OTTAWA –
Longtime Conservative MP Pierre Poalievr and Jean-Charest, the former prime minister of Quebec, took turns attacking the other’s political recordings on Thursday in the first unofficial debate in the Tory leadership race.
Poilievre, who is campaigning to promise more freedom to Canadians and attracting crowds of thousands to rallies across the country, targeted Charest during the event, where five of the six candidates appeared on stage in front of a room with conservative believers.
The Ottawa-based lawmaker has repeatedly called Charest a “liberal” because he once led Quebec’s Liberal Party, as he has done since the former prime minister officially entered the race.
“We cut income taxes and the credit rating agency actually said that this allowed Quebec residents to go through the Great Recession much better than anyone else,” Charest said in defense of his record.
Poilievre responded that Charest had raised several other taxes, including gas tax and sales tax, and left Quebec as the most indebted province in all of Canada during his time as prime minister.
At one point, Poilievre repeatedly pressed Charest for past work with telecommunications giant Huawei.
“He never told us how much he paid him,” he said. “This is a company whose software and hardware have been banned from the 5G networks of four of the Five Eyes countries due to allegations, in many cases proven to have used it for espionage.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, Charest dismissed any suggestion that his work with the company so far had been an obligation for him in the race. He said it was not a problem he heard about during the campaign, saying any mention of it was history. Charest said he considered the attacks on him a compliment.
The debate, organized by the Canadian Strong and Free Network political advocacy group, also includes heated exchanges between candidates on their levels of support for the Ottawa truck convoy protest and those fighting against vaccines and masks against COVID-19. .
Charest, who presents himself as an experienced national leader who believes in a united Canada, has won booing from a crowd of hundreds, criticizing Poliever for endorsing what he called illegal blockades.
Poilievre responded by saying, “Mr. Charest learned about the CBC convoy of trucks like other liberals and misrepresented them.” He added that Sharest had perpetuated a culture of annulment, as he had said in previous interviews that Poliver’s support for the protest meant he should be disqualified.
Leslin Lewis, a third-ranked lawmaker in the 2020 race, also challenged Poilievre over his record in defending Canadian freedoms during the pandemic. Many conservatives have opposed health measures such as vaccine and mask mandates for fear of violating personal choice.
While Poilievre tried to prove that he was one of the strongest voices, Luis accused him of not being.
“You didn’t speak until you were comfortable talking. “You didn’t even go to the truckers’ protest,” she said.
“You actually went and took a picture in your neighborhood at a local bus stop.”
Lewis, who has promised to ban so-called sex-selective abortions, has also challenged Poaliever over his stance on socio-conservative issues. She accused him of avoiding media coverage of abortions in recent days after a draft US Supreme Court ruling that would overturn Rowe v. Wade expired.
“He can’t just be finance minister if he wants to be prime minister,” she said.
Poliever said earlier this week that a government led by him would not introduce or pass laws restricting abortion.
As Charest, Poilievre and Lewis take turns focusing on each other, Ontario MP Scott Aichison said on stage that as conservatives, “all we do is shout and shout at each other” and said that’s a problem. if the party wants to be competitive in the next elections. However, there were heated conversations throughout the debate.
“Here we call each other. Which Canadian will trust this party? We need to do better,” Aichison said.
He added: “Every time I hear a conservative talk about a conspiracy theory … there’s another group of rocking voters in the GTA who just won’t come to us.”
This comment was repulsed by Lewis, as well as by Roman Baber, an Ontario MP who was expelled from Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives in 2021 for opposing the COVID-19 blockade in force at the time.
Baber says many Canadians are still unable to board a plane in the country due to a federal mandate for a vaccine against COVID-19.
“Canadians are witnessing the constant erosion of our democracy, and we need to keep this conversation in mind, instead of making fun of them, as the prime minister is doing,” Baber said.
After the debate, Baber told reporters he was concerned about the separation tone.
While the contenders for leadership struggled on stage, most seemed collegial once the issues were over. However, Poalievre and Charest diligently avoided shaking hands on stage.
Candidates were also questioned about the party’s last few election losses, former leader Erin O’Toole’s attempts to move the party to the center to increase support, and questions about national unity.
Patrick Brown, the mayor of Brampton, Ont., Did not attend Thursday’s event. The campaign told him he was focused on selling supporters’ membership before the June 3 deadline needed to vote in the Conservative leadership race.
Moderator Jamil Givani, the future president of the Canadian Strong and Free Network, focused on Brown’s campaign tactics in his absence.
“Some Canadians are concerned that Mayor Brown is sowing division in our country. He has been criticized for manipulating diaspora policies to boost his campaign, “Givani said before inviting candidates to the stage to oppose their own approach to Canadians of different backgrounds.
“The bottom line is that Patrick Brown is saying one thing in one room and just the opposite in another room. And that’s what he did during that campaign,” Poilievre said in response, citing a flip flop for Brown’s support for the carbon tax as leader of the Progressive Conservatives in Ontario.
A Brown campaign official told the Canadian Press that his efforts to attract new Canadians to the party should be celebrated, not ridiculed.
Brown will be on the scene next week when all six candidates take part in the first official debate in Edmonton.
The party is due to elect a new leader on September 10th.
This Canadian Press report was first published on May 5, 2022.
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