Pierre Poilievre plays to regional concerns in ongoing effort to topple Liberal government

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre lambasted the NDP and Bloc Québécois Tuesday with specific messaging in an ongoing effort to weaken the federal Liberals. 

Poilievre’s top rival is of course Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but on Tuesday he used different approaches to attack the NDP and Bloc, in what appeared to be an attempt to drive a wedge between the Liberals and the other parties they depend on to avoid an election. 

When speaking in English, Poilievre focused on the toxic drug crisis and homelessness, stating the NDP’s support of the Liberals for another year would mean “thousands more die.” When speaking in French, he played to the interests of French Canada, saying the Bloc’s support of the Liberals has meant people in Quebec are turning over more power to the federal government at the expense of provincial autonomy.

The remarks were made Tuesday as Poilievre introduced a non-confidence motion in the House of Commons, calling for the government to be defeated. The motion will be voted on on Wednesday, but the NDP and Bloc have already said they do not intend to support it and will keep Trudeau in power for now.

The comments come as tension on Parliament Hill over the carbon price heats up, and spills over into provincial elections. Earlier this month, B.C. NDP Premier David Eby joined most premiers in their opposition to the federal carbon price, and said he would abandon the consumer carbon tax if Ottawa did the same – a move widely seen as flip flopping ahead of an election next month. 

Poilievre is framing the next federal election as a “carbon tax referendum; a carbon tax election,” calling it an “existential choice.”. 

If the carbon price remains in place, Canadians will experience a “nuclear winter,” he said, stopping short of any details or evidence. 

To blunt Poilievre’s messaging, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, and Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault spoke to reporters ahead of question period, defending the carbon price and taking shots at the Conservative leader. 

“Some of the more recent colourful language that [Poilievre] has been using around things like ‘nuclear winter’ are simply ridiculous and not becoming of a leader in a major G7 country,” Wilkinson said. “They are stupid, and he should know better.”

Earlier this month, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh hinted his party may ditch its support for a carbon price by saying he wanted to see an emissions reduction strategy that makes big polluters pay more, rather than putting “the burden on the backs of working people.” Singh did not elaborate what the NDP’s climate strategy would be, but said it would present a plan “in the coming months.”

Wilkinson said the federal NDP “seems to be at sea” on what their plan to address climate change is, and said he expects NDP voters to question the party’s efforts. 

Guilbeault said it’s easy for Conservatives to throw around slogans like “axe the tax,” but accused Poilievre of focusing on upending the carbon price as a way to defend ultra-rich big polluters, including in the oil and gas industry.

“Records show that in a recent fundraiser event, he accepted maximum donations from a large group of oil and gas CEOs, including the CEO of one of the most prominent oil sands companies. It is their interest that he’s protecting,” Guilbeault said.

Specifically, an Elections Canada filing shows Cenovus CEO Alexander Pourbaix donated $1,600 to the Conservative Party of Canada following a fundraising event in April that cost an additional $1,700 to attend. Other attendees that donated the same amount included Adam Waterous, managing partner and CEO of Waterous Energy Fund, a private equity firm based in Calgary focused on oil and gas investments, and Jim Riddell, who serves as CEO of oil and gas company Paramount Resources.

Guilbeault stressed the federal government’s climate plan is working, noting that emissions are declining even as the economy grows. 

“Every time that emissions have gone down in the past it was because of economic or financial recessions [or] COVID,” he said. Now “it’s the first time that they’ve gone down because of measures that we are putting in place, and carbon pricing is a cornerstone of those measures.”

Carbon pricing is central to the Liberal’s plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions 40 per cent by 2030. The consumer-facing carbon price, commonly called the fuel charge, is estimated to drive just under 10 per cent of that target, while the industrial carbon price is expected to be responsible for 23 to 39 per cent of emission reductions by 2030, according to the Canadian Climate Institute. 

Together, carbon pricing is expected to drive one-third to one-half of the emission reductions the federal government has committed itself to under the Paris Agreement.

Poilievre has not made his position on the industrial carbon price clear. Ken Boessenkool, a former advisor under Stephen Harper recently told the National Post it would be unlikely for Poilievre to ditch the industrial price on pollution. However, shortly after that story was published, Jenni Byrne who serves as Poilivre’s top adviser took to social media to say Boessenkool “does not speak in any way” for the Conservatives and the party fully intends to “axe the tax.”

Canada’s National Observer asked the Conservative Party to clarify its position on the industrial carbon price. The party did not directly answer the question, but in a statement, attributable to Shadow Minister for Finance Jasraj Singh Hallan, said “Justin Trudeau along with his activist Minister of Carbon Taxes” are working to “shut down our industries.”

“We will present a detailed platform to Canadians before the next carbon tax election, however we will replace Trudeau’s anti-resource bureaucracy with an approval process that greenlights green projects like the tidal energy project off the coast of Nova Scotia that Trudeau killed with his regulations, LNG projects that Trudeau says there is no business case for, and mines to get the materials needed for electrification,” he said in a statement.

At the same time Canadian politicians traded blows over the future of the carbon price, and questioned each other’s commitment to climate action, UN Climate Change executive secretary Simon Stiell spoke at the Sustainable Investment Forum in New York in a totally different tone. Rather than bickering over which climate policies to scrap, he warned of catastrophic impacts if governments don’t dramatically step up their efforts to transition off fossil fuels.

Disruptions to supply chains, like fires, floods and droughts made worse by the climate crisis, threatens trade and stability, he said. 

“We saw what Covid did to supply chains, causing spiralling business costs and inflation for consumers, and work for central banks,” he said. “Well, this will seem like a minor hiccup compared to what an unchecked climate crisis will inflict.”