The Takeover

Episode 2

April 10th 2025

Jordan Peterson Power Broker

Jordan Peterson is a co-founder of The Alliance for Responsible Citizenship – ARC. Episode two of The Takeover examines his career from a psychology professor at the University of Toronto to wildly successful author and guru for dissatisfied young men and now leader of a global movement to create a right-wing world. This movement is called ARC - the Alliance of Responsible Citizenship and its conference in London, U.K. in February 2025 attracted right-wing power brokers from around the world.

Many people first heard of Peterson when he got into a fight with the University of Toronto and Canada’s Human Rights Commission over a change to the Human Rights Act. It was amended to include sexual orientation as a prohibited grounds of discrimination extending LGBTQ+ individuals.

A couple of years later he published a book that vaulted him to fame, particularly among young men who “hadn’t grown up”, according to Peterson. The book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, is essentially a self-help book for living a life.

How did he get from there to London, hosting a conference of people who want to upend western democracies?

This podcast is the result of a collaboration between Canada's National Observer, De Smog, I-SEA and The Trace Foundation.

Canada's National Observer teamed up with DeSmog, an online investigative outlet that describes itself as an antidote to science denial and misinformation, on The Takeover project.

We went to the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference in London, U.K., a right-wing networking event organized by former University of Toronto professor Jordan Peterson. We observed how speakers spread anti-net-zero strategies across a growing conservative network that includes the U.S., the U.K. Europe, Australia and Canada.

ARC's goal is to reveal "the environmental climate scam" and end the "appalling policy" of net-zero worldwide. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told the conference in a video appearance that "net zero is a sinister goal".

The move against net-zero and climate commitments is being accelerated by the Trump administration with help from rich power brokers, many of whom work in the fossil fuel industry. And ARC was a place to develop political party platforms, deepen transatlantic alliances and shift to the right, the boundaries of acceptable public debate on net zero.

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