Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre made his first podcast appearance of the federal election campaign, sitting down alongside his wife, Anaida, on Camila Gonzalez’s new YouTube channel. Poilievre discussed his family and upbringing and identified what he believes are the key issues facing Canadians and how his government would solve them.
The interview aired on Thursday. Gonzalez is a radio and television host known for winning the Miss International Canada beauty pageant in 2018 and her work as an entertainment and community reporter on Univision Canada and TLN.
During the interview, the Poilievres discussed what it was like growing up from humble means and the challenges of raising their two children, Cruz, three, and Valentina, six, the latter of whom is nonverbal.
When asked why people compare him to U.S. President Donald Trump, he said it’s likely due to his strong views against an establishment political class “damaging the lives of good people”, but ultimately, he and Anaida “don’t see the comparison.”
“When I see that an entire generation can’t afford a place to live, and I know this is entirely the result of political and bureaucratic decisions, it’s not an accident. It’s not a problem that fell out of the sky,” he said. “I have an intense desire for those people who caused the problem to be held accountable for it.”
He said heated political debate is preferable to a nation where all the politicians get along like a one-party nation.
“There’s going to be a lot of attacks that come my way because I’m challenging a lot of established interests, and they have a lot of money and power, and they prefer to keep things just the way they are,” he said. “I think there are some ways in which (Canadians) do need to be a little bit more blunt in this country because it’s not going well, and there’s a lot of people suffering because of really bad decisions by powerful people.”
Poilievre was also asked how his politics have changed over the years. He said his outlook on economics, reducing the size of the state, and getting the government out of Canadians’ lives is still akin to an essay he wrote about what he would do as prime minister when he was in school.
When asked about making housing more affordable for young people, Poilievre noted his recently announced policies to cut GST on new homes under $1.3 million and to incentivize municipalities to cut development charges by paying 50 per cent of every dollar they save developers. He also planned to sell off 6,000 federal buildings and thousands of acres of federal land to convert them into housing in a bid to increase the housing supply and lower costs.
He also said that Conservatives will cap population growth from mass immigration.
“We’re growing our population at three per cent while we grow our housing stock at one per cent that’s mathematically impossible and unsustainable,” he said. “You know, we added 1.2 million people last year; we added 250,000 homes. It’s just not possible. So we will be capping immigration at a level that ensures we always add homes at a faster rate than we add people.”
Poilievre said if Canada cut the cost of building homes if Canadians had more money in their own pockets after taxes, and if the value of their purchasing power wasn’t diminished from government money printing, they could have “very affordable housing.”
When speaking on immigration and the border, Poilievre said his government would introduce background checks based on the criminal records applicants have in their countries of origin, something he says doesn’t currently happen under the current government.
After discussing Anaida’s struggles growing up as a new immigrant to Canada from Venezuela, Gonzalez, who was born in Columbia and raised in Brampton, Ont, asked Poilievre what he would do to help new immigrants.
“The problem we have is that immigrant credentials aren’t recognized. In Canada, we have these occupational licensing bodies that shut out newcomers, or even Canadian-born kids who get trained abroad, they can’t come back and get working even when they are qualified,” he said.
He said Canada has 20,000 immigrant doctors and 32,000 immigrant nurses that can’t find work in Canada despite the nation’s staffing shortages in healthcare. He said 85 per cent of Philipino nurses can’t get work in nursing due their foreign credentials not being recognized in Canada.
Poilievre added that Conservatives will introduce a standardized skills-based “blue seal” test that immigrants can take before or after they arrive in Canada to test their skills and ensure they are qualified for jobs needed in the Canadian economy. He said he would push provinces to recognize the approved credentials and noted that Canadian doctors don’t have a national licensing program.
He also noted he would allow seniors to keep RSPs longer, growing more until they were 31, and his 15 per cent income tax would apply to their retirement income. Like young people, his plan to reduce housing costs, he said, will benefit many seniors who may be looking to move into smaller housing as they get older.
Poilievre said on his first day as prime minister he would “fully axe” the carbon tax, repeal anti-energy laws, pass a “massive crackdown” on crime, and put in place “very powerful” incentives to get housing built.
“There’s so much to do, so much to fix, and so much to change for the better.”