Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling out Liberal Leader Mark Carney for failing to condemn a China-backed election interference campaign that sought to boost him as a candidate to the Chinese diaspora in Canada.
During a recent press conference, Poilievre defended his party’s own record, dispelling claims by the legacy media that he received support from India. He said his party received over 37,000 donations online and that Canadian Security Intelligence Service background checks cannot be done on each donor.
“We condemn 100 per cent any foreign interference in Canada, and anyone who collaborates with it should be jailed,” said Poilievre.
However, he said that the real question is why the Liberals haven’t set up the foreign agent registry, despite it being passed into law by Parliament. Another salient question, Poilievre said, was why Carney was accepting campaign support from the Chinese communist government.
“He was just in China a few months ago arranging a quarter billion dollar loan for his company — a company in which he still has millions of dollars of interest,” said Poilievre. “And, now we find out that the government in Beijing is actively interfering to campaign on behalf of Mr. Carney.”
He added that the Beijing government also attacked Carney’s rival in the Liberal leadership race, Chrystia Freeland.
The Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force previously uncovered that a state-backed Chinese WeChat news platform was trying to “influence” views of Carney in the Chinese diaspora, including “amplifying” his “experience and credentials.”
“He is conflicted. He continues to have financial interests in foreign hostile regimes, in the hundreds of millions of dollars, while he is prime minister of Canada,” said Poilievre of Carney. “That is the real foreign interference that we should be worried about. And, it is the foreign interference that I will end after the lost Liberal decade. They have turned this country into a playground for foreign interference.”
During his former role as the governor of the Bank of England, Carney was involved in several high-stakes meetings with top communist Chinese officials, where green initiatives were developed as policies between the two countries.
A video recently surfaced from before Carney became the Liberal leader. In the video, he was seen boasting about creating green policies to benefit private investors, rather than focusing on reducing emissions.
In an earlier press conference, Carney said he had “no idea” why the People’s Republic of China was trying to boost his campaign but did not explicitly condemn the interference.
Carney’s comments follow him defending former Liberal candidate Paul Chiang for suggesting handing over a Conservative candidate to Chinese authorities for a bounty.
After Chiang stepped down of his own accord, Carney replaced him with former Toronto Police Service deputy chief Peter Yuen, who was previously recorded singing a pro-Chinese communist ballad while in uniform.
Carney recently said that he was not beholden to China. He said that Poilievre doesn’t understand how the world works because he is a lifelong politician. Carney said Canada does have trade disputes with China—caused by them—and that “it’s one of the areas we need to engage on.”
The Liberal leader introduced 25 per cent counter-tariffs on non-CUSMA-compliant vehicles from the United States and 25 per cent tariffs on CUSMA-compliant vehicles not from Canada or Mexico.
While announcing the counter-measures, Carney blamed U.S. President Donald Trump for creating the trade crisis.
Despite China introducing a 100 per cent tariff on Canadian canola meal and oil, and peas, as well as a 25 per cent tariff on seafood and pork, totalling over $2.6 billion, no retaliatory measures have been introduced by Carney against China.