Poilievre outlines four priorities for Carney to tackle when Parliament returns

In an open letter to Carney, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has laid out four priorities the Official Opposition wants to see the government focus on when Parliament resumes on Sept. 15.

Source: CPAC

In an open letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has laid out four priorities the Official Opposition wants to see the government focus on when Parliament resumes on Sept. 15.

Poilievre said the Opposition will press the government to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, the job-loss crisis, the crime crisis, and the immigration crisis.

“You promised you would change. But everything is worse. We will simply hold you to your lofty promises on these Liberal crises,” said Poilievre.

Poilievre accused Carney of breaking commitments made during the recent election, including pledges to rein in spending and deliver the fastest-growing economy in the G7.

“You promised to spend less. Yet, even without introducing a budget, you are already spending 8% more, and you have doubled the deficit Trudeau left behind,” said Poilievre.

Poilievre said that the cost-of-living crisis created by the Liberals has resulted in Canadians having the worst household debt, the highest housing costs, and the second-highest unemployment in the G7.

During former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s tenure, the debt doubled to over $1.232 trillion. It currently sits at $1.272 trillion.

Despite not releasing a budget, Carney’s costed election platform promised $225 billion in new debt, $100 billion more than the $131 billion promised by Trudeau. Carney further released a $486 billion spending plan, surpassing Trudeau’s projection of $449 billion.

A previous report calculated that the Liberals’ budget deficit will likely climb to $92 billion by 2025/26. Over the projected Liberal government’s tenure, the C.D. Howe Institute said the cumulative deficit would approach $350 billion, increasing Canada’s net debt-to-GDP ratio to 44 per cent.

Poilievre also criticized Carney for his performance on his top election promise, dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump.

“You promised to ‘negotiate a win’ with the U.S. You have missed your own deadline for a deal, made repeated concessions, gotten nothing in return, and U.S. tariffs on Canadian business are twice what they were when you took office.”

Canada’s canola industry has been hit with steep tariffs from China in retaliation for the Liberals’ imposing EV tariffs against them. Canada was also saddled with the fifth-highest tariff rate in the world by the United States. However, the U.S. recently extended the tariff deadline for China by three months.

He also highlighted Canadians losing over 106,000 jobs in the last two months, with consecutive monthly decreases piling up. Canada has also seen record youth unemployment, with young men in Alberta seeing unemployment rates as high as 19 per cent, compared to the national average of youth unemployment at 14.5 per cent.

Despite record unemployment, Poilievre said that Carney is going to allow the largest amount of Temporary Foreign Workers in the country’s history. Meanwhile, the backlog of asylum claims has risen 2,800 per cent.

As for crime, Poilievre noted that since 2015, violent crime has increased 55 per cent, homicides have risen 29 per cent, sexual assaults have risen 76 per cent, extortion has increased by 330 per cent, and hate crimes have soared 258 per cent.

“That is an unacceptable record of failure,” said Poilievre.

The Conservative leader is set to return to Parliament after winning the byelection in the Alberta riding of Battle River—Crowfoot with 80.4 per cent of the vote.

Before sending his letter, Poilievre also pledged to bring a “right to self-defence” bill to Parliament. Similarly, he promised to make the Liberals’ “second carbon tax” a top priority.

“Our goal is to bring down costs, lock up criminals, hit the brakes on immigration, get shovels digging and deliver paycheques in pockets. We want a safe and affordable country like we had before this Liberal government,” concluded Poilievre.