About 750 people turned out to see Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poulievre at Sydney’s Mary Winspear Center on Sunday night. Poilievre, considered the trailblazer in the race, kicked off the night with a speech before posing for photos and shaking hands with those in attendance. The crowd roared in response to Poilievre’s promise to defund the CBC and his condemnation of “woke culture.” “Is anyone here awake today?” he asked the crowd, who laughed and booed in response. “In reality the movement is not about racial justice or equality, it’s about control. “It’s being told what you’re allowed to do.” Arla Rendle, who came to the rally from Saanichton, said Poilievre would help make Canada “a free country again”: “If anyone can get us out of this mess, it’s the man.” Amber Moss, who came from Victoria with her children and husband Philip Moss, said this was the first time she would vote Conservative. “To see the turnout at this point. It’s changing,” he said. “It’s very upsetting to see the division in this country. We’re so polarized at this point and it’s very sad.” Philip Moss said the cost of living and the wake culture — particularly in schools — are some of his biggest concerns. “It’s all very well for people to live their lives the way they want to live them, but young children just need math and reading and simple things,” he said. Sidney Poilievre’s meet and greet followed a visit to Nanaimo’s Benson Ballroom and preceded a Monday meet and greet in Vancouver at the Italian Cultural Centre. The 43-year-old, who usually avoids talking to the press, spent 30 minutes on Zoom early Monday with editors across the Glacier Media chain to talk about labor shortages, housing affordability, energy and more. tax regime of Ottawa “We have a system that is complicated and punishes good behaviour,” Poilievre said, adding that he would reform the marginal effective tax rate – or METR – to encourage Canadians to work more. The current tax regime has led to $800 billion in investment in other nations, he said, citing a 2020 Public Policy Forum report authored by former Bank of Canada governor David Dodd. “We need to reform our business taxes to incentivize reinvestment, building factories, buying machinery, patenting new technology,” Poilievre said. “You can imagine why American workers and other foreign workers are able to earn more wages. They have more tools. Their businesses invest more in machinery and technology than ours. I think part of that is because our system – our tax system – penalizes investment and therefore we get less of it.” The housing crisis “The federal government has flooded the economy with easy cash over the past two years. This has boosted demand and local governments have blocked supply with government control,” Poilievre said. The Conservative leadership candidate would require all federally funded transit stations to have pre-approved permits for high-density housing in the surrounding city area. It also suggests Ottawa sell 15 percent of its federal buildings and turn them into youth housing. A Poilievre-led government would tie the federal infrastructure dollars cities like Vancouver receive to the number of homes completed within their respective borders. The feds also need to speed up immigration for construction workers needed to build homes and lower taxes to allow young people to put more of their income toward mortgage payments, he said. Addressing workforce shortages Employers who can’t find workers in Canada should be able to fund skilled immigrant workers much more quickly than the current system allows, Poilievre said. “If a construction company has five workers and has advertised the jobs [and] can’t cover them, then they should be able to quickly support new immigrants to come first as temporary foreign workers, but then those workers should quickly graduate to permanent residency and eventually citizenship.” Poilievre said he favors the Express Entry model aimed at skilled workers, but that it should be expanded to a wider range of occupations. It would sign agreements with the provinces to guarantee that hopeful immigrants would hear a straight yes or no within 60 days of applying to work in Canada. Poilievre also suggests creating standardized tests for immigrant professionals such as doctors. It is up to the provinces to choose. “This would allow us to quickly qualify people based on their abilities, not based on where they come from,” Poilievre said, adding that he also wants to make it easier for immigrants to start getting credentials before they arrive in Canada. Energy policy Poilievre said the federal government needs to “break away” from large energy projects that have the support of First Nations and a smaller carbon footprint, such as liquefied natural gas. Poilievre said he would abandon the 2019 impact assessment bill, Bill C-69, and replace it with legislation that would be developed in consultation with First Nations groups. He said he wants to increase LNG project approvals to help European markets buy energy from Canada rather than Russia. The media landscape “My view is that we can support diverse and independent media without the centralized control that the Liberals have imposed on the bailout fund,” Poilievre said, referring to Ottawa’s $595 million salary subsidy program for media organizations. Earlier this year, the Liberals introduced legislation that would have forced tech giants like Google and Facebook to compensate news outlets for using their stories. Poilievre said he has no problem with a model that allows the media to be compensated by these huge corporations. “We just need to make sure that … the government doesn’t discriminate and favor certain media over other media. You know, it can’t just be the liberal media taking the money.”
