Poilievre's 1st campaign rally in the Prairies draws thousands in Winnipeg
Leader touts bail reform, exports from Churchill's port, expedited credential transfer for health-care workers
A crowd of more than 3,500 people rallied in Winnipeg in support of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre who promised an economic development at the Port of Churchill, expedited licensing requirements for health-care workers and to pass legislation to change Canada's bail system.
A long lineup snaked outside a building near Winnipeg Richardson International Airport on Saturday afternoon ahead of the rally. Neighbouring parking lots were full, and some attending the rally told CBC that it took them between 30 and 45 minutes to get inside the building on Wellington Avenue near Berry Street.
"Pierre Poilievre is the only hope for Canada, the only hope," said Brian Cornelsen, an attendee surprised to see the size of the crowd on Saturday.
"He can undo some of the liberal policies that have led to our stagnant country."
Before meeting with voters and supporters at the rally, Poilievre said he spoke with the parents of Kellie Verwey, the 28-year-old victim of a three-vehicle fatal collision Portage la Prairie, who was killed by an alleged drunk driver who had a warrant out for his arrest for violating conditions of his release.
"After taking this precious life, a family is shattered, friends are heartbroken, a community will never be the same," Poilievre said.
But stories like Verwey's can be "easily prevented," he added, by introducing tough-on-crime regulations putting "law-abiding Canadians first" and repealing some current bills that regulate Canada's criminal court system, including C-75 on the bail system.
"We will pass a new law that says any repeat offender newly arrested will be ineligible for bail, parole, probation or house arrest," he said.
Poilievre's message on crime and fentanyl resonated with Joseph Fourre, an undecided voter who came to Saturday's rally to learn about the party's platform.
"This is a really crucial time for Canada right now … I need to be educated so that I can make the right choice," he said.
Fourre created a foundation to educate young people about the dangers of recreational drugs after losing his son to fentanyl poisoning in April of 2023. Over the near-decade of Liberal power, he said the conversation has been around harm reduction, arguing there needs to be a new approach to address the fentanyl crisis.
A study from the University of Toronto last year found opioid-related deaths doubled in Canada between 2019 and the end of 2021, with Manitoba seeing the sharpest rise in overdose deaths for those aged 30 to 39.
Poilievre told the crowd his party would bring in a life sentence for fentanyl producers and traffickers while investing in treatment options he compared to Winnipeg's Bruce Oake Recovery Centre.
"After coming here today my vote is going closer to Pierre."
Outside the rally, a group of about 20 protested outside the building. Inside the rally, at least two protestors shouted at Poilievre but were drowned out by supporters before being removed from the premises.
Churchill's port an 'arctic gateway'
At the rally, the conservative leader said he would also create a shovel-ready zone, or a designated area already permitted for construction, up to the Port of Churchill — "an arctic gateway" from where Canada should be shipping "all manner of resources."
Earlier on Saturday Poilievre said there needs to be a plan to export oil out of the northern Manitoba port, after he was asked if he would honour the federal Liberal commitment made in February to work with Manitoba to finish restoring the rail line to Churchill and restore and upgrade infrastructure at the port itself.
The notion of using the port to ship oil has been studied and abandoned in the past but has been revived as an idea in recent months amid Canada's escalating trade war with the United States and the desire to find new markets for Canadian energy.
At the rally, Poilievre did not have any more specifics on Churchill but called for the Liberal environmental review law or Bill C-69, also sometimes known as "no more pipelines act" to be repealed.
He also reiterated his proposal to expedite licensing requirements for health-care workers, citing a sheer number of Filipino nurses who are not allowed to practice medicine in Canada yet.
"We will move the bureaucracy away and get the people the health-care they need," he said, by creating a "blue seal" certification, a common national test that, if passed, would allow doctors and nurses to practice medicine in any Canadian jurisdiction.
The conservative leader also reiterated some of the promises he had laid out to voters in the past: slashing the income tax, scrapping the industrial carbon tax and curtailing federal spending.
"You have been pinching pennies for a long time, it is time for governments to pinch their pennies too," he told the crowd.
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With files from Ian Froese and The Canadian Press