Justin Trudeau’s Immigration Minister, Marc Miller, accused Pierre Poilievre of having a contradictory message before the Conservative Leader took the stage at a major rally in Ottawa.
“You can’t say that Canada is broken and at the same time say that Canada is the best country in the world,” Miller told reporters outside Poilievre’s rally an hour before it began. He said he was there “to make sure “the flags were the right side up.”
Miller joked with reporters, saying he would give them donuts if they were allowed to accept them, saying he wasn’t sure if Poilievre would lock them out of the event.
“I brought Pierre donuts today, just like he was bringing to the freedom convoy when they were illegally occupying the hill,” he said. “The last time he was cheering this hard, flags were all upside down.”
Miller also took to X during the rally’s livestream, saying Poilievre’s speech was “long, boring and low energy.” However, the crowd was filled with excitement as Poilievre’s supporters frequently cheered, chanted and waved flags.
In his speech, Poilievre blamed Liberal anti-energy policies for stagnant oil trade. He said that in a full-blown trade war, America could cut off Canada’s own supply of oil, as it had to travel through America before being sold back to other provinces.
He also accused Poilievre of saying, “First Nations can pay for their own clean water.”
The missing context was a new Conservative policy to incentivize Indigenous leaders to support energy projects by using federal corporate taxes to fund local First Nations.
“This will help First Nations create their own source of money for clean drinking water, schools, job training and more,” Poilievre said. “These projects will make First Nations the richest people in the world, while we get things approved and make Canada more self-reliant.”
After Miller left the media scrum, the Liberal Party released a statement accusing Poilievre of “following Donald Trump’s playbook” and “desperately trying to rebrand himself in hopes that Canadians will forget who he is.”
“First, the Liberals said I had no policies. Then they said my policies were scary. Now they pretend dishonestly to agree with all my policies, 60 days before an election,” Poilievre said during the rally. “I take it as a compliment, but don’t believe them for a minute. If you want Conservative policies, you must vote Conservative to get them.”He said before the threat of tariffs, the carbon tax was “the issue” of the election, but after the tariff threats, getting rid of the carbon tax has become “an even bigger issue,” saying the combination of the two would destroy Canadian jobs.
“The worst Liberal tax of all has been the carbon tax, championed by Justin Trudeau and his economic advisor, Mark Carney, whose only complaint was that the tax was not high enough. He said just a few days ago he doesn’t want to “axe the tax” he wants to ‘change’ the tax,” Poilievre said. “Right, he will take the change right out of your pocket.”