Pierre Poilievre says he has big plans for Canada if he gets the nod for prime minister.
At the beginning of 2025, Poilievre’s Conservatives had a commanding lead in voter surveys over then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals.
Now, under the leadership of Mark Carney, the Liberals are ahead of the Conservatives in the polls in the current federal election campaign.
With such a dramatic turn of events, what is Poilievre’s strategy to reverse that trend before voters go to the polls on April 28?
“We’re reminding people of the choice. After a lost Liberal decade of rising crime, rising costs and a falling economy under America's thumb, we can't afford a fourth Liberal term,” Poilievre said in an extensive interview with SooToday Wednesday.
He said a Conservative government will axe taxes, green light home building and approve natural resource projects to create jobs in order to stand up to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs from a position of strength.
Poilievre said Carney’s leadership is not a solution but rather a continuation of Liberal policies that the Conservatives have criticized.
“In the last 10 years the Liberal government doubled housing costs, doubled food bank lineups, doubled our national debt and left our economy helpless and dependent on the Americans.
"Mark Carney was the economic advisor to Justin Trudeau that helped bring about this disaster and he has the same Liberal MPs, same Liberal ministers, same Liberal policies that got us into this mess. You can't trust the people who made the mess to clean it up.”
Poilievre held a packed rally at The Machine Shop in Sault Ste. Marie on Tuesday.
As reported by SooToday’s Kenneth Armstrong, members of Angie's Angels - a group formed after a shocking mass murder in the Sault in October of 2023 - attended Tuesday's rally hoping to hear more from Poilievre on his campaign promise of tougher penalties for intimate partner violence offences.
However, the signs and a photo of murder victim Angie Sweeney were temporarily taken away from the group and were not allowed to be displayed during the rally.
“I am in favour of freedom of expression,” Poilievre told SooToday, stating he spoke with Angie’s Angels after the rally.
“What I find very interesting about this is that they did not express any such concerns when I met with them on my way onto the bus, so that’s news to me.
"I did get a chance to meet with some of the family members and they shared their story and they thanked me for my work in combating intimate partner violence and crime.”
Poilievre has criticized current anti-drug strategies such as safe consumption sites, labelling them ‘drug dens’ and he wants to see them shut down.
Are stricter laws and tough love the answer to save lives?
“Giving out drugs and drug consumption sites are deadly failure. The debate is over. We now know the truth. The only way out of this is through treatment and recovery. Instead we will put the money into treatment, detox, rehabilitation,” Poilievre said.
The Conservative leader said Winnipeg’s Bruce Oake Recovery Centre and Harvest House Atlantic in Moncton are “wonderful treatment centres.”
“They have proven success in getting people off drugs. I will be giving money directly to those treatment centres based on the number on how long they keep former addicts drug free. We'll be paying for results. We will have one policy goal - to get people off drugs. Not to perpetuate drug use, not to build up a bureaucracy of activists and pharmaceutical companies that profit off keeping the problem going.”
Hugh Stevenson, the former Sault Police chief, is the Conservative candidate for Sault Ste. Marie-Algoma and Bob Herman, a former Thunder Bay Police chief, is running in Thunder Bay-Superior North.
Is that part of the Conservative tough-on-crime stance?
“We need to stop the crime,” Poilievre replied.
“The reason why crime is raging out of control is because of Liberal catch and release laws that turn loose the most violent repeat offenders over and over and over again. Those criminals need to be locked up behind bars and away from our people.
"We're going to repeal the Liberal catch and release laws.”
Poilievre said a Conservative government would establish a three strikes you're out law that will mean anyone convicted of three serious violent offences will be ineligible for bail, parole, probation or house arrest.
“They'll get a minimum of 10 years behind bars and they will not be released until they've proven through good behaviour, negative drug tests and learning an employable skill that they are no longer a danger to society.”
Poilievre said he would like to bring in life sentences for drug producers and dealers.
“We have the large scale ones that are trafficking more than 40 mg. They’ll get a life sentence. Because 40 mg is enough to kill 20 people. So we're going to lock them up.
"And the treatment spaces, we're going to have 50,000 treatment and rehabilitation spaces. And that is to counter the fact that 50,000 people have died from drugs.”
What is the Conservative leader’s strategy, if elected, in dealing with Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods?
“I will propose to him on day one that Canada and the U.S. renegotiate the CUSMA agreement with the goal of ending tariffs on both sides of the border.
"I will propose also that the current tariffs be suspended until that negotiation can happen so that our businesses on both sides of the border can get back to hiring workers and serving customers rather than fighting a stupid trade war," he said.
“We can't control Donald Trump. Nobody knows what he'll do. No one can control his decisions. What we can control is the decisions we make about our own economy,” Poilievre said.
He said that includes repealing the industrial carbon tax and approving pipelines, liquefied natural gas plants and encouraging other major industrial projects such as the Ring of Fire.
Poilievre has visited the Sault several times since becoming Conservative leader in 2022 and expressed confidence that the party can wrestle the Sault Ste. Marie-Algoma riding away from Liberal incumbent Terry Sheehan.
“It will depend on whether people in the Sault want a fourth Liberal term of rising cost and crime or whether they want to change with a new Conservative government and a new Conservative MP, Hugh Stevenson,” Poilievre said.