Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre visited North Bay today on his ‘Axe the Tax’ tour, and eliminating the Liberals Carbon Tax wasn’t the only issue on his mind.
“After eight years of Trudeau everything costs more,” he emphasized to party loyalists and reporters below the Gateway Arch sign around two this afternoon. “Work doesn’t pay, housing costs have doubled, and crime, chaos, drugs, and disorder are in our streets.”
“Trudeau divides Canadians to distract from everything he has done,” he said.
Removing the Carbon Tax is high on Poilievre’s priority list, which will help ease “oppressive home heating bills” and leave more money in people’s pockets. Folks shouldn’t have to “choose between eating and heating,” he said. “Driving your truck and leaving your home is not a choice,” and he plans to bring the cost down.
He referred to the tax as “hypocrisy,” punishing regular people while Trudeau and the Liberals travel in “taxpayer-funded private jets” and take “$9,000 a day vacations gifted to him by millionaire and billionaire friends.”
“There will be a choice,” at the next federal election, he emphasized, to make life more affordable through the “common sense” actions Poilievre promised to enact.
“The good news is there will be a common-sense Conservative government that will free people to earn powerful paycheques and pensions that buy affordable food, gas and homes in safe neighbourhoods.”
Besides axing the tax, Poilievre noted that once elected, the Conservatives will “cap spending and cut rates,” in order to balance the budget, “so we can bring down inflation and interest rates.”
As for those “powerful paycheques,” he mentioned that “lower income taxes” will help bring those about, and his party will “reward hard work by removing government gatekeepers so that we can dig mines, develop resources and generate more powerful earnings for our people.”
Asked how the Feds could help fire up the process on the Ring of Fire, Poilievre answered: “get out of the way.”
He elaborated that bureaucracy is slowing the process – “how is it that we still can’t get a highway to the Ring of Fire?”
He mentioned how Trudeau “is giving around $40 billion to foreign companies but is blocking us from mining the resources to go into those batteries.”
The Conservatives want to speed things up, “consult with First Nations,” protect the environment “and get decisions made in 18 months rather than 18 years” to get those resources to market.
Also, on the priority list is rebuilding the Armed Forces. “We’re going to focus on the reserves, and we’re going to streamline and depoliticize the procurement, so that we stop wasting money on purchases that go vastly over budget.”
The system is bogged down by bureaucracy and politics, he emphasized, and he vowed the Conservatives will “stop wasting money” and keep “a strong military with respect in the world that keeps us safe.”
Poilievre also went on about the need to get tougher on crime. “Jail not Bail,” he emphasized and promised to repeal laws that allow for a “catch and release” policy with criminals. Dangerous and repeat offenders will become more familiar with cells instead of being released to the streets.
As for axing the carbon tax, Poilievre noted that we still need traditional energy, oil and gas are a must for heat and fuel, but he plans to support alternatives as well. “So, I will green-light green projects like hydroelectric dams, small modular nuclear reactors, carbon capture and storage, and tidal power off our Atlantic Coast” to harness more electrical power with cleaner emissions.
What about the drug crisis plaguing our communities? Poilievre said he would “stop giving out these drugs” to addicts, “and put the money into treatment, detox and recovery to bring our loved ones home, drug-free.”
After his press conference at the Gateway Arch, the party moved to The Grande, at Cecil’s in downtown North Bay. About 200 people were there to hear Poilievre speak. He spoke for about fifteen minutes before talking with the people and posing for photos.
Local Conservative candidates Steven Trahan and Cassidy Villeneuve were there, as was Parry-Sound Muskoka MP Scott Aitchison, who introduced Poilievre. Former MP Jay Aspin was also in attendance, and Poilievre acknowledged Aspin’s recent receipt of the Order of Ontario.
See: Villeneuve running for local Conservative nomination
See: Steven Trahan announces Conservative candidacy
See: Jay Aspin earns Ontario's highest honour
“We will stand up every day and in every way for a smaller government,” Poilievre told the crowd, “because I believe that you have the wisdom and the virtue to decide what is best for you, your family, and your community.”
He joked that if he were to start a new political party from scratch, he would call it the “Mind your own damn business party,” as his Conservatives have no interest in running your life. “I don’t want to decide for you what you think, what you read, what you say. You will make those decisions for yourself. I will run a government that does a few things very well, rather than doing a lot of things poorly.”
“We will have good hospitals, roads, schools, secure borders, and a strong military to protect us.”
“I believe in the common people,” he said, “the common sense of the common people, united for our common home, your home, my home, our home.”
“Let’s bring it home.”
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
