» Poilievre says CPC best for workers and to stand up to Trump

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Pierre Poilievre pitched his Conservative team as the one with the best plan to put workers first and defend Canada’s economy in the face of the Trump threats.

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He also drew a sharp contrast between his plans and what he called the anti-worker record of Liberal Leader Mark Carney.

Poilievre was making a policy announcement in Winnipeg that would see tradespeople who travel for work in excess of 120 km be able to deduct the cost of their travel. Many people in skilled trades travel to different parts of the country for jobs, but Poilievre said they are capped at claiming $4,000 worth of expenses on their income taxes.

The Conservative Leader also promised he would make it easier to get the projects approved that so many people in the trades rely on, pointing out the Liberals have only gotten in the way.

“It takes 17 years for a mine to get approved. It was impossible to get a pipeline built. They’re capping our oil and gas sector and taxing our industry with a big industrial tax that will drive jobs out after, we can’t have a fourth Liberal term,” Poilievre said.

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Liberal Leader Mark Carney has promised to increase the industrial carbon tax, a move that will cost industries from steel and aluminum, mining to the oil and gas sector billions. So, while Carney reduced the consumer carbon tax to zero, the industrial carbon tax goes on next Tuesday, on April 1, and he has said it will go up further under his watch.

Carney has said “the big polluters” have to pay.

Well, those so-called big polluters create a lot of jobs and we are currently having a national crisis over Donald Trump putting a tariff on these very same industries, a move that will drive up costs and result in lost jobs. The plan Carney is putting forward, to jack up the industrial carbon tax, will result in higher prices and lost jobs as Canadian companies become less competitive.

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To stand up to Trump, we can’t change the guy at the front of the Liberal Party, the folks who have been running Canada for the last 10 years, and expect real change. The Liberals have weakened our economy, our growth in GDP per capita – which measures how rich we are as a nation – has grown by 1.4% over the past decade while in the United States it has grown by 18.2%.

The Americans are getting richer, more productive, and we are standing still.

We have a housing affordability crisis that the Liberals created. Our immigration system, once the envy of the world is now a disaster. National unity is at risk. And all the Carney Liberals want to talk about is Donald Trump.

Trump could go away tomorrow, the problems the Liberals created will not – unless they are removed from power.

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Carney has the same team that Trudeau had, just a new captain, when what we need are new ideas rather than rehashed green zealotry.

Poilievre has started to pick up endorsements from trade unions in this election, something we haven’t seen for the federal Conservatives before.

“Pierre gets it. He knows and understands that the surest and most sustainable route to providing a cleaner environment is through technology, not dismantling our energy sectors, raising taxes and importing energy from other nations, and exporting Canadian jobs abroad,” wrote Arnie Stadnick, vice president of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers.

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At a rally last week in Steeltown, attended by more than 4,000 people, Poilievre was endorsed by Nathan Bergstrand, business manager of the United Association Local 67 representing pipefitters, plumbers, welders and steamfitters in the Hamilton, Halton and Niagara regions of Ontario.

“Pierre is the real deal,” Bergstrand said last Monday. “Pierre has earned my confidence, and with his hard work and pro-worker agenda, it’s time that Canadian workers were put first for a change.”

By contrast, Bergstrand called Carney a “sellout banker” with an anti-worker agenda.

Poilievre is in the middle of turning blue-collar workers into blue voters, and it looks like we will see more of these endorsements in the future.

This election is far from over.

blilley@postmedia.com

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