Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre doubled down on his promise to balance the federal budget when he took the stage at his party’s national policy convention Friday evening — and invoked his political rivals’ predecessors while doing so.
Poilievre delivered an election-night style speech in front of roughly 2,500 party members who made the trek to Quebec City for the convention as the Conservatives are soaring in public opinion polls.
One part of the speech focused on one of Poilievre’s key promises: to balance the federal budget if his party forms government after the next election. He suggested many Liberal and New Democrat voters share his “common sense” fiscal prudence.
“[Former prime ministers Brian] Mulroney, in fairness, [Jean] Chrétien, [Paul] Martin, [Stephen] Harper, even NDP provincial governments believed that budgets needed to be balanced … to protect future funding of schools, hospitals and roads,” he said.
Poilievre says Liberal governments used to exercise fiscal restraint
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Justin Trudeau’s Liberals represent a ‘radical departure’ from past governments that balanced the budget. Poilievre made the remarks at his party’s national policy convention on Friday evening.
“Many common-sense grassroots Liberals and New Democrats still believe it today, even if their out-of-touch leaders do not.”
Poilievre then switched to French to cite the fiscal record of former Quebec premier Lucien Bouchard, who was also the founder of the Bloc Québécois.
Poilievre was introduced by his wife, Anaida, who spoke about her family relying on food banks when they first immigrated to Montreal from Venezuela, and getting donated gifts for their first Christmas. She also spoke of the sacrifices the pair are making as a family with two young children, one with special needs, in pursing the country’s highest office.
“The job ahead is great and it is not an easy one, but it is a very important one,” she said.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and his wife Anaida wave to delegates at the Conservative Party Convention, Friday, September 8, 2023 in Quebec City. (David Richard/Radio-Canada)
Poilievre framed his party as the only alternative to the governing Liberals under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“We don’t know when that election will be, but when it comes, Canadians will have only two options,” he said.
“A common-sense Conservative government … or a reckless coalition of Trudeau and the NDP,” he said, referring to the current supply-and-confidence agreement between the Liberals and NDP.
The Conservative leader spent the bulk of his speech attacking Trudeau’s economic and fiscal record.
“He promised Canadians that if he had a big government that took more power and more money he would change everything, and boy did he ever,” he said, pointing to rising housing costs and the high inflation rates of the past year.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre shakes hands with delegates as he walks to the stage to speak at the party’s policy convention in Quebec City on Sept. 8, 2023. (David Richard/Radio-Canada)
Poilievre said if his party wins the next election he would eliminate the carbon tax, dismantle the Canada Infrastructure Bank and tie infrastructure funding for municipalities to the number of home permits they approve.
He also reiterated that he would take a tough-on-crime approach if he becomes the next prime minister.
At the beginning of his speech he thanked his parents. His voice broke when he thanked his mother.
“It’s because they made the decision to adopt me and work hard in front of a classroom that I now stand proudly in front of this room,” he said.
Poilievre was often interrupted by applause from the raucous crowd. They also broke out into a number of chants of “bring it home,” one of Poilievre’s catchphrases — which he also used to close out his remarks.
“This is our country, this is our home… let’s bring it home,” he said to a standing ovation.
Following his speech, Poilievre snapped photos with supporters who lined up to meet him.
Proposal on gender-affirming care passes initial stages
Earlier Friday, convention delegates also voted to further debate a policy proposal on gender-affirming care.
The proposal from grassroot members calls on the party to ban anyone under age 18 from receiving “life altering medicinal or surgical interventions” to change their gender.
Jenni Byrne, one of Poilievre’s senior advisers, told CBC Radio’s The House that the proposal passed an initial vote and will be debated more widely on Saturday.
When pressed to say whether the policy could make it into the Conservative platform in the next election if it gains the support of a majority of delegates, Byrne was non-committal.
“We’ll see what the members decide and what transpires during the debate,” she told host Catherine Cullen in an interview airing on Saturday.
“That’s a great thing about policy conventions … this is an opportunity for members across the country to be able to vote and to speak about the policies that matter to them.”
Delegates gather at the Conservative national policy convention in Quebec City on Sept. 8, 2023. (David Richard/Radio-Canada)
Convention delegates also defeated an effort led by social conservatives to change the party’s constitution and overhaul the candidate nomination process.
Anti-abortion activists wanted a change after the party parachuted a candidate hand-picked by party brass into a recent federal byelection in the Ontario riding of Oxford.
A local social conservative sought the nomination. Poilievre’s team wanted Arpan Khanna instead.
“Pierre Poilievre always talks about getting rid of the gatekeepers, yet there’s a lot of gatekeeping around the nomination process. We want to fulfil his talking point when it comes to democratically nominating and electing candidates,” said Alissa Golob, co-founder of RightNow, an anti-abortion group.
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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has ditched the glasses and started wearing more casual clothes in a bid to widen his appeal to voters.
She said a closed-door discussion Friday of the proposed constitutional amendment was “very questionable to say the least.” She said the presiding chair refused to release the final vote tally on the change her group and others wanted.
Anti-abortion activists sought to give local electoral district associations (EDAs) the power to veto a nomination decision taken by the party’s national council or leader.
“There’s a lot of Ottawa telling members what we should or shouldn’t be thinking. It makes this whole convention a bit of a facade. If we’re not actually going to have a say for real, what’s the point of coming here?” Golob said.
Golob said she still feels welcome in the Conservative fold because most of the party’s MPs are anti-abortion. She said she simply objects to efforts to suppress the nomination of “so-con” candidates.
“I think people within the office of [the leader of the Official Opposition] like to have a lot of control,” she said.
Poilievre has said a government led by him wouldn’t introduce legislation on abortion. Golob said activists like her won’t give up their fight to curb the practice.
The group wants a ban on late-term and sex-selective abortions if there’s a Conservative victory in the next election.
MacKay urges party unity
Also on Friday, former Conservative leadership contender Peter MacKay said the party has a shot at defeating the governing Liberals if it stays united between now and the next election.
MacKay, the former leader of the now-defunct Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, is more politically moderate than Poilievre but they have a common opponent: Prime Minister Trudeau.
He said the party shouldn’t splinter or allow certain factions to threaten its electoral fortunes.
“If you remember nothing else that I’ve said here today, remember this: in order to build a united Canada we must remain united as a Conservative party,” MacKay said to polite applause from the delegates in attendance.
“Canada, it’s time. It’s time to turn the page. It’s time to undo the damage the current Liberal government has inflicted on Canadians now for the past eight years.”
Peter MacKay says there is ‘fertile ground’ in Atlantic Canada for Poilievre
“This is an opportunity,” says Peter MacKay of Conservative electoral chances in Atlantic Canada. “There is something happening on the ground…and I think you’re going to see a lot of fertile ground for Pierre Poilievre.”
The party already suffered a split in 2019 when former Conservative MP Maxime Bernier left it to start the People’s Party of Canada.
Bernier’s party did relatively well in the last election, capturing five per cent of the popular vote at a time when many Canadians questioned government policies related to the pandemic. That performance likely cost the Conservatives some seats in 2021 campaign.
The party is determined to crush the upstart PPC while also wooing the swing voters who will decide the next election.
“I’ve been to a lot of Conservative conventions over my lifetime,” MacKay said. “But I must say I have never been at a gathering where there’s so much optimism, so much purpose, so much confidence. I believe Pierre Poilievre will be the next prime minister of Canada.”
It doesn’t appear there is any immediate threat to party unity.
Poilievre easily won the leadership election last year after trouncing his main opponent, the more moderate Jean Charest.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
