Pierre Poilievre plays the troublemaker in Parliament. And members of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) — galvanized by the latest poll reports and bank account statements — are asking for more.
The MPs slapped their thighs when their “leader” Pierre Poilievre ridiculed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who, according to him, was “trembling in the fetal position” in the corner of his office in the face of the mobilization of Canadians determined to put an end to his policy of carbon pricing.
For him, the Prime Minister’s decision to exempt owners of oil furnaces, whose proportion is greater in the east of the country, from the “carbon tax” for three years is part of a strategy aimed at “dividing to win” votes. “ [Justin Trudeau] divides Canadians based on their race, their religion, their sexuality, their vaccination status and, now, their region,” he told dozens of MPs gathered in the basement of parliament on Wednesday morning. “He is going to demonize people in certain parts of the country so that we cannot realize how miserable life is for everyone under his reign,” he added in front of a row of crumpled Canadian flags.
During question period, Pierre Poilievre denounced the absence of the Prime Minister, alleging that “he hides under his desk and refuses to answer questions”, which the Rules of the House prevent him from doing. TO DO. “Since the Prime Minister does not deign to come here to do his job, which I propose to do in his place, why does he not get out of the way? » he asked, barely two years after the last general election. Then he stood up to the Speaker of the House of Commons by refusing to sit down.
Conservative rants recall the Harper years in memory of Burnaby-New Westminster (British Columbia) MP Peter Julian, who has been a member of the House of Commons for almost 20 years.
The refocusing of the PCC, in substance and in form, expected by certain voters after the election of Pierre Poilievre at the head of the PCC is still awaited.
The Conservative leader is moving towards the next general election, scheduled for September 2025, driven by “common sense,” he says, exhilarated by his jumps off Parliament Hill, during which he brought to heel a journalist incapable of support your assertions with examples, while biting into an apple, among other things. A performance praised in particular by the American channel Fox News.
A political attitude appreciated by the electorate. Indeed, the latest polls credit the PCC with a solid parliamentary majority. Pierre Poilievre’s team is winning from coast to coast, except in Quebec, where the Liberal Party of Canada (PLC) and the Bloc Québécois are still ahead of it.
As a result, the PCC opened two fronts east of the Ottawa River: the first against the PLC, the second against the Bloc. “ [Le Parti libéral] intends to quadruple the carbon tax if he is re-elected”, “The Bloc is expensive”, repeats the Conservative leader after eight years of Liberal government.
The CCP’s latest “lie”
Pierre Poilievre plays politics with “falsehoods”, “lies” and “nonsense” sprinkled with “demagoguery”, lament his Liberal, Bloc and New Democrat opponents. An example ? The debate on the “carbon tax”, they respond.
The PCC is seeking by all means to raise Quebecers against the “carbon tax” with the same force as other Canadians, with whom it plans to make it the issue at the ballot box during the next election. The problem: the federal tax does not apply to Quebec since the province established its own cap and trade system for emissions rights (SPEDE) 10 years ago, seeing it as a tool to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG).
Be careful, “Quebecers will have to pay the “second carbon tax” which will increase not only the cost of gasoline, but also that of groceries”, and the proceeds of which will be paid into a green fund, warn Pierre Poilievre and his lieutenant for Quebec, Pierre Paul-Hus, who see it as “another liberal scandal”.
The Bloc members point out that the “second carbon tax”, waved like a scarecrow by the Conservatives, arises from the Clean Fuels Regulations to which Quebec will not be subject. “In Quebec, there are already similar regulations which are in application today, in 2023,” argued the member for Jonquière, Mario Simard, while inviting the conservatives to “advance the issues facing the only French-speaking nation in North America” rather than putting it back on the “carbon tax”.
In doing so, they would ward off the prospect of being called upon to direct the destiny of the country without the support of a plurality of Quebec voters.