Last week's speech to C.D. Howe Institute was prime ministerial in nature
It was always going to be hard for Pierre Poilievre to shake off his angry, attack-dog image. When he sparred with a Canadian Press reporter two weeks ago, it made national headlines. And when he munched an apple during an exchange with a B.C. reporter in October, it made international news.
But, as Poilievre displayed last week, he can be positively prime ministerial when he wants to be. Last Friday, he gave a wide-ranging, and sometimes personal, old-fashioned political speech to the C.D. Howe Institute in Toronto’s financial district. And while he wasn’t angry, he didn’t pull any punches either. In sharing his vision for Canada, his patriotism and his solutions to the country’s problems, he came across as a smart, savvy leader-in-waiting.
Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.
Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.
Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.
Don't have an account? Create Account
Ordinary Canadians were facing misery, Poilievre told the crowd, and their experiences were largely unknown to people such as those in the audience in front of him.
“After eight years of Trudeau, life is increasingly a living hell for the working-class people of this country,” he said. “Now, often people hear these sorts of statements, in rooms like this, and they think it is hyperbole, and that is one of the fundamental problems with our country today.”
“There is a group of people who do not experience the misery and the suffering that the everyday Canadian is living on the ground. And as a result, when they hear me talk about it, they have a hard time appreciating and understanding it.”
Poilievre then went on to detail life for many Canadians: rent has doubled in eight years from about $900 to $2,000; the Oshawa food bank has crammed 16 seniors into a four-bedroom house because they had all lost their homes; two million people a month are lining up at food banks.
“If you look at the bread lines that go around street corners and you put them in black and white, you could be forgiven if you thought that these were images from the Great Depression,” he said.
Tent cities, he added, are springing up all over Canada, increasingly containing middle-class people.
“In Penticton, there’s a phenomenon of seniors, middle-class seniors, some of them pensioned, who live in parking lots. We have nurses and carpenters who live in their cars,” he continued.
He could have added that Canadian Armed Forces personnel are also living in their cars because they can’t afford housing. Debbie Lowther, chair of Veterans Emergency Transition Service Canada, told a parliamentary committee in October that “we have active and currently serving members of the Canadian Armed Forces living in cars.”
“The housing crisis is such that over the past year we have seen three veterans who have been posted to areas where they cannot afford housing and are living in their cars — getting ready for work in the morning, putting on their uniforms and going to work in the Canadian Armed Forces,” she said.
Poilievre blamed the misery on government decisions and denounced Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for not being a real Liberal.
“There used to be a common sense consensus among Conservatives and Liberals in this country — whether it was John Manley or Paul Martin or Jean Chrétien, Brian Mulroney, Stephen Harper — a common sense consensus that you needed to balance budgets, rely mostly on free markets for economic activity and free trade, live within your means (and) have the government focus on its core responsibilities,” he said.
“This prime minister does not believe that. He is a radical departure from that common sense Liberal-Conservative consensus that gave us 25 years of prosperity from 1984 to 2015. He is not a liberal. He is deeply illiberal.”
Poilievre didn’t sound angry, but that didn’t mean the occasional jibe didn’t enter his speech.
“(Trudeau) believes in only two things: One, that the government should control everything. And two, that he should control the government, and he’s only prepared to compromise on the first principle if the second principle is in some way at risk.”
Speaking of his policies, Poilievre pledged to reduce government regulation and spending and “axe the carbon tax,” which he admitted was controversial.
“I know that’s not a popular position on Bay Street where there have been many corporations who published reports favouring carbon taxes,” he said. “Of course, those who don’t have to worry about paying the tax are happy to put those taxes on the working class.”
In his government, ministers wanting more money would have to find it from savings in their own departments, he said.
Poilievre added that he would “end the war on work” by reforming government “clawbacks” and cutting income taxes. He would also fast-track the licensing of immigrant doctors and nurses by working with the provinces to create a “blue seal” certification for medical professionals, which would allow them to write an exam and work anywhere in Canada within 60 days.
“Eighty-five per cent of Filipino nurses can’t work as nurses in Canada,” he said. “In the States, they can take an international nursing exam and get to work within two weeks, and here we deprive us of nurses and them of paychecks.”
At an eye clinic in Ottawa, Poilievre said he met a technician who earned about $70,000 per year. But the man also commuted to Abu Dhabi where he was a qualified to work as an eye doctor.
Poilievre told the crowd he would repeal Bill C-69, a law passed by the Liberals in 2019 which allows federal regulators to consider environment and social factors when deciding whether to approve infrastructure projects. In an October ruling, the Supreme Court of Canada found the law to be largely unconstitutional.
He attacked the absurdity of government regulations that have, for five years so far, prevented First Nations in northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire region from building a road.
On resources, Poilievre lamented the lengthy time it takes to approve a mine in Canada. He also pointed out that when Trudeau took office, there were 18 LNG project proposals waiting to go forward — and zero have been completed in eight years.
But Poilievre also had pride and patriotism to display.
“I consider myself very blessed to come from this country,” he said. “I was born to a 16-year-old unwed mother who put me up for adoption to two school teachers, and they taught me that in Canada, it didn’t matter where you came from, it mattered where you were going. It didn’t matter who you knew, it mattered what you could do. That’s the country my wife came to as a refugee.”
He added, “Life wasn’t like this before, Justin. And it won’t be like this after he’s gone. We’re going to replace the hurt that he has caused with the hope that Canadians need, and we’re going to do it based on the common sense Canadian consensus that made this the best country anywhere on Earth.”
Let the election campaign begin.
National Post
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.
The genderless collection features three classic styles
Three buzzed-about holiday beauty bundles we tried this week.
MULTI co-founders Mal Tayag and AJ Addae are working to build an inclusive wellness brand that is built on research.
Hold on to your Santa hats — these under-$20 gifts are about to make this season's spends as merry as they are smart.
A seamless, successful and frankly, fun experience
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Rami G Khouri
Mort Laitner
Rachel Marsden
Donald Low
Bradley Blankenship
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Nikkei Editorial
Michael Kwet
visit website
