak things look, because he personifies their hold on power.
When a retired banking executive suggested to Lütke an alternative approach that would involve weighting votes by how much income tax a voter pays, Lütke replied “Good system.” Under this plan, votes would be divided like so: “no income tax paid – 0 vote, $1-100k – 1 vote, $100-200k 2 votes and so on… cap it at 5 votes for $500k+”
Whether or not the Shopify co-founder considered these serious proposals or just a bit of snark to make a point about how people who no longer pay income taxes are driving public policy didn’t seem to matter. The blowback was swift and angry. Liberal advisors and left-wing commentators on X pounced, calling Lütke a “wanker” or implying he was a literal Nazi, given his German heritage.
Mostly, the social media reaction ignored the real issues being raised about voting demographics and devolved into your standard pearl-clutching about “billionaires,” which then bled into the opinion pages of the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail.
The Star’s David Olive , surprisingly, nearly made Lütke’s case for taking the vote away from seniors. He cited research that considered what happens in democracies with an aging population: “governments tend to prioritize pension protection — whose costs rise over time — at the expense of more growth-enhancing policies.” However, Olive ended his column not with what might have been an interesting position, but a lament that Lütke doesn’t spend his money in a more socially conscious way.
A political scientist, also writing in the Star, likened Lütke’s comments to “ authoritarianism,” and one of the Globe and Mail’s marquee columnists called Lütke a “first-class fool” for a whole range of opinions that a marquee Globe columnists wouldn’t have.
So maybe Lütke’s voting ideas are not going to find their way into any contemporary policy platform, but they are hardly uniquely loopy. Certainly, no more loopy then the former Google executive who spoke at the Liberal party convention this spring, advocating a $500,000 exit tax for Canadians who want to emigrate out of the country.
In any case, the over the top reaction to Lütke’s posts on weighted voting wasn’t really about this specific opinion, but the breadth of opinions he has expressed in recent years and the amount of attention he commands because he is Canada’s most successful tech entrepreneur.
He has said , under Justin Trudeau, that “Canada veered into socialism.” When Trump first imposed tariffs under the admittedly dubious justification of Canada’s fentanyl problem, Lütke posted“These are not crazy demands.” Build Canada , the advocacy group associated with Lütke, has recommended cutting government spending, reducing taxes and phasing out Old Age Security for higher earning seniors.
Additionally, Lutke’s critics complain that Shopify does not vet those who use its software for whether or not they hold acceptable political opinions.
Canadian business leaders are supposed to be quiet and compliant and accept their role as little more than leaders of public utilities who, in exchange for acquiescence, are gifted with favourable tax credits, regulation to keep out competitors, as well as oligopoly and trade protection. Pretty much any major company operating in this country, a Bombardier, or an Air Canada, any of the main automakers, or dairy farmers, are inextricable from the state, and in Canada that means the Liberal party. Don’t even get me started on the arts industry.
When it comes to industries Ottawa doesn’t much care for, such as the energy sector, agreeing not to raise a racket is the price of being permitted to exist at all. But it is an existence that is heavily contained and directed not towards private profits, but the goals of the government, be them environmental, social, or financial.
As for the Ottawa-based Shopify, its staggering global success as a default digital commerce platform, renders it largely immune to being managed. Revenue for the company’s most recent quarter was US$3.4 billion, a 34 per cent increase from the same quarter last year, while US$116 billion in sales were conducted using Shopify’s platforms across 6.8 million stores.
Tobi Lütke is doing his best to goad this country back to prosperity. He is not the foreign invader his critics would paint him as, but someone whose success all business leaders in Canada should aspire to.
National Post
