» Poilievre talks tough on crime, tariffs at Brampton rally

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It just doesn’t look like an election campaign that is trailing in the opinion polls — which the election industry is continually pushing.

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If you were driving by Brampton’s Embassy Grand Convention Centre Wednesday night, it might have looked like a rock concert was going on.

There was nowhere to park and the crowds piling in were excited. It got louder after the thousands who jammed in started changing “bring it home, bring it home,” and continued with a rockstar-like reception at the end of the rally.

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And by the time Pierre Poilievre took the stage after being introduced by his wife Anaida, it didn’t feel like a regular campaign stop, but more like people coming out to see Canada’s next prime minister.

Certainly the massive media presence was on hand just in case what we are witnessing in cities all across the country is history in the making. The polls certainly don’t say that. But the buzz sure does. It was exciting there.

Poilievre got a big endorsement from the Peel Regional Police Association with president Adrian Woolley saying it’s time to lock up the bad guys. Former Peel cop and Oakville East Conservative candidate Ron Chhinzer told the crowd that it would take all night to list how bad crime has become under what Poilievre called the “lost decade of Liberal control.”

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Perhaps the best line of the night was when Poilievre asked, “How many people in here have had their car stolen?”

Many raised their hands.

He then humourously corrected himself. “OK, how many people in here have not had their car stolen?”

Point taken. Point delivered.

That said, anything can happen in this battle for prime minister and the right to rule in the next Parliament. There is nothing normal about this election race. From a new leader holding the title of prime minister to a country not sure what is coming next in the strange tariff war with the United States.

It was the first thing Poilievre dealt with.

“I have to address today’s latest disrespect by President (Donald) Trump of our country,” the Conservative leader told the crowd. “While President Trump announced a 90-day pause on tariffs for dozens of countries, he kept those tariffs in place on Canada.”

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Poilievre asked the crowd to “take that in for a moment,” while adding “almost every country in the world got a pause on American tariffs, but not us, America’s best friend. Our steelworkers, aluminum workers, auto workers, lumber workers hit again. This after Prime Minister (Mark) Carney boasted that he had a ‘productive’ phone call with the president.

“He said that he had made progress with the president. What progress? What progress do the auto workers in Brampton and Windsor and elsewhere in Canada today see?”

The crowd cheered, but Poilievre did not heap all of this on his opponent’s shoulders.

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“Now, to be clear, I’m not blaming Prime Minister Carney for President Trump’s tariffs,” he said. “These tariffs are uncalled for and unacceptable. They are unjustified, and no one can control this president. But that is precisely the point. Prime Minister Carney is running his entire campaign on a false promise that he can control the president through magical, masterful negotiating techniques.

“Nobody can control this president and while I will move quickly to negotiate an end to tariffs with protections for Canadian sovereignty as quickly as possible, we need to focus on what we can control.”

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From there, he talked about crime and a new platform that includes no bail for violent criminals. He also talked about improving the economy and cutting taxes and wasteful government spending. However, one could not miss that Poilievre said something that needs to be said: He will “move quickly to negotiate an end to tariffs with protections for Canadian sovereignty.”

And the person he will have to do that with is Trump.

This is a major step forward in that it shifts the narrative from trying to match tariffs dollar for dollar to instead needing to get a deal done with Canada’s biggest trading partner.

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The next part was also important.

“We need to reverse the disastrous Liberal economic policies of the last 10 years that made us so dependent on the Americans in the first place,” he said. “So the choice in this election is not, as Mr. Carney would ask you, to overlook an entire decade of rising costs and crime and a falling economy that is under the thumb of the Americans simply because he promises that, somehow, he’s a master negotiator. No, he can’t control any of that.”

Poilievre said a Conservative government is needed “to unlock our resources, cut our taxes, build our homes and strengthen our country, so that we can face the Americans from a position of strength.”

Time will tell if the energy from this rally in Brampton, the one the night before in Sault Ste. Marie or any of the others will show up in the polls.

Or will it show up where it matters most — on April 28 in the only poll that matters?

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