‘How can you be scared of the alternative when the present reality is bloody terrifying?’
Pierre Poilievre says there are those already trying to paint him as one scary dude.
It’s a dog-eared move out of a well-worn playbook and the federal Conservative leader insists it will go absolutely nowhere.
“How can you be scared of the alternative when the present reality is bloody terrifying?” says Poilievre, in an exclusive interview with Postmedia during the Calgary Stampede.
He is reminded of all the fear and smear when Stephen Harper was Conservative leader.
“Rick, here’s the thing,” says Poilievre.
“Things were not bad back then. Let’s be honest about it.”
He mentions two Liberal prime ministers.
“Paul Martin and Jean Chretien left things in reasonably good shape. That was when Liberals were Liberals.”
He says when Harper took office there was low unemployment, inflation wasn’t crazy, house prices were reasonable.
“People were looking for a change, to get rid of the sponsorship scandal-plagued Liberals.”
Canadians were looking for “a good safe pair of hands to run things.”
Now Poilievre sees the NDP-Liberals, raving wackos, lunatics, extremists, radicals, woke socialists, promising a utopia and creating a nightmare, saying one thing and doing the exact opposite, all the while detesting working-class families and how they live and what they value.
Those calling themselves Liberals and led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are a mess, falling apart while clinging to what’s left of their power.
Poilievre says “the NDP-Liberal MPs couldn’t care less that people were priced out of homes and terrorized by crime, unable to buy good food because it wasn’t affecting them.”
“Then the electoral clock started ticking and the NDP-Liberal MPs started showing up in the neighbourhoods that they haven’t been in for two-and-a-half years and found out everyone was fed up with them because of how the country is falling apart.
“So the Liberals have now gone back to Trudeau and said: Hey, we’re all going to lose our jobs. They didn’t care about anybody else’s jobs or anybody else’s groceries or mortgage payment.
“But now the Liberal and NDP politicians could be on the unemployment line themselves and they’re calling up their boss saying: Everybody hates you.”
Housing costs, carbon tax, corruption and Trudeau “exposed as an absolute fake.”
So should Trudeau stay or should he go? Does it even matter?
“Every single replacement of Justin Trudeau is Justin Trudeau. They agree with him on everything.”
Then there’s Mark Carney, the big-shot investment banker who headed up the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, touted as someone to take over from Trudeau.
“Let’s be clear. Mark Carney is Justin Trudeau with a clean-cut hair style and a normal pair of socks.
“The only difference is Carney is a little more radical than Trudeau. He doesn’t look like a radical because he combs his hair but he is a radical.
“He supports the same radical international socialist agenda of massive carbon taxes, shutting down the energy sector, deficit spending and money printing.”
Poilievre mentions a nickname. Carbon Tax Carney.
Poilievre also says he “doesn’t want conservatives to be tricked” by the media’s current attitude to Trudeau.
“The media are being critical of Trudeau just because they think the only way to defeat me is by getting rid of him, not because they’ve decided to be fair and balanced.
“The media is turning on Trudeau because they want to get rid of the electoral dud called Justin so they can have a better chance of keeping the NDP-Liberals in power.”
Poilievre says with him as prime minister, there “will be no more throwing around money.”
“This idea of just showing up and saying this or that problem has been identified, here we are with a $500-million cheque. That crap is done.”
The Conservative leader speaks of lower taxes, no carbon tax, aggressively pushing to speed up the building of affordable homes, controlled spending, bringing down debt and interest rates, locking up repeat violent criminals, giving treatment and not free drugs to addicts as well as stopping the federal government harassing hunters and sport shooters.
As for “a bunch of incompetent mayors” showing up, saying they’re broke and wanting more more money, they will find Poilievre far from being an easy mark.
On the other hand he pledges if he is in charge “we will unleash production of our oil and gas.”
Through the eyes of this man Canada is taking a beating in the pocketbook and on the streets and he is fighting back.
“This is not liberalism. This is a radical extreme wacko agenda that is out of touch with the entire country. And I’m not interested in being a caretaker for the socialist apparatus that the NDP-Liberals have created under Justin Trudeau.”