Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre made his second long-form podcast appearance of the election campaign and discussed U.S. relations, the role of the media and how the Liberals were copying his policies.
Poilievre appeared on The Knowledge Project, a business-oriented show hosted by Shane Parrish, a former Canadian intelligence agent, entrepreneur, and best-selling author. During the hour-and-a-half interview which aired on Sunday on X, Poilievre spoke about a range of topics.
Poilievre started the podcast by dismissing comparisons of his style of politics to U.S. President Donald Trump’s.
“Being opposition leader, by definition, requires that you fight a lot. I mean, it’s two sword lengths apart in the House of Commons, and the system is deliberately adversarial so that you can hold government to account,” he said. “But I think it’s important for people to know what I’m fighting for, and what I really want is to give everyone the same chance I had.”
He defended his stance that Canada needs to retaliate against U.S. tariffs so the country “knows its producers will pay” for the administration’s tariffs against Canada. Despite this, he would first attempt to renegotiate a free trade deal with the U.S. that benefits both countries.
Poilievre said he would argue to Trump that a free trade deal between the U.S. and Canada would enable Canada to defend the Arctic—a concern he believes lies at the heart of Trump’s tariff threats.
To reduce Canada’s dependence on the U.S., Poilievre emphasized the need to grow the domestic economy, build pipelines for international exports, and make Canada a more attractive place for investment—something the Liberals have signalled they will not do.
He argued that while the Liberals have adopted some conservative-sounding policies, the key difference is sincerity.
“I’ve been saying the exact same thing the whole time, and in the last two months, they’ve adopted pale imitations of my policies to try and kind of trick people into thinking they’re getting conservative policies by voting liberal,” he said.
He noted that the Liberals said they axed the carbon tax” but can easily reverse the regulatory change if they’re reelected, as the law is still in place.
Poilievre also pledged tax cuts for companies that produce goods while lowering emissions. He argued that the Liberal carbon pricing scheme is counterproductive, making it cheaper to import goods from countries with higher emissions than buying products made in Canada.
“The most obvious example to me is the SunTech tomatoes in Manotick. They’re paying a carbon tax on the CO2 they release into the greenhouse, even though it’s absorbed by plant life. That’s grade school of science,” he said.
He warned that Carney would keep Bill C-69, which businesses and developers warned would make it nearly impossible to build any resource projects–leading to an outpouring of investment into the U.S., where it’s easier to receive approval.
Poilievre made the case that every Canadian citizen would benefit from successful energy projects. Energy is Canada’s number one export, and its success will mean the Canadian dollar will have more purchasing power. The taxes paid by the industry will help pay off the debt and for government services, meaning future generations will have less of a bill to pay.
Poilievre also clarified his opposition to Canadian politicians being members of the World Economic Forum.
“I don’t believe that there’s this sort of group of globe-trotting experts that can tell us how to live our lives, which industry should go up and which should go down, what cars we should drive, what words we should speak and how our money should be spent,” he said.
He also said regular blue-collar Canadians often have a better understanding of things than globalist elites who occupy the WEF. He called out Carney for promoting money printing in 2021, claiming it wouldn’t drive up inflation, while average Canadians were saying it would.
Poilievre vowed to repeal Liberal censorship laws and media bailouts, saying free speech is the best cure to hold governments accountable. He also blasted Carney for pledging millions of dollars of bailouts to the legacy media.
“Obviously that could create the perception of bias in the resulting reporting, and I don’t think government should control the media,” he said. “I think the idea of a free press is that it’s independent from the government.”
He committed to keeping Canada’s social safety net in place and said he would avoid expanding it beyond meeting basic needs. He said when the government prints money to pay for its spending, it benefits only the rich, who see their assets inflated, while the majority of Canadians feel the impact of their degraded purchasing power. He said the only way to stop inflation is to stop the deficit spending that sparks it.
He also repeated a pledge to address Canada’s healthcare staffing shortages and other needs by introducing a “blue seal” standardized test immigrants can take to prove they can work in the field they are educated in. He said this would ensure that immigrants don’t have to take low-paying jobs despite having the qualifications to work.
He said Canada is more divided than ever but blamed the current Liberal government for hyper-fixating on Canadians’ differences, such as gender, race, and religion. Instead, Poilievre proposed a vision of Canada where Canadians are united by their shared ability to achieve success through hard work.
“The government has tried to encourage people to divide into different camps, and that has metastasized onto our streets with these horrible protests that target Jewish places of worship and schools and businesses,” he said. “I think that’s wrong. I mean, we’ve always had immigrants from the Middle East, and they never led to any kind of violence or firebombings of places of worship. They might have debated if they were in a university class together, but it never went beyond that.”
He said the emphasis on dividing Canadians into different categories has increased group-based hostility and violence. He said newcomers to Canada should keep their cultural traditions but that people should be judged on their individual conduct rather than their cultural backgrounds. Poilievre concluded by saying that he’s driven by a desire to give Canadians the opportunities that had been afforded previous generations.