Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke is facing widespread criticism after appearing to endorse a proposal that would tie voting rights to how much income tax a person pays, giving wealthier citizens more votes while stripping the ballot from those who pay none.

The controversy began over the weekend when Lütke replied on X to a post from Eric Thor, a former TD Bank executive, who proposed a system of "weighted voting proportional to the amount of income tax you pay." Under Thor's proposal, people who pay no income tax would receive zero votes, while those paying $500,000 or more annually would receive up to five. Lütke responded with two words: "Good system."

The reply came in the middle of a broader thread in which Lütke had earlier argued that retirees living on pensions should also lose the right to vote, since their income is "locked in and guaranteed." He described pensioners as becoming "a dependent," comparing their status to that of minors, and said only "people with a stake in the future" should have a say in elections.

When another user asked whether that logic meant Lütke himself as Shopify's billionaire founder should receive outsized voting power, he said he would support a five-vote cap, or alternatively scaling the system back to one vote above a certain income threshold. He said the goal was to "reward productive people with leverage."

In the same thread, Lütke described politically engaged residents who attend municipal town halls in Toronto as largely "retired," "unemployed" or "useful idiots," a characterization that added to the backlash.

Reaction online was swift and largely critical. Many users called the proposal "disgusting" and incompatible with basic democratic principles, and several pointed out that tying political power to wealth resembles "census suffrage," a property- or tax-based voting model common in the 19th century before broader suffrage movements dismantled it. Some commentators noted the irony of the remarks coming from an immigrant who built his fortune in Canada. Others described the exchange as an unusually candid public airing of views they believe some wealthy business leaders hold privately.

Not all responses were critical. A smaller number of users defended Lütke's remarks as a legitimate, if bluntly stated, thought experiment about aligning political influence with economic contribution, arguing the idea merited genuine debate rather than outrage.

Political scientists who study electoral systems say the proposal touches on a long-running and unresolved debate over the relationship between economic contribution and political voice, one that predates modern democracy and was central to historical disputes over expanding the right to vote.

Shopify, headquartered in Ottawa, is one of Canada's most valuable publicly traded companies. Its own share structure carries echoes of the system Lütke described: Class B shares carry 10 votes each compared with one vote for Class A shares, and Lütke holds a variable-vote "Founder Share" that, combined with his other holdings, gives him effective control of the company.

Lütke has drawn political controversy before. Earlier this year, he criticized Ottawa's decision to impose retaliatory tariffs against the United States, arguing Canada should work more cooperatively with Washington.