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Poilievre visits Edmonton, takes aim at ‘gatekeepers’ in bid for CPC leadership

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Using “freedom” as a rallying cry, Pierre Poilievre took aim at various “gatekeepers” while campaigning near Edmonton for leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada.

Following a meet and greet in Calgary earlier in the week, Poilievre spoke to a packed event hall, which overflowed into a banquet room, at the River Cree Resort and Casino, just west of Alberta’s capital Thursday night.

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After criticizing vaccine mandates and passports, the Ontario MP for Carleton supplied a few of his policy points as part of his bid to take on federal Liberal leader Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the next election.

Among them, he proposed eliminating political, financial and regulatory “gatekeepers,” such as the Canada Infrastructure Bank, a Crown corporation charged with funding infrastructure projects using $35 billion from the federal government.

“We don’t need another bank,” Poilievre said.

Poilievre also said he would also create a “pay as you go law” to create a sense fiscal responsibility.

“If a minister wants to bring an extra dollar of spending, he’ll have to find an extra dollar of savings to pay for it,” he said.

He also said he would “axe the federal carbon tax,” “unleash” production in Alberta’s energy sector, and repeal bills C-48 and C-69, which bans oil tanker traffic off the coast of northern B.C. and affects the timelines for energy projects respectively. On the other side of the country, he said he would help Newfoundland increase daily oil production to “displace all overseas oil.”

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Also on the candidate’s chopping block is the federal Liberal’s Bill C-11, a new version of the controversial Bill C-10 that died on the order paper after the last federal election was called. The earlier version of the bill was criticized for threatening freedom of expression when the government removed an exemption for user-generated content, placing social media content under the regulatory authority of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

The new bill revives the exemption, but is still under fire from critics who say it gives too much authority to the regulator. Poilievre said he would repeal that bill as well.

On the employment front, the leadership candidate signalled support for trained immigrants seeking work in the trades as well as fields such as medicine and engineering. Poilievre said he would leverage federal immigration funds to have provinces speed up the process that recognizes foreign credentials.

While many of the policy proposals were met with applause, the crowd appeared to cheer the loudest at the suggestion that the federal government defund the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to the tune of $1 billion.

—With files from Postmedia

hissawi@postmedia.com

twitter.com/hamdiissawi

Conservative party leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre speaks to a crowd of supporters at the River Cree Resort and Casino on the Enoch Cree Nation just west of Edmonton on Thursday, April 14, 2022. David Bloom/Postmedia
Conservative party leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre speaks to a crowd of supporters at the River Cree Resort and Casino on the Enoch Cree Nation just west of Edmonton on Thursday, April 14, 2022. David Bloom/Postmedia Photo by David Bloom David Bloom /David Bloom/Postmedia
Conservative party leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre speaks to a crowd of supporters at the River Cree Resort and Casino on the Enoch Cree Nation just west of Edmonton on Thursday, April 14, 2022. David Bloom/Postmedia
Conservative party leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre speaks to a crowd of supporters at the River Cree Resort and Casino on the Enoch Cree Nation just west of Edmonton on Thursday, April 14, 2022. David Bloom/Postmedia Photo by David Bloom David Bloom /David Bloom/Postmedia
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