Pierre Poilievre offers his Conservatives as the party of ‘change’ in campaign kickoff

 

By Raisa PatelOttawa Bureau

“For a change.”

That was how Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre launched the most pivotal moment of his 21-year political career: the first day of an election campaign that could end with his installation as prime minister or see him relegated to the list of Tory leaders who successively failed to overthrow years of Liberal rule.

For Poilievre, the challenge of this campaign is about more than just ushering in a change of government. The ground on which he crafted all of his punchy, pre-election messaging has also shifted, given U.S. President Donald Trump’s expansionist and protectionist threats and former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s exit.

“A new Conservative government will restore Canada’s promise — the promise that anyone from anywhere can do anything, that hard work gets you a great life, in a beautiful home, on a safe street, under a proud flag,” Poilievre said at a news conference in Gatineau, Que., on Sunday.

“To preserve that flag and uphold its promise, we must work together, fight together and win together for our people, for our land, for our home, for Canada first, for a change.”

xThe leader was introduced by his wife, Anaida Poilievre, who talked about the struggles she faced when her family moved to Canada from Venezuela, and her husband’s roots in Calgary, where he was adopted by two schoolteachers. P oilievre then took to the stage, which was surrounded by his party’s candidates in the GTA, a seat-rich region held primarily by the Liberals that thnservatives consider critical to their path to victory.“For three terms, (the Liberals) provided weak and out-of-touch leadership. Three terms, they drove up costs and crime. Three terms, they sent our drugs south and pushed our economy under the American thumb,” the Conservative leader said.“My little boy understands something the Liberals do not. Which is in baseball, and in politics, it’s three strikes and you’re out.”At his news conference earlier in the day, Poilievre said the U.S. president had been “very blunt that he wants a weak Canada that he can target, and Liberals, after the lost Liberal decade, have made our economy and our country weaker and more divided, just like Trump wanted.”

https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/pierre-poilievre-offers-his-conservatives-as-the-party-of-change-in-campaign-kickoff/article_9823eb62-18a8-4a90-8782-88ab0fbeb0ee.html