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A frontrunner in the fight for the federal Conservative party leadership was in Windsor on Monday, promising to slow inflation, speed up affordable housing construction and make manufacturing investments easier.
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“My purpose in running for prime minister is to make Canada the freest country on Earth, so people can take back control of their lives,” Carleton MP Pierre Poilievre said before a scheduled stop at the Ciociaro Club. “That starts with fighting government-caused inflation. More expensive government has made a more expensive cost of living because of inflationary deficits and taxes. Inflation is at a 30-year high. Housing inflation has smashed all previous records. We have the second worst housing bubble on planet Earth. This is all caused by the government.”
Poilievre is one of 11 people vying for the job of Conservative party leader after Erin O’Toole was ousted in February. The party election will be held Sept. 10.
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Poilievre has vowed to defund the CBC, stop printing money to ease inflation woes, kill the carbon tax and ban all overseas oil imports.
He also promises to simplify building permit regulations, and “incentivize” municipalities with infrastructure money to speed up the process of issuing permits for new homes, factories and warehouses.
“Instead of creating cash, we’re going to create more of what cash buys, by removing the government gatekeepers to let us build more automobiles, grow more food, build more affordable houses and produce more Canadian energy,” said Poilievre. “By creating more of the products and services we’ll increase the supply and reduce the cost of living for our people.”
Making Canada the “freest country,” he said, also means the end of all COVID-19 protocols including vaccine mandates.
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“I recognize that is a personal choice,” said Poilievre, who is double vaccinated. “I believe that we should encourage it, provide as much information as possible, but we should never force someone to put something in their body against their will from her.”
Poilievre said he supported the recent protests of truckers and self-described freedom fighters, but not those who blocked the Ambassador Bridge.
“I believe that you can’t obtain your freedom by taking away someone else’s,” he said.
“I support the trucker protests, those who protested lawfully to raise their voice and protect their freedom and their paycheque. I agree with their opposition to the vaccine mandate on truckers and on everyone else. I think their cause was right. The cause of peaceful, law-abiding protesters was right. While I support the cause and the right to peaceful protest, I would condemn individuals who blocked critical infrastructure, broke laws or behaved badly.”