The carbon tax, Justin Trudeau and Jean Charest were all topics of discussion from conservative party leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre.
Poilievre visited Regina’s Brandt Industries for a campaign stop, although he’s currently the only one officially running. He spoke beside Saskatchewan-based Members of Parliament Andrew Scheer, Michael Kram and Corey Tochor.
In trying to woo the conservative party votes out in Saskatchewan, he went after the record of not only Trudeau, but also Charest, potential candidate and former premier of Quebec.
“Jean Charest and Justin Trudeau support higher taxes on consumers,” said Poilievre. “Charest increased, when he was Liberal premier, the sales tax by two percentage points. He then increased the fuel tax and he supported a carbon tax not only for his province but for the whole country.”
Poilievre, who was introduced by Scheer, said it felt like a homecoming with his adoptive parents being originally from Saskatchewan. He represents Ontario’s Carleton riding and has been a member of Parliament since 2004.
“As we look out at these country roads that we were driving on yesterday, we remember how much rural people have to spend to travel from place to place with gas getting close to $1,60 a litre ,” he said, adding that a Poilievre government would repeal the carbon tax.
This repeal wouldn’t be the only thing he would do. He said there are anti-energy laws in Canada, including Bill C-69 which he said would make it nearly impossible to build a new pipeline approved in Canada.
“What is the result of that? It means we continue to import millions of barrels of oil from dirty dictatorships around the world, giving revenues to (Nicolas) Maduro in Venezuela or (Vladimir) Putin in Russia,” Poilievre said.
Canada hasn’t imported oil from the Russian federation since 2019 and
He said the U.S. spend $700 million in the 24 hours before Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in importing Russian oil. It’s a major geopolitical security threat.
“We should be exporting our natural gas to displace dirty foreign coal and reduce global emissions by rapidly approving the construction of liquefaction facilities,” Poilievre said. “You know what you need to liquefy natural gas? Cold. You know what we have in Canada? Cold.”
Poilievre said taxes would only go down if he was prime minister.
Conservatives will be selecting their next leader September 10, a date in which Poilivre said he is OK.
