On Friday's episode of The Ezra Levant Show, Ezra discussed the audacity of a recent op-ed from The Globe and Mail telling its audience that it should hate Elon Musk.

Here is an actual headline published by Canada's self-declared newspaper of record, the paper we are all apparently supposed to treat as the gold standard of serious journalism: "Opinion: SpaceX IPO makes Elon Musk the first trillionaire. Here's how to properly hate him."

After a full day of being mocked mercilessly, the Globe quietly changed the headline and issued a brief note: "The previous headline on this article did not meet The Globe's editorial standard. It has been replaced." It took them an entire day to figure that out. They weren't sure. That tells you everything.

The new headline asks: "SpaceX is set to make Elon Musk the first trillionaire. Is that a bad look for capitalism?" The word "hate" was swapped for "despise" inside the article itself. The Globe apparently decided that "despise" is more respectable than "hate." It isn't.

The article is an embarrassment on the facts, too. It gives examples of billionaire excess — super-yachts, conspicuous consumption — but the examples aren't of Elon Musk, because he doesn't have those. He doesn't own a yacht. He dresses plainly. All he seems to do is work. So to make sure readers come away with the appropriate contempt, the Globe talked about other rich people's excesses and hoped no one would notice the bait-and-switch.

Then there is the claim that Musk "bought" political power and sits "at the centre of government." Really? Which part of government?

Musk helped launch DOGE — the Department of Government Efficiency — which found a significant amount of fraud before being wound down in less than a year. It was never a cabinet position. Total staffing never got much above 100 people, in a federal government of two million. When Musk complained publicly that his ideas weren't being followed, President Trump dismissed him immediately. That is not what it looks like when someone is "at the centre of government."

As for the accusation that Musk gorges on government contracts — he sells services to the government. He sends more cargo into space than every other space company or country combined, times ten, at a fraction of the cost because he pioneered reusable rockets. Without Musk, China would be the dominant space power on Earth, unchallenged. NASA knows it, and has resented him for it for years.

Now, consider who is delivering this lecture. The Globe and Mail is owned by the Thomson family, Canada's wealthiest dynasty, worth more than $80 billion. And how did the Thomsons earn their billions? They inherited them. From a grandfather who built something. Today's Thomsons, whose sole accomplishment was being born after their grandfather rather than before him, are the ones telling you to despise a man who just completed the largest IPO in history — money raised not from manipulated politicians, but from ordinary investors who believed in what he built.

That IPO, by the way, made the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan roughly $11 billion in a single day. 

And the Thomson family's newspaper — despite being backed by one of the richest fortunes in the country — still collects annual media bailout subsidies from the federal government because it cannot run a newspaper profitably. Their grandfather made money in newspapers, and now his descendants need Liberal handouts to keep the lights on. These are the people explaining how capitalism is a bad look.

The Financial Times joined in as well, calling Musk a "real-life Bond villain" and accusing him of "stoking racial hatred in Britain." The FT has long billed itself as the newspaper of UK business. Going woke and despising the man who just did the biggest IPO in history is a curious way to serve their readership.

This is nothing more than envy. And, given the climate in which a healthcare executive was assassinated on the streets of New York City as part of an explicit murder campaign against millionaires, whipping up personal hatred of wealthy individuals is not merely stupid. It is dangerous.