Former British Columbia premier Gordon Campbell endorsed Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre for prime minister during an interview on CBC News after writing a biting review of the Liberals’ “dismal decade.”
The ex-premier and former mayor of Vancouver made the comments while speaking with CBC’s Rosemary Barton following an op-ed he wrote where he opined that Canada could “not afford a fourth Liberal, no matter who the leader is.”
Campbell served as a Liberal premier from 2001 to 2011 at a time when the party was more centre-right politically compared to the present day.
The former premier recently wrote a rather scathing review of Liberal Leader Mark Carney without mentioning Poilievre.
Barton questioned whether this was because Campbell was still unsure of who he was supporting in the election.
“No, I’m not thinking about where my support should go,” answered Campbell. “I think we should hold governments to account. The Liberal decade was a dismal decade for Canada. Their immigration policies hurt every one of our cities.”
He went on to say that under the Trudeau-Carney Liberals, Canada’s existing healthcare and education problems were also made worse.
Campbell also wanted to stress that just because Trudeau has now been replaced, the administration remains the same.
His stance counters the messaging that has been heavily pushed by Carney on the campaign trail and during the federal debates.
“One person does not a government make,” he said. “I wouldn’t count on the federal government delivering and executing a program any time as long as it’s the same group that’s been there the last 10 years. They’ve been incompetent and they’ve led us down the wrong road.”
According to Campbell, while they may have been “well intended” they still “didn’t do the job.”
“They have to do the job not just for me and my generation, we’ve been taken care of pretty well but I tell ya, my grandkids deserve to have a government that’s thinking about them,” he continued. “Not thinking about debt. Not thinking about expediently taking care of this group or that group. How are we building the future for Canada?”
Campbell said those are the questions informing his vote, “and I think Mr. Poilievre has the platform that will get us there,” he added.
Poilievre expressed his gratitude for Campbell’s endorsement in a post to X Saturday.
“Thank you to former B.C. Liberal Premier Gordon Campbell for supporting our Conservative Economic Plan to take advantage of all our country’s opportunities,” he wrote.
In his op-ed published in the Vancouver Sun earlier this month, Campbell said that Canada cannot “afford to lock our energy resources away as Mark Carney has promised.”
“We cannot lose any more time in getting our mineral resources to the marketplace. We cannot afford to suspend our critical thinking and fall prey to the magical thinking that represents the Liberal campaign in this election,” he wrote.
Campbell also expressed his dismay for Carney’s commitment to keeping the “bureaucratic nightmare that is Bill-C69 and Bill-C48” which will continue to stagnate Canada’s energy “for generations.”
“Taxing more, playing games with the books, and reinforcing the status quo will weaken Canada and make us more vulnerable to the predatory actions of an uninformed U.S. president” the article continued. “Assuring we can only sell our valuable energy resources to the U.S. at a discount may help the U.S. economy but, make no mistake, it hurts Canada. It makes us more dependent on the U.S., not less.”
Campbell also said that Carney’s pledge to maintain Bill-C69 and Bill-C48 only futhers Canada’s “capitulating to U.S. President Donald Trump’s agenda.”
“All politicians should remember the only money they have is the money they take from you or your children in deficits, debt, and taxes. Carney says he’s borrowing $25 billion for housing and he’s creating another big federal agency,” wrote Campbell. “That plan failed before at everything except making housing, and the cost of government, more expensive.”