Speaking to a packed, standing room only audience at Dwight Hall, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre outlined his platform of axing taxes, fixing the budget, building homes and stopping crime.
At the rally on January 14, Poilievre asked: “Who is ready to axe the tax, who is ready to build homes, who is ready to fix the budget, who is ready to stop the crime, who is ready to make common sense common again, and who is ready to put Canada first?”
Poilievre said he was told that Powell River was a small NDP town, and there were no conservatives.
“The truth is, Powell River and the great NDP voters, they didn’t leave their party, the NDP left them,” said Poilievre. “The NDP betrayed the working people and betrayed Western Canada. They betrayed all the good, honest people who voted for them in order to sell out and sign on with Justin Trudeau, didn’t they?”
Poilievre said in the past, the deal was that if a person worked hard, they could have a great life.
“You’d get a nice house in a safe neighbourhood, and you could hang a beautiful Canadian flag off the front,” said Poilievre. “That was the Canadian promise. But after nine years of the NDP/Liberals, that promise, like everything else, is broken. Everything costs more. Work doesn’t pay. You make it, they take it.
“Housing costs have doubled, rising faster than in any other G7 country, to the point where Vancouver is now the single most expensive housing market in North America and the second most expensive on planet earth. The good news is life was not like this before the NDP/Liberal government, and it won’t be like this after they are gone.”
Poilievre said costs are rising and the reason is the government.
“The cost of government is driving up the cost of living and the reason is that government pays for everything through one method – taxes,” said Poilievre.
He said when government spends more than it brings in, government has to borrow to pay the difference. He added that when government runs out of the ability to borrow, it prints more money, which creates the artificial impression that it is giving people things for free.
“It sounds wonderful,” said Poilievre. “The money just falls out of the sky and nobody realizes the real effect that has on the population with the higher prices they have to pay for everything.
“Money is growing 10 times faster than the stuff money buys. When this happens, the price of everything goes up and your purchasing power goes down. It screws over the working class, because your paycheque and pension buys less. But it helps big business and big government.”
Poilievre said prime minister Justin Trudeau and the NDP were going to help the little guy, but there is now the biggest gap between the rich and the poor since Statistics Canada began measuring it in 1999.
“We have 25 per cent of our population living in poverty and two million people lined up at food banks,” added Poilievre.
He said a Conservative government would reduce the size of the public service through attrition. He added that his government would cut back on consultants, which cost $21 billion per year.
“We are also going to cut back on foreign aid that goes to dictators, terrorists and global bureaucracy to bring our money home,” said Poilievre. “We will cut corporate welfare – the $40 billion in handouts to the companies that have powerful lobbyists. We want a free market economy where businesses get ahead by having the best product, not by having the best lobbyist. We’ll bring in free enterprise capitalism, not state capitalism.”
Poilievre said a Conservative government will get back to a balanced budget and will cut taxes.
“We will axe the carbon tax to bring down gas, heating and groceries,” said Poilievre. “The NDP/Liberals have passed into law not only the existing carbon tax of roughly 17 cents a litre, but a plan to quadruple that tax over the next five years, year-by-year, to 61 cents a litre.
“You can imagine that this will grind our economy to a halt, as our truckers will no longer be able to afford the diesel to bring groceries to the store, or parts to our factories or goods from our businesses to the market. Our rural communities will be completely wiped out by the tax.”
Poilievre said he will have a task force assembled within 100 days, reporting back to him within one year, on a massive tax cut and tax simplification. He said a Conservative government would approve pipelines and repeal legislation so the country can provide more energy and resources.
Another goal is for Canada to have the fastest building permits in the developed world with the lowest taxes, so the nation can harvest its resources and bring home livable paycheques to citizens, he added.
“We need more boots and not more suits,” said Poilievre.
As for housing, Poilievre said 60 per cent of the cost of a new home built in Vancouver today goes to government.
“It’s taxes, fees, charges, lawyers, accountant, lobbyists and other government delays that all get passed onto the consumer,” said Poilievre. “That is why it would take more than 100 per cent of the average Vancouver family’s monthly income to make payments on the average Vancouver home, which is a mathematical impossibility. So, more money from a new home goes to the bureaucrats than to the carpenters, electricians and plumbers that actually build homes.”
Poilievre committed to axe the GST on new homes.
He also spoke on crime, stating that he would pass a law called jail, not bail, meaning that repeat offenders would not be eligible for bail, parole, probation or house arrest. Poilievre also committed to stopping drugs.
“We will treat fentanyl kingpins, the traffickers, the manufacturers and the organized crime behind them as the murderers they are,” said Poilievre.
He concluded by saying that Canada will never be the 51st state of the United States.
There was opposition to Poilievre’s axe the tax rally, with qathet Climate Alliance protesters congregating outside of Dwight Hall to express their views on the leader’s stated policies.
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