'They deserve a bright future,' Poilievre says of young Canadians in rebuttal to Carney's pre-budget speech
OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said the sacrifices made by the current generation have not been seen since the Second World War, in a speech on Thursday evening, made in rebuttal to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s upcoming budget.
Poilievre addressed a room of young conservatives and other supporters gathered in Toronto. The event was organized in response to Carney’s speech last week where he cautioned Canadians that they should prepare for “sacrifices” as his government put the finishing touches on a budget that attempts to both respond to the ongoing Canada-U.S. trade war and rein in government spending.
The Conservative leader, whose party has enjoyed a healthy support among those aged 40 and younger, responded to Carney’s words by pointing to the challenges faced by the country’s youngest generation, who have struggled to afford housing and land a job.
“Gone were the grand promises, replaced with grim warnings,” Poilievre said of the prime minister’s speech to Thursday’s crowd, which included members from local university conservative campus clubs.
“He said that things are going to get worse and the change will take a very long time, after he had promised to move at unimaginable speeds.”
Such has been the line of attack Poilievre’s Conservatives have mounted in the House of Commons, pointing out how Carney has yet to secure a trade deal with U.S. President Donald Trump — a fact the Tories hope to exploit, given Carney’s emphasis on his resume during the April election as a two-time central bank governor, which he argued made him best suited for the current moment.
“(Carney) said young people are going to have to make more sacrifices. More sacrifices,” Poilievre said, as a chorus of boos echoed in the room.
“Mr. Carney, the young people in this room and across this country have already sacrificed enough. They have worked hard. They’ve done everything right, and they deserve a bright future,” the Conservative leader said to cheers.
While Carney and his finance minister, François-Philippe Champagne, have compared the current period to the rebuilding efforts that took place after the Second World War, evoking the memory of C.D. Howe, the businessman-turned-Liberal cabinet minister credited for transforming a post-war workforce into a more industrialized one, Poilievre used that time in history to make a different point.
He said the young people of today have “sacrificed more than any generation since the Second World War.”
“There is no doubt in my mind that all of you are working harder and longer for less than your parents and probably your grandparents,” Poilievre said, adding that, “it hasn’t been since the heroes that won us our freedom in the (1940s) that we have seen a generation work so hard and so long for so little.”
The Conservative leader, who stood behind a podium emblazoned with the words “jobs,” “home,” and “hope,” laid the struggles they faced today at the feet of the Liberals, whom he accused of overspending as well as mishandling the immigration system to the point of allowing too many new entrants to Canada without sufficient housing.
Poilievre’s speech was not unlike a campaign-style event, a stage he might find himself in, in a matter of weeks, should opposition parties decide to vote against the Liberals’ upcoming budget, set to be tabled on Nov.4.
The Liberals have warned they lack the votes needed to pass Carney’s first spending plan, with Poilievre demanding the Liberals table what he calls an “affordable budget”, which he defines as containing a litany of tax cuts and capping the federal deficit at $42 billion, despite the Parliamentary Budget Officer, an independent watchdog of Parliament, predicting it could soar to $70 billion.
That includes Carney’s promise to spend billions more on defence and infrastructure.
The Liberals would only need to find a handful of MPs either willing to vote for their budget or abstain to prevent Canadians from having to go to the polls for a second time this year.
Poilievre is due to face his own leadership review in January.
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