Pierre Poilievre is the Conservative Party of Canada’s new leader after a landslide first ballot win announced Sept. 10.
Poilievre took 68 percent of the votes and becomes the leader of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition.
According to the party, 418,000 Canadians voted in the contest and Poilievre’s win came by the largest margin ever seen in a CPC leadership vote. Former Quebec MP and premier Jean Charest was a distant second with 16 percent support.
The campaign focused little on ag issues, although Poilievre did attend events on prairie farms.
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After a visit to a Saskatchewan farm, he told the Estevan Mercury that farmers are “concerned about this 30-percent cutback in fertilizer that (Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau is pushing.”
In that interview he said, if elected prime minister, he would reverse that policy to allow farmers to become more efficient in fertilizer use.
The Liberal government has repeatedly said the 30-percent reduction in emissions from fertilizer will not be mandatorily imposed by the 2030 target date.
Poilievre said he would repeal the Liberal government’s carbon tax and deal with climate change by using green technology. However, he did not announce a full climate change plan.
Early in the campaign Poilievre said he would maintain the supply management system for dairy, eggs and poultry.
In his victory speech, he said a government he leads would get out of the way and allow people to control their own lives and money.
“Tonight begins the journey to replace an old government that costs you more and delivers you less with a new government that puts you first: your paycheque, your retirement, your home, your country,” he said.
Canada and Canadians need to get back to making their own stuff, he said, including mining, energy production and manufacturing.
“That also includes repatriating food production by standing with our farmers here at home,” he said.
That would mean repealing what he called high energy taxes and “proposed fertilizer cuts” that will only drive food production to more polluting jurisdictions.
“Didn’t we learn how irresponsible it was to rely on the rest of the world to provide us with our essentials during COVID?” he said.
A Poilievre government would get off farmers’ backs and allow them to grow affordable food “and be the breadbasket of the world,” he said.
It would also end the import of foreign oil and the remaining vaccine mandates, while giving immigrants applying to work in their profession a yes-or-no answer within 60 days.
Poilievre began his speech by acknowledging the Sept. 8 death of Queen Elizabeth II, noting she espoused the ideas of decency and duty.
The 43-year-old Poilievre has been an Ontario MP since 2004 and served in former prime minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet as minister of state for democratic reform and minister of employment and social development.
The Calgary-born politician has a bachelor of arts in international relations from the University of Calgary and then worked as an adviser to Stockwell Day when he was leader of the Canadian Alliance.
Contact karen.briere@producer.com
