Poilievre energizes Brandon crowd

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This article was published 05/08/2022 (1273 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

More than 100 people showed up to the Victoria Inn Thursday afternoon to hear from a man introduced as the Conservative Party of Canada’s “next leader” by a local MP.

After endorsing Carleton MP Pierre Poilievre in his bid to become the next Tory leader earlier this year, Dauphin–Swan River–Neepawa MP Dan Mazier served as emcee for the raucous crowd.

Rather than attend the third debate of the leadership campaign in Ottawa Wednesday evening, Poilievre instead elected to tour the Prairies.

The politician’s appearance in Brandon included opportunities for party members to vote and listen as he discussed his platform for about 30 minutes.

Speaking to the Sun ahead of the event, Poilievre said it was a better use of his time to visit the Prairies and connect with “hard-working Canadians who have been ignored for too long” rather than “being cooped up in a small room with a defeated former Liberal premier.”

Poilievre was referring to fellow candidate and former Quebec premier Jean Charest, who led that province’s Liberal party in government, though he was previously a leader of the federal Progressive Conservatives.

During the race, Charest and Poilievre have exchanged bitter words that some have wondered might be a sign of division between different wings of the party.

“All real Conservatives” will be able to unite at the end of the race to beat the Liberals, Poilievre said, noting Charest is not on that list.

Poilievre has been clear during his campaign that he’s not just running to be a party leader — he’s running to be prime minister. That’s evident on the signs and stickers handed out in Brandon on Thursday reading “Pierre Poilievre for Prime Minister” in both English and French.

Asked what he believes will lead him to success against Justin Trudeau after Stephen Harper, Andrew Scheer and Erin O’Toole had second-place finishes against the Liberals, Poilievre said it’s his stance on economic issues.

“Justin Trudeau has given us 40-year highs in inflation, gas prices are double, house prices are up 50 per cent, food prices are so high that four of five families are cutting back their diets,” he said. “I’m the only candidate who can tackle the inflation.”

To do that, he’s proposing to cut taxes, reduce government spending, eliminate red tape and “remove the gatekeepers.”

Gatekeepers were a key element of his speech to his assembled supporters, suggesting that government rules and bureaucracy are preventing people and businesses from being successful.

The “gatekeepers” include those keeping COVID-related mandates in place, the people responsible for implementing the carbon tax and looking to put fertilizer limits on producers.

One member of the crowd, Willy Pearson, told the Sun he was at the event to “get my future back.”

“Ending all COVID mandates and all the ‘JustinFlation,’” Pearson said were the reasons he supports Poilievre’s leadership bid. “JustinFlation” is the term Poilievre coined to describe the Trudeau government’s spending and its knock-on effects.

According to Poilievre, he and Mazier “see eye to eye” when it comes to farming, energy and firearm policies. Though Brandon–Souris MP Larry Maguire has endorsed Charest in the race, Poilievre said he has great respect for him as a public servant.

“I haven’t talked to an individual, anybody who’s trying to do something in Canada, it doesn’t matter what level of government, there’s just barrier after barrier after barrier [in their way],” Mazier said about the gatekeepers. “Pierre’s going to address that in a future government.”

Last month’s visit to Canada by Pope Francis brought the topic of residential schools back to the forefront of the news a year after remains of 215 children were reacknowledged on the grounds of the former Kamloops residential school in B.C.

With Trudeau and his government pledging funds to help pay for additional searches at other residential school sites like the one near Brandon, Poilievre said he would continue that policy should he form government.

Early in his campaign, Poilievre touted the benefits of cryptocurrency, but the crypto market has since seen a sizable downturn.

On Thursday, he said Canadian currency should remain the only legal tender through which taxes can be paid and the only currency the Canadian government uses, but believes that Bitcoin and related technologies should remain legal and be governed by a consistent set of rules across provincial and federal jurisdictions.

“The principle should be that we regulate cryptographic assets in the same way as traditional assets,” Poilievre said.

During the so-called Freedom Convoy protests around Canada earlier this year, Poilievre was a vocal supporter of the movement. His only direct reference to the convoy on Thursday was mentioning that Trudeau’s current vacation to Costa Rica produced more carbon emissions than a convoy of trucks heading to Ottawa.

Capping off a list of campaign promises, he pledged to ban cabinet ministers from attending World Economic Forum events.

The World Economic Forum, which bills itself as “the International Organization for Public-Private Co-operation,” has been a frequent target of “Freedom Convoy” supporters and members of the anti-vaccine movement for supposedly trying to organize a worldwide globalist conspiracy to enrich left-leaning politicians and large corporations.

After Poilievre delivered that promise, several members of the audience leapt to their feet, roaring with glee.

According to his campaign, Poilievre has sold 12,363 memberships in Manitoba alone, including 1,080 in the riding of Brandon–Souris. The campaign also reported that 1,710 Manitoba donors have contributed $243,000 in donations.

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