Bonus episode： Pierre Poilievre gets personal
Episode Stats
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Summary
In this bonus episode of the Full Comment Podcast, I sit down with the Conservative candidate to become Canada s next Prime Minister, Pierre Polyvencic. We discuss his approach to dealing with Donald Trump and how he thinks about dealing with him.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome to a special bonus episode of the Full Comment Podcast.
00:01:24.740
And over this past weekend, I was given the opportunity to sit down and have a long discussion
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with the Conservative leader seeking to become Canada's next Prime Minister.
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We were three weeks into the election, the fourth week about to start.
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Polls were not as favorable as they are now, but not horrible for the Conservatives.
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A lot of chatter, a lot of personal items on the agenda, and of course, the ever-present
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It's not easy to get politicians at times to talk about themselves in a very personal way,
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Uh, let's just jump right to the, uh, the sticky question of this election.
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The guy that doesn't live here in Canada, that's wreaking havoc in Canada.
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Let's say April 28th comes, the voters put their faith in you and you have a servitive
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How do you handle Donald Trump and how is your way of handling him different than Mark Carney?
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Well, what I would propose to him is suspend the tariffs and quickly renegotiate Kuzma because,
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um, this, this state of like random sudden waves of new tariffs is totally destabilizing
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He's sending stock markets into a tailspin and I would say to him, look, it's not in your
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Uh, you think that the current arrangement is unfair.
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Well, um, let's negotiate a solution that ends the tariffs, protects our sovereignty in
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exchange for which what we can offer is a much stronger Canadian military to carry our weight
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Um, you know, Mr. Carney had a phone call with him and came out of it saying it was productive
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And then four or five days later, Trump hit us with even more tariffs.
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And then the other day, Trump paused tariffs on almost every country in the world except
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So I kind of wonder what progress Mr. Carney is bragging about.
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I'm not blaming him for the tariffs, of course, but I am pointing out that his singular election
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promise is that he can quote unquote handle Donald Trump.
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Uh, what we need to do is focus on what we can control, which is to say, reverse all of the
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disastrous policies that Carney advised Justin Trudeau to put in place and that all the
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current liberal MPs running for re-election helped impose, uh, those policies need to
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That is to say, we need to repeal the anti-energy law, C-69, repeal the industrial carbon tax,
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the energy cap, quickly approve LNG plants, factories, pipelines, et cetera.
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I heard you say that, but how would you be different than Mark Carney saying, I'm going
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I mean, do they take a different approach to trade negotiations?
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If you remember back to when we renegotiated NAFTA into Kuzma, the Americans published this
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long list of their objectives, rather required to by law.
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Uh, it wasn't, uh, Donald Trump being, uh, you know, really nice to anybody that required
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And it was all about better access for their producers, better access for their manufacturers,
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better access to our markets and the Mexican markets.
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Ours was, we wanted gender language and environmental, um, changes.
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There was nothing in what the Trudeau government put out that said we need better access.
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I mean, at the same time we renegotiated and we've been taken to the trade panel several
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times by the Americans saying, you're not following, uh, the rule of, uh, the agreement.
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So there's obviously problems with the agreement.
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Well, different than that, I would obviously put on the table things that the Canadians
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Uh, it's crazy that we're being hit with 15% tariffs.
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Um, and Harper got them off 80 days after he became prime minister.
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Second, uh, we need, uh, an end to buy America for Canadian goods.
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We had an exemption to buy America again under Harper that allowed Canadian construction companies
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And I also want to, I want to make sure that anything we offer the Americans, particularly
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on national defense or things we can pull back in the event that Trump goes back on his
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So if he suddenly hits us with a bunch of new unexpected tariffs out of nowhere, well,
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then we're going to pull back on the things that we've committed to do for him.
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One of the failures of the Kuzma negotiation and deal is the liberals did not, did not bake
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in any long-term leverage to say to the Americans, look, if you go back on Kuzma, well, we're going
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to withdraw these four or five things we've offered you.
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And that would, uh, that's necessary because it's the only way to dissuade Trump from hitting
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us again in an unprovoked way, like he did this time.
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Now, um, you've been getting some criticism lately.
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I know you've answered this in your news conferences, but, uh, Corey Tonek, a guy that you know, well,
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you've known for a long time being very critical of the campaign.
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Uh, I've heard you say why you're going to continue doing this.
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What's it like getting harsh criticism from someone that you've known so long that has
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Um, we, uh, I focus on, you know, I think the criticism I'm getting is that I'm focusing
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too much on the cost of living and on crime and, and those, uh, issues that affect people's
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Uh, the reality is that, uh, I meet every day I meet single moms who can't feed their
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I meet seniors who tell me they don't know how they're going to, their savings is going
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to run out before, uh, their, their days run out.
