Poilievre tells Fredericton rally he'll make Canada stronger as it stands up to Trump
Conservative leader makes first N.B. visit during federal election campaign
With supporters from across New Brunswick packed into the Fredericton Exhibition Grounds, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre gave a nearly hour-long speech Monday night, promising a stronger country to stand up to Donald Trump while occasionally seeming to echo the U.S. president.
"We need to be a nation that stands on its own two feet, that supplies its own resources … we will stand up to President Trump from a position of strength," Poilievre told the crowd estimated by party organizers at 2,000.
As he ran through many of his campaign promises, Poilievre said more children should join the cadets, and the military needs to embrace more of a "warrior culture, not a woke culture."
Poilievre spoke of a "lost Liberal decade" under former prime minister Justin Trudeau, and the crowd responded with boos and jeers at every mention of Mark Carney, the new Liberal leader.
At one point, an audience member yelled out that Carney should be jailed, but Poilievre responded, "We don't need to do that, we need to vote them out."
Campaigning earlier in the day in Saint John, Poilievre laid out his plan for an oil pipeline to the port city,
In Fredericton, he spoke about amending the Criminal Code to give harsher sentences to drug dealers and life sentences to gun smugglers and about reducing drugs coming across the Canadian border.
Poilevre also spoke about supporting trades workers and the need to build more homes, along with capping immigration to match housing construction and supporting gun owners. He also promised to make it easier for foreign doctors to start working sooner after immigrating.
Media covering the rally were tightly controlled, with party handlers stopping reporters from speaking to Poilievre supporters in the building before the rally began.
Supporters interviewed by CBC News barely mentioned Trump's tariffs or his desire to annex Canada but instead said affordability, getting rid of the Liberal Party and lower taxes were important to them as issues during the campaign for the April 28 federal election.
Luke Gee of Harvey said that he came to the rally to be part of the "great change we're so in need of" and that Polievre felt genuine to him.
He said the New Brunswick government's moratorium on fracking has driven away opportunities from the province, and that crime has "gotten out of hand."
"I have great respect for our men and women in law enforcement, but their hands are tied with the courts," Gee said.
First-time voter David MacLean, 18, came to the rally from Memramcook and said seeing Poilievre made him feel proud to be a Canadian.
As a young person, MacLean said, he's concerned that "housing is very unaffordable and everything is going out of control."
David Smith of Fredericton said there's a "long list of issues" that matter to him in the campaign, and he believed the Liberal government has been too big.
"The government needs to do less, let the private sector do more," Smith said.
He mentioned a Conservative promise to remove the capital gains tax and to allow Canadians to contribute $5,000 more a year to their tax-free savings accounts if they invest in Canadian companies.
The Conservative candidate for Fredericton-Oromocto, Brian Macdonald, along with Poilievre's wife, Anaida, opened the event.
Macdonald faces off in that riding against Liberal candidate David Myles, the NDP's Nicki Lyons-Macfarlane, the Green Party's Pam Allen-LeBlanc, Heather Michaud of the People's Party, Dominic Cardy with the Canada Future Party and June Patterson of the Communist Party.
While Conservative candidates for New Brunswick ridings were given front-row seats, also in the crowd was former Premier Blaine Higgs, who said in an interview that he might help the federal party campaign this election.
"I experienced a federal government that didn't have the best interest of Canadians at heart, and I don't see that changing anytime soon without a change in government," said Higgs, whose party lost to the Liberals in the provincial election last fall.
Higgs went on to say that supporting the Energy East Pipeline, an issue he unsuccessfully pushed for as premier, "is now in vogue."
"When [Poilievre] becomes prime minister, I'm sad I'm not going to be there to be a part of it."
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