Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh are currently making campaign-style visits to northern Ontario communities.
Poilievre, who has visited the Sault three times since 2022, will not be appearing in this community on his current tour but spoke to SooToday in a phone interview on his way to Kirkland Lake Wednesday.
“I love the Sault,” Poilievre said.
“The people there are hard working. They work in our resource sector. They work in trades. They’ve been totally screwed over by sellout Singh and Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax, rising home prices and out of control crime. I believe that people in the Sault are ready for a common sense government. We will axe the carbon tax, build more homes, fix the budget and stop the crime.”
‘Sellout Singh’ is the theme of the Conservative Party’s latest ads, criticizing the NDP leader for his party’s support of Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s minority government.
Poilievre’s support has increased with many voters in recent months due in part to his opposition to the federal government’s carbon tax and his pledge to "axe the tax."
The federal government sees the carbon tax as environmentally responsible and an incentive to get Canadians to go green. The Conservatives see it as a huge tax grab that has made prices skyrocket.
Poilievre outlined what his own party’s policy is in terms of lowering carbon emissions.
“Technology, not taxes,” he said.
“We will speed up approval for nuclear power, hydroelectric dams, mining strategic minerals so that we can produce batteries and solar power here in Canada and export our natural gas to India and broader Asia to displace dirtier coal and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Let’s use technology, not taxes. Let’s lower the cost of clean alternatives rather than raising the cost of traditional energy.”
Poilievre sees reforestation as a natural way to cut carbon emissions through oxygen-producing trees.
“We need to plant the trees. That will dramatically reduce the emissions that obviously come from forest fires. In a monster forest fire it’s like a volcano of carbon into the atmosphere so if we can avoid and minimize those forest fires through better forest practices then that’s one way we can keep carbon out of the atmosphere.”
Poilievre has also made headlines in recent days by making clear his opinion on safe drug consumption sites.
“They don’t work. They’re not safe. What they do is create drug dens next to children’s schools and other places that they don’t belong,” Poilievre said.
The better option, he said, is to focus on treatment.
“We need treatment centres where we detox, counsel, provide group therapy, sweat lodges for First Nations, and physical exercises to bring our loved ones home drug free.”
The Conservative leader said the federal Liberals, supported by the NDP, have worsened the opioid problem in Canada.
“Trudeau and the NDP have given us this horrible crisis by flooding the market with cheap, taxpayer-funded pharmaceutical opioids that have addicted more people and now they want a national decriminalization which will mean it will be as easy to get crack cocaine or fentanyl in your community as it is to get a candy bar at a corner store.”
“I disagree with that. I will ban the drugs, defund the narcotics, treat addiction and bring our loved ones home drug free,” Poilievre said.
Poilievre was asked if a Conservative government would support funding of effective withdrawal management facilities.
“Yes, the ones that work.”
“We’re going to identify those that have had success in getting people off drugs and those are the ones that are going to get the money,” Poilievre said.
The drug problem needs a get tough on crime approach, he said.
“There will be more police," he said. "We’re going to back up the police. We’re also going to jail the repeat offenders. The problem is that the repeat career criminals are released within hours of their latest arrest to offend again and again and again, and that has to stop. There are very few of those criminals in Canada but they are extremely productive and they keep getting released and I’m going to end that by making it so that anyone with a long rap sheet is required to serve their full sentence in jail from the time of their arrest to the time their sentence is complete. Jail, not bail. We’re going to get people off drugs and we’re going to secure the borders to keep illegal drugs and guns out of the country.”
While touring northern Ontario, Poilievre is voicing his support of legal, responsible gun owners such as hunters.
The Conservatives have criticized the Trudeau government’s gun laws that includes a ban on assault-style firearms (that does not apply to such guns that were already on the market) and restrictions on handguns.
Poilievre’s Conservatives and some gun owners view the government’s laws as an attack on responsible hunters.
“We’re going to reverse Trudeau’s gun laws so that hunters in the Sault and across northern Ontario can continue hunting and bringing home venison, moose, bear and other protein to their freezers and to their tables,” Poilievre said.
Poilievre made appearances in Wawa and Hearst Tuesday, visits Kirkland Lake Wednesday, Sudbury on Thursday and Elliot Lake on Friday.