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Uh, I meet the young couples that are in their thirties who can't have kids because the liberals
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have doubled the cost of housing and, you know, the liberals and their friends in the
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lobbying world want Canadians to forget about that.
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Their entire election strategy is to pretend the last 10 years never happened.
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But there is a big chunk of the population that is very anxious right now.
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Um, I don't particularly understand, uh, how anxious some people are because this too
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shall pass and government, uh, countries outlive governments, good and bad.
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But I mean, speak to those people that are worried.
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I mean, do you have, do you have anything to say that would make them say, okay, I'll go
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back to considering if you're a folly of my conservatives?
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Well, if you are anxious about the Canada U S situation, I understand that there are, if
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you know, there, uh, it's the elephant next door.
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They, the biggest military and economic superpower the world has ever seen.
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And the president has been very unfriendly to us with his words and deeds these last hundred
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I have no doubt that we will stabilize the relationship, get back to trading while protecting
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I think frankly, the, I think what's going to happen is that midterms are going to start
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to get closer and congressmen and senators are going to say to the president, okay, you
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know, our factories are under pressure because of these crazy tariffs.
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And I think we can get a deal that will bring peace and calm and we can get back to focusing
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Like, you know, before Donald Trump was reelected, we had a liberal housing crisis.
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We had 2 million people lined up at food banks every single month.
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We had people paying more in taxes than they're spending on food, clothing, and shelter combined.
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And those problems are going to survive after Donald Trump unless we take a dramatically
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It's going to be the same liberal MPs, same liberal ministers, same liberal promises, and
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If you want to, to lower the tax burden, unleash our resources, green light home buildings
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so our youth can afford a place to live, lock up the criminals to bring home safety, you've
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got one option in this election, and it's conservative.
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The stock market didn't just tank, oil prices tanked.
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I was speaking with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith the other day at the Canada Strongman
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I interviewed her on stage and she told me that the price of oil dropping, the way it has,
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it's gone down, at that point, it's gone down about 15.5% on West Texas Intermediate.
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Western Canadian Select, which is what we sell at, always at a 15-20% discount, had dropped
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She said that'll cost her a $5 billion deficit is their estimate if it continues.
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It's going to have huge economic impact on this country, won't it?
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Very much so, and the fact that we are so dependent on the Americans is the reason why
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Canadian oil is so much cheaper than American, or than the world price.
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Western Canada Select is a discount that we get for our product because we can't get it
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We send some along trans amounts, a very small amount, but most of it is to the states.
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Even some of the trans-mountain oil actually does transit down the west coast of California.
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So it is, you know, Trudeau killed the Northern Gateway Pipeline, which would have taken 500,000
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Mark Carney testified in favor of killing that pipeline.
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And he, you know, the liberals effectively killed the Energy East Pipeline, which would
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have taken a million barrels to New Brunswick from Alberta, oil that would have displaced
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Prutin's oil in Europe and probably helped defund him.
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Then they passed C-69, the anti-development law that Carney says he wants to keep in place,
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and he wants to keep the energy cap and an industrial carbon tax.
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So when it comes to energy independence, Trudeau and Carney are identical.
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And the choice in the election after this lost liberal decade of keeping our wealth in
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the ground is whether you want to give them a fourth term or whether you want a change
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with a new government that will repeal these anti-energy laws and get our goods to market.
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Have you noticed that he doesn't really use the words oil, gas, pipelines?
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Yeah, so he talks about conventional energy and energy infrastructure.
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When I look at the investments that he made as chair and vice chair of Brookfield asset
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management over the last bunch of years, I quite frankly think that his plan is not to
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increase Canadian conventional energy, as he calls it, but to make us a green energy
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superpower, I don't know, with hydrogen or hydro.
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Those are the same promises that liberals made for a whole decade.
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Remember, we were going to be selling boatloads of hydrogen off to Europe instead of natural
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How many shipments of Canadian hydrogen are being sold to Germany after all these years
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You know, billions, tens of billions of dollars of subsidies to supposedly invent these industries
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And what is the result after a decade of the liberals in power?
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We're more dependent on the Americans than ever before.
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He fundamentally agrees with everything Trudeau did.
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And he will keep doing it if he gets the chance.
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If you want a change to unleash our resources, there's only one party that will do it.
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I got an email from a reader the other day saying to me that he fully sports it and has
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for a while, but he's on a Facebook that is filled with seniors in his community.
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And he said one of the reasons that he keeps reading as he tries to convince them on why
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to vote for you instead of Carney and the liberals is that they say, but he'll cut our pensions.
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We've also said we'll allow working seniors who choose to keep a job to earn $34,000 tax-free.
