Poilievre takes aim at Carney ahead of Canada Investment Summit: 'WHERE ARE THE RESULTS?'
· Toronto Sun
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OTTAWA — Where are the results?
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That was the question Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre had in Vancouver on Tuesday, speaking to reporters about Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Canada Investment Summit, happening this week in Toronto.
“We’ve got to start focusing on the practical lives of real people,” he told reporters ahead of his party’s fall caucus retreat.
“It’s all great to have summits and speeches and travelling around the world, but what about right here at home, in people’s real lives? Where are the results that they can enjoy?”
The summit, held Tuesday and Wednesday in Toronto, brings together hundreds of CEOs, investors and decision-makers to hear the government’s pitch for investing in Canada — with hopes of transforming nearly a trillion dollars in government funding to support Canadian firms, jobs and infrastructure.
Poilievre said it’s all fine and good to encourage investment in Canada, but said the government needs to concentrate on changing its policies to make life more livable for everyday Canadians and unlock the country’s economy.
“We’ve had now 18 months of speeches, summits and symbolic signing ceremonies, but what have Canadians got? More expensive food, gas and housing, the worst economy in the G7, five quarters of declining investment,” Poilievre said.
“We need results for real people in their real lives.”
Canada needs clarity on Carney’s Europe aspirations
Instead of making life easier, Carney’s time in the PMO has only made life harder for Canadians, Poilievre said.
“We have the slowest growth in the G7, we’ve lost a trillion dollars in net investment, there’s not an inch of new oil pipeline constructed, we’ve had most of the last year-and-a-half with the worst food price inflation, the worst household debt,” he said.
“Those are the real results for real people, despite the grand announcements, speeches and gushing media praise that Prime Minister Carney has enjoyed.”
With the PM jetting off to Europe later on Tuesday, Poilievre said his party’s all in favour of deepening trade with the EU, pointing to free trade agreements signed into law by the Stephen Harper government — but said the line needs to be drawn somewhere.
“We support defence cooperation with Europe, that’s called NATO … Conservatives have supported that since the early days of the Cold War,” he said.
“What more is Mr. Carney proposing? What Conservatives do not support is forcing waitresses who are struggling to pay their rent or welders worried about losing their homes to pay higher taxes to a government in Europe, or to follow laws by European bureaucrats that don’t even know where the Lower Mainland of B.C. is.”
He also warned against Canada adopting European-style immigration policies that he said would even further exacerbate Canada’s housing and cost-of-living crisis.
“We want Canada to have free trade with Europe, cooperation with Europe, but we’ll never surrender our independence and sovereignty over our laws, our tax money, and our immigration policies.”