Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre attacked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over his fiscal management of the country in a highly anticipated speech he delivered at the CPC party conference in Quebec on Friday evening.
Before about 2,000 delegates, Mr. Poilievre addressed the issue of inflation and its impact on Canadians, as he has done many times of late. In English, he shot an arrow at the ruthless Trudeau-NDP coalition that is penalizing your job, taking your money, taxing your food, doubling your housing costs, and unleashing crime and chaos in your neighborhood.
In French, he did not target the same opponents. He attacked what he described as a connection between the Liberal leader and the Bloc Québécois. [Ils] Punish your work, take your money, tax your food and double the price of your accommodation, he repeated.
For the Conservative leader, many of the Trudeau government’s actions are made possible by the bloc’s presence.
If Quebecers want to get rid of Justin Trudeau for good, only the Conservative Party can truly replace him.
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Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.
Photo: The Canadian Press / Jacques Boissinot
Mr. Poilievre argued that voters can elect a common-sense Conservative government that will defend these hard-working Canadians so they earn more and pay less for food, gas and housing.
I will abolish the Blanchet-Trudeau tax to drive down prices and I will end the war on the automobile. This is common sense, emphasized Pierre Poilievre.
The Conservative leader has promised to scrap the inflation tax. Yes, inflation is a tax, he insisted, referring to an immoral tax.
When governments print money to finance deficits, they raise prices. It is the worst tax because it is sneaky.
Politicians, Mr. Poilievre emphasized, do not have to decide on this tax.
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Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.
Photo: Radio-Canada / David Richard
While Mr. Poilievre praised conservative Canada under Stephen Harper, prime minister from 2006 to 2015, he accused Prime Minister Trudeau of squandering his predecessor’s legacy.
Inflation and interest rates were at their lowest levels. “Taxes fell faster than ever before in our history,” the Conservative leader added, stressing that the budget would then be balanced.
He claimed crime was down 25 percent, so much so that residents of small towns often left their doors unlocked.
Pierre Poilievre also fired another volley at the Bloc Québécois, which he criticized for voting in favor of bail reform, thereby allowing the rapid release of violent repeat offenders – while at the same time supporting the ban on firearms.
I have a message for Yves François Blanchet: It is not the Saguenay hunter who is causing crime in downtown Montreal, but the repeat offenders you want to free.
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Pierre Poilievre with his wife Anaida Poilievre.
Photo: Radio-Canada / David Richard
Poilievre paints a bleak picture of Trudeau’s management
Yes, when Justin Trudeau took power, Canada was rich, affordable and safe. […] Eight years later, he continues, inflation has begun to rise again and the economy is contracting, GDP per person is actually lower today than it was six years ago, and Canada’s growth is weaker than before.
Mr. Poilievre returned to housing costs, which have more than doubled while Trudeau promised to reduce them. Savings now take 25 years [en vue d’]a deposit in Toronto. Before Trudeau, this was how long it took to pay off a mortgage in full.
And to continue: our borders were secure. Housing only cost half as much as it does today.
The Conservative leader promised to end the $35 billion infrastructure bank, which has failed to find a single solution despite bonuses paid to its leaders.
On the subject of fiscal discipline, Mr. Poilievre said: “We will no longer finance cost overruns by the private sector and other levels of government.” This is common sense.
Mr. Poilievre recalled that former Quebec premier Lucien Bouchard balanced the budget to maintain social programs.
“A long speech, a little Republican,” says Rodriguez
Outside the convention center, Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal minister and longtime deputy in the Trudeau government in Quebec, called the Conservative leader’s speech typically right-wing and stressed that the speech confirmed what we already knew: him [Pierre Poilievre] wants to cut, cut, cut, but we don’t know where.
Will it be for seniors? Will it be dental care? Will it be at the daycare level? We do not know. We’ll see what he plans to do, but he could have said it, he would have had the courage to tell us tonight.
His political opponent is suggesting a step backwards for the liberal minister. He’s calling on us to step back on climate change, he’s calling on us to step back on social investment, on assault weapons control, on dental care, on child care. […]he said.
Poilievre defends oil companies, says Guilbeault
A few hours before his speech, Pierre Poilievre was criticized by Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change in the Liberal government.
For Mr. Guilbeault, the Conservative leader wants to set the country back by abolishing what he calls a carbon tax.
Pierre Poilievre is not there to defend the widow and the orphan. Pierre Poilievre is there to defend the oil companies who are making billions in profits because he wants to clean up pollution.
“We were already in this movie with the Harper years,” he claimed from Quebec.
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View of the Conservative Party National Convention.
Photo: Radio-Canada / David Richard
A resolution to cut funding for Radio-Canada was defeated
In addition, several resolutions are on the agenda of the Congress, especially those related to the changes to be made to the party’s political program and statutes.
On Friday, the request to withdraw funding from Radio-Canada was rejected at the workshop. She will not appear for a vote in plenary.
According to the text of the resolution, delegates affirmed that the control and operation of the CBC/SRC as a unit should be ensured through independent, non-governmental funding.
In fact, it is only the CBC that Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre says he wants to ax. According to the Conservative leader, Radio-Canada’s French services, particularly those aimed at the country’s French-speaking minorities, should be spared and considered an essential service.
However, the proposal to ban gender reassignment surgeries and medical treatments for minors was adopted and will be put to a vote in plenary on Saturday.
Under the proposed resolution, a Conservative government will protect children by banning life-changing medical or surgical procedures for minors under 18 to treat gender confusion or dysphoria, and promote positive mental and physical health support for all Canadians experiencing gender dysphoria and related mental health issues Health problems.