Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre spoke to residents regarding various issues in North Bay on Friday.
Hundreds packed the Best Western on Lakeshore, joining what he dubs the “Axe the tax” rally.
“After 8 years of Justin Trudeau, life costs more, work doesn’t pay, housing costs have doubled and now Trudeau and the NDP want to raise the carbon tax to 61 cents a litre,” says Poilievre. “It’ll cost thousands of dollars for every family in North Bay. The cost of gassing up to drive a long distance, heat your home, or god forbid buy groceries in rural northern communities is already too high. You tax all those things more, they’ll be many seniors who will have to choose between eating and heating. There will be people skipping meals, or forced into food banks. We want the opposite of that. That’s why I’ll axe the tax to bring home lower prices for food gas and groceries.”
Poilievre rallies have been held across northern Ontario the last few weeks, including Kenora, Kapuskasing, Sudbury, the Soo, Timmins and of course North Bay.
He says some of the things he heard surprised him.
“I was surprised to hear how badly people are suffering. People’s lives are falling apart,” he shares. “I met a 42-year-old at a Tim Horton’s in the Soo who’s living in his car. I met a Veteran yesterday who’s living in his truck. I met an 18-year-old girl in Timmins who’s going to leave town because she’s afraid of the crime. I met the owner of a sports supply store in the same town who’s been burglarized 4 times in the last two years, 7 in the last decade. Life is more costly and more dangerous after 8 years of Trudeau and the NDP. The good news is it wasn’t like this before Trudeau and it won’t be like this after he’s gone. We’re going to rely on the common sense of the common people, united for our common home, to get the country back on track.”
Poilievre says he’ll do that by changing what he calls the Liberal’s catch-and-release policies, which he says have unleashed massive crime waves across the country.
“When you release the same repeat mega criminals over and over again they just do more crime. It’s a really small number of criminals who do almost all the crime. My common sense plan is jail and not bail for repeat violent offenders. I’m going to reverse Trudeau’s ban on hunters and licensed sport shooters, and instead put the money on bolstering our borders and keep the illegal guns and drugs out. And, I’m going to invest in recovery and treatment so we can bring home our loved ones, drug-free,” he says.
Poilievre heard from North Bay residents following the event in a meet and greet.
