The majority of Canadians are far worse off in late 2024 than they were nine years ago when Justin Trudeau and the federal Liberal Party formed the government of Canada in 2015.
That was the clear and repeated message from Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre during a whirlwind stop in Penticton Tuesday afternoon that saw him take a tour of the Peerless Limited heavy duty trailer construction facility, then make a speech and take photos with dozens of Peerless employees.
鈥淚n short, after nine years of Trudeau and the NDP, everything is broken,鈥 he said. 鈥淭he good news is life was not like this before this government and it won鈥檛 be like this after they are gone.鈥
The promise of success for Canadians who want to enjoy a great quality of life by working hard has instead turned into endless struggle over the past decade, said Poliviere.
The fault lies directly at Trudeau and his government and the continuing support provided by NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and his party, he said.
鈥淭hat promise, like everything else, is broken after nine years of Trudeau and the NDP/Liberal government,鈥 he said. 鈥淎fter nine years of the NDP/Liberals, everything costs more. The worst inflation in 40 years, destroying the buying power of your money. They鈥檝e created $700 billion of cash, through money printing, which caused rampant inflation that you see at your grocery stores. The consequence is that one in four parents are now skipping meals so that their kids can have food on their plate.鈥
There are now two million visits to a community food bank every single month in Canada, which is simply unacceptable, he said.
Housing costs have more than doubled since Trudeau became Prime Minister, he said.
Homeless encampments have sprouted up across British Columbia and all of Canada, which wasn鈥檛 the case a decade ago, he said.
鈥淥ne of these encampments was so bad in Abbottsford (Monday), the local residents had to watch the Remembrance Day ceremony by livestream because it was too dangerous to be next to the cenotaph, where it has now been taken over by squalor and homelessness that resembles something out of the Third World.鈥
There have been more people die of drug overdoses in the last 10 years than Canada lost in the Second World War, he said.
There have been more than 47,000 drug overdoses in the past decade, compared to 45,000 Canadian soldiers lost in WWII, he said.
Poilievre repeated his most popular and consistent message on the campaign trail of the past few months, saying the time has come for an 鈥渁xe the (carbon) tax鈥 election in Canada.
鈥淐anadians will get the chance to choose between the costly coalition of NDP/Liberals who tax your food, punish your work, double your housing costs and unleash crime and chaos for common sense Conservatives, who will axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget and stop the crime. ThatB次元官网网址 pour planning.鈥
The carbon tax implemented by TrudeauB次元官网网址 Liberals is directly responsible for driving up the costs of heating, gas and groceries for all Canadians, he said, adding the carbon tax is scheduled to quadruple over in less than five years from now.
鈥淏y getting rid of the carbon tax, we can bring affordable, abundant energy to our people and businesses and make your life more affordable,鈥 he said.
鈥淚t would allow our farmers to produce the food with lower-cost fuels, which they can pass on to the grocery store for you to afford a good meal every single day.鈥
When elected, his government would also lower income taxes to allow millions of Canadians to have more disposable income 鈥渟o that hard work actually pays off and you bring home more of each dollar you earn.鈥
His government would also implement policies that promote Canadian-made products, goods and services, rather than pushing them to the United States, he said.
鈥淲e need to speed up permits, so that we can approve natural resource projects here in Canada,鈥 he said.
Canada has more than a dozen large Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) facilities ready to develop on the east and west coasts of Canada and these products are capable of producing billions of dollars in LNG sales around the world, he said.
鈥淭hose jobs should be here in Canada, rather than in the United States, Qatar or some other foreign country,鈥 he said.
The LNG industry in Canada could replace dirty coal across Asia and wean many parts of Europe off oil and gas produced by Vladimir Putin and Russia by displacing his market with Canadian gas products, he said.
鈥淲e can turn dollars for dictators into paycheques for our people,鈥 he said. 鈥淚n other words, bring it home to Canada.鈥
He would also commit to building and using more nuclear energy across Canada, he said.
Canada has some of the largest undeveloped uranium deposits anywhere in the world, which is needed to produce nuclear energy, he said.
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to bring home those jobs and that production to this country,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hat will also generate the revenues to help us fix the broken budget.鈥
CanadaB次元官网网址 national debt has doubled in the last nine years under TrudeauB次元官网网址 government, he said.
