# Joshua Haldeman Elon Musk's maternal grandfather (born November 25, 1902, Pequot Lakes, Minnesota; died 1974, South Africa). He was a chiropractor in Regina, Saskatchewan, a leader of [[Technocracy Incorporated]] in Canada, national chairman of the Social Credit Party, and later an apartheid enthusiast who defended [[The Protocols of the Elders of Zion]]. He is the father of [[Maye Musk]] and the family link between [[Elon Musk]] and the 1930s [[Technocracy]] movement. ## Technocracy (1936–1941) - **Role.** CBC: "a leader of Technocracy Incorporated in Canada from 1936 to 1941." Sources describe the role differently. A 1995 history in the *Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association* calls him "research director for Technocracy, Inc. of Canada." Wikipedia's movement article quotes 1940 coverage calling him "former leader of the Regina branch." Jill Lepore's 2025 NYT essay calls him the movement's leader in Canada, "technocrat No. 10450-1." WBUR's *Here & Now* later appended an editor's note saying an earlier version of its story "misstated Joshua Haldeman's contributions to Technocracy." **Safest phrasing: a leader of Technocracy Inc. in Canada.** - **Arrest (October 1940).** Arrested under the wartime Defence of Canada Regulations for belonging to the banned group. The accounts conflict on details. Wikipedia: arrested October 8, 1940, in Vancouver by the RCMP. CBC: appeared in Regina city court on October 13, 1940, facing two charges. ## Social Credit and electoral politics After Technocracy he moved to the Social Credit movement and became national chairman of the Social Credit Party (JCCA, Wikipedia, Lamont). The JCCA dates the chairmanship to "during the second world war." Wikipedia has him chairing the national council until 1949. He ran unsuccessfully for Parliament. ## South Africa (1950–1974) - Moved his family and practice to Pretoria in 1950 (JCCA, Wikipedia). Wikipedia attributes the move to his support for apartheid. - Wrote in 1951 that "the natives are very primitive and must not be taken seriously." His 1960 book *The International Conspiracy to Establish a World Dictatorship* cast apartheid South Africa as a bulwark of "White Christian Civilization." - Defended publishing *The Protocols of the Elders of Zion*: "the plan as outlined in these protocols has been rapidly unfolding." Dougald Lamont also documents him blaming "international financiers, many, but not all of them, Jewish." See [[Antisemitism]]. - Became a celebrated amateur aviator and explorer. Died in 1974. ## The Musk question Did Haldeman's technocracy shape Elon Musk? **The documented claim is a parallel, not a confession.** Lepore's April 4, 2025 NYT essay "The Failed Ideas That Drive Elon Musk" argues that Muskism recycles Technocracy. She pairs Haldeman's proposed government efficiency watchdog with [[DOGE Ecosystem]] and his fear of "mass mind conditioning" with Musk's war on legacy media. Wikipedia: Haldeman's ideas "have allegedly influenced" Musk's views. No source found records Musk himself crediting the movement. See also [[Fortress Futurism]] and [[Muskism]] for the apartheid-inheritance reading. ## Unverified (single-source, not asserted above) - Dougald Lamont reports Haldeman was a local chairman of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in the mid-1930s, before Technocracy. If true, he traveled from Tommy Douglas's democratic socialism to Technocracy to Social Credit to apartheid in roughly fifteen years. - Wikipedia's account of his death (a 1974 crash on a practice landing) is the only source found for the cause. ## See Also - [[Elon Musk]] · [[Maye Musk]] · [[Errol Musk]] - [[Technocracy Incorporated]] · [[Howard Scott]] · [[Technocracy]] - [[Scientific Management]] · [[Frederick Winslow Taylor]] - [[Apartheid]] · [[South Africa]] · [[Canada]]