Poilievre defends Maduro’s capture, says Liberals pose “biggest risk” to Canadian oil

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is standing by his support for the U.S.’s “surgical” capture of socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro despite backlash from some in the legacy media.

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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is standing by his support for the U.S.’s “surgical” capture of socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro despite backlash from some in the legacy media, and he claimed that the biggest risk to the success of Canadian oil is the Liberals themselves.

During an exclusive interview with Juno News’ Marc Patrone on Wednesday, Patrone asked Poilievre to respond to “legacy media” criticism of his support for the arrest of Venezuela’s socialist despot. Poilievre noted the critiques are at odds with the Liberal government’s stance, which recognizes Maduro as an illegitimate ruler of the once-prosperous nation.

“He was governing without legitimacy, not to mention the countless crimes that he has committed in jailing political prisoners, jailing political opponents, killing enemies, plunging the country into the most impoverished nation in all of the Americas, sponsoring drug lords, allowing Hezbollah and other terrorist groups to use the country as a staging ground which threatens our hemisphere,” Poilievre said.

“The fact that he was moved and removed in a frankly surgical incision, not through a large-scale violent Invasion of the whole country, but a surgical incision that allowed him to be taken without any harm done to the civilian population, is a positive development.”

Poilievre noted that Maduro will now be afforded due process in American courts in the Democratic-run state of New York, a right Maduro himself wouldn’t grant to his own citizens. Poilievre continued, however, hoping “the keys” to the country are handed over to Edmundo González, “The rightful and democratically elected president of Venezuela, and his partner María Corina Machado

“I expect that Machado would run as the leading contender, and she would win, and she would bring democracy, freedom, free enterprise, and prosperity to the people of that country,” Poilievre added.

Patrone also questioned Poilievre about his recent call for increased pipeline and oil production to address challenges posed by the U.S. capturing and opening Venezuela’s oil market to allied nations.

Poilievre argued Canadian oil could be competitive due to its low risk, marginal costs and status as one of the lowest-carbon options on the market. He urged Prime Minister Mark Carney to simply “get out of the way” of Canadian oil production to allow Canada to meet current needs through pipelines that Liberals have historically blocked.

“The biggest risk to our oil production is the Liberal government, which killed the, for example, $20 billion tech frontier mine, killed the Energy East pipeline, the Northern Gateway pipeline, and has imposed countless other anti-energy policies that make it a very high-risk proposition to invest in Canada,” Poilievre said.

“He doesn’t seem to understand how heavy oil markets work in the Americas. Many of the refineries that buy heavy Canadian oil sands bitumen products were actually built to service Venezuelan oil because Venezuela and Alberta are pretty much the only places in the world that produce this high viscosity, heavy, thick, bitumen-like oil product that needs a specific type of refinery.”

Poilievre noted that Venezuelan oil becoming more available on the market is “in direct competition” for refinery capacity with Canadian oil.

“We’re also competing for investment. Major energy investors in America have a fixed amount of investment, and if they see opportunities in a newly opened up Venezuela, then they will not be sending their billions to build oil stands infrastructure in Canada,” he said. “In other words, the race is on.”

He said if Venezuela restarts oil production and returns to producing 3.5 million barrels a day, most of the oil will go to US refineries that now buy Canadian oil, and Canada will be “displaced.”

“So before that happens, we need a new pipeline to the Pacific so we can sell our oil overseas to non-American markets. And get good prices that pay high wages and boost our purchasing power,” Poilievre said. “It’s a very short trip from northern Venezuela to the US Gulf Coast, where we send much of our oil currently by pipeline and by rail. And so, for refineries specifically tailored to coke and process heavy oil, they’ll ask, ‘Why would we need Canadian? We’ve got the Venezuelan product,’ and before that happens, we need a new market.”