鈥淭hat means more money chasing fewer goods, driving up higher prices,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e now spending more on interest for our debt than we are in healthcare transfers.鈥
His government would pass legislation that would force his government to find one dollar in savings for every new dollar spent, he said. 鈥淲e鈥檒l cap government and let the economy and taxpayer catch up so we can bring down the debt, the interest, the inflation and you can bring home more of your paycheque.鈥
Canada now has some of the most expensive housing, on average, in the world and big cities like Vancouver are amongst the most expensive to live in any-where on the planet, he said.
鈥淲hy is housing so expensive?鈥 he asked rhetorically. 鈥淭he answer is government. Government taxes and red tape make up the vast majority of the cost of a new home.鈥
More money from a new home in Canada goes to bureaucrats in offices, than goes to the carpenters, electricians, plumbers and other trades workers who actually build the homes, he said.
His government would eliminate the GST on any new home under $1 million, which would save up to $50,000 for buyers, he said.
HeB次元官网网址 also asked provincial premiers to eliminate provincial sales taxes off new homes, which would reduce the price by up to $100,000 in total and $5,000 a year on annual mortgage payments, he said.
He would also incentivize municipal governments to speed up the building permit process, free up land and cut development taxes to promote rapid new home development, while also selling off 5,000 federal buildings and government-owned land that currently just sits there to promote hundreds of thousands of new home builds, he said.
The time has come to give less money to universities and more to training and education centres that promote the trades in record numbers, he said.
Crime and chaos has spread across Canada and the 鈥渃atch and release system鈥 is the root cause, where prolific offenders who cause the majority of crimes are caught, serve very little jail time, released and then commit more crimes, he said.
During his last visit to Penticton, RCMP brass told him there was one prolific offender who committed so much crime, he actually altered the monthly crime statistics, he said.
鈥淗e does so much crime when heB次元官网网址 out of jail, the crime rate goes up because of his activity alone,鈥 he said. 鈥淧ut that guy in jail and all of a sudden, hundreds or dozens of Penticton residents get to be free of crime.
鈥淥ur common-sense plan is to repeal the hug a thug catch-and-release system that Trudeau and the NDP brought in and make those who have a long rap sheet of serious offences ineligible for bail, parole, probation and house arrest. It will be jail, not bail for serious re-peat offenders.鈥
The 鈥渋nsane decriminalization鈥 of hard drugs adopted in B次元官网网址 and many other places across Canada, must and will stop once heB次元官网网址 elected, said Poilievre.
鈥淭hey called is safe supply,鈥 he said. 鈥淎ll these opioids get sold to kids, who get into the lifestyle of drugs. They graduate up to fentanyl and the rest is a very safe and tragic history.鈥
Vancouver has become one of the worst places on Earth for drug use and overdoses, he said.
鈥淭he experiment has been a complete disaster and we need a total U-turn,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 will stop spending money on opioids. I will ban hard drugs. We will put the money into rehab and recovery to bring our loved ones home drug-free and that includes here in Penticton and all across the Okanagan.鈥
All of his major policies 鈥渁re just common sense of the common people,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t is also based on the goal of bringing home CanadaB次元官网网址 promise. A promise that anyone from anywhere can do anything. Where hard work earns a powerful paycheque and pension and buys affordable food and homes in safe neighbourhoods here in Canada, the freest nation on Earth.鈥
Poilievre thanked Peerless management for taking him and his staff on a tour of the facility, including using a welding torch.
鈥淲hat an incredible enterprise you have here,鈥 he said.
Companies like Peerless produce great products and hire good people to make trailers and other products that helps transport goods and materials across Canada and make the life of many Canadians better, said Poilievre.
鈥淲ithout this kind of work, our modern life would not be possible,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 want to thank you for what you do. The country really should work for the people who do the work.鈥
Poilievre was adopted by two teachers at a young age and he fondly remembers travelling from Calgary to the Okanagan Valley on summer vacations with his family.
鈥淲e would do the long road trip from Calgary to Penticton and we would do some camping,鈥 he said.
鈥淭hat was back when people living off a couple of teachers鈥 salaries could afford a nice little vacation. My parents taught me, it didn鈥檛 matter where you started off in Canada, if you worked hard, you could achieve anything.鈥
Later on Tuesday night, the Conservative leader held a rally in Princeton at the Royal Canadian Legion hall.