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Which is how it reduces the penalties that exist for seniors who go into the workforce.
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We're also going to allow seniors who choose to keep their RRSBs growing to do that for another two years.
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You announced that recently, and that was in response to the-
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But then the stock market thing happened, and I said, you know, this will work out very well because it gives seniors the extra couple of years.
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I remember the Harper government doing something similar to that in 2008, 2009, saying, look, you don't have to withdraw down on your retirement savings.
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Well, you know, you have some time for the stock market to recover.
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So that you're not, you know, hit with, I forget how bad it was back then, but we survived.
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So at the time, the markets crashed way back then, and we didn't want to force seniors to withdraw with those losses.
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They recovered their losses, and that's what I'm saying now.
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But even beyond that, I think that those seniors who decide, because they're, say, I'm in great health.
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I want to grow my nest egg tax-free a little longer.
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In terms of perceptions of you, one of the other things that I hear from folks in that boomer demographic, older demographic, is he's mean.
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That's not the guy I've known for the last 20 years.
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I said, this is a guy that laughs more than he frowns.
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So, like, talk about your personality, but loosen up a little bit.
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Yeah, at first you were trying to get me drinking.
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Now, I did offer, you know, do you want a beer for the start?
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I don't drink as much as I did when I was younger.
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But, no, listen, I think the challenge is that I do get upset with the way that politicians have ruined people's lives.
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It upsets me when I meet someone who can't afford a home because of political decisions or, you know, a small business owner.
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I feel very frustrated by the damage that this liberal government, but other politicians, have done to the people who actually do the work in this country.
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And I think sometimes that frustration comes across as aggressive.
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But it actually, what I think of people, I need to make people understand is that it comes from a place of care for the people that I'm fighting for.
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And I think I need to put more emphasis in the things I'm fighting for rather than the bad decisions that I'm fighting against.
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And so that's one of the challenges to communicate.
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And what I'm fighting for is just to bring back the promise the country had that I got when I was a kid.
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You know, you can work hard, you get a great life.
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And that's what it was in Canada before the liberals were in power.
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When I first met you as a young whippersnapper trying to get elected the first time, you're what, 23, 24?
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I think you were doing this because, well, you were into politics and it was like, this would be a cool job.
00:18:14.880
That's not why people run to be prime ministers, though.
00:18:18.540
I mean, you don't look and say, oh, that'd be a cool job.
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But I couldn't run to because it was a cool job.
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I believed in actually the same things back then that I believe in now.
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I mean, what drives you to say, I want to be the guy, I want to be the person leading the country.
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That's what makes me want to get up in the morning.
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Well, it's like I'm saying, I was given a great opportunity in this country.
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You know, I came from very, very humble beginnings.
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I started off the adopted son of two school teachers and was able to make it to this place.
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My wife came here as a refugee from Venezuela and look how far she's come.
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There's nowhere else where this story is possible.
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That was the promise the country made all of us.
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You walk around the streets and you meet the youth.
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They say, you know, I'm giving it everything I have.
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I don't see any hope of ever owning a home or having kids.
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Many are considering just leaving the country for better opportunities elsewhere.
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On the other end of the age spectrum, I meet seniors who are worried they're going to be
00:19:26.680
evicted from their apartment because rent's going up so much.
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And I just see our economy so weak that it's not going to give my kids the opportunity that
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I know if we get back to the basics, the common sense ideas that used to guide the country,
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that we can bring back the promise for everybody.
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You mentioned your wife, Anna, her coming here as a refugee.
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And back then, it took about five years for new immigrants to catch up to the Canadian standard of living.
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Within five years, they'd saved up to buy a house.
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My oldest son left Ottawa a couple of years ago to move to New Brunswick.
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Better opportunities in terms of hopefully one day being able to buy a house.
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Kids are leaving places like Ontario, not just Toronto, where everything is expensive and
00:20:30.980
young families are just saying, let's pack it in and move elsewhere.
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People are leaving mid-sized cities like Ottawa and saying, it's too much.
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Speak to the, I've asked you already to speak to the older voters.
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Speak to those younger ones that just don't feel like there is that hope of being able to buy a house.
00:20:53.700
I can't think of any young person I know in Toronto without the bank of mom and dad being involved.
00:20:58.820
Being able to buy a house, I'll give you one more quick example.
00:21:04.220
A young guy I met, Karthik, came to Canada about a decade ago.
00:21:08.540
He says, why should I be making high six-figure income?
00:21:16.760
Well, when my wife was in her early 20s, she had a good job, but she was able to save up
00:21:22.720
with her own money and get a down payment on a nice detached townhouse, an attached townhouse
00:21:38.540
I sold my condo in Barhaven, 35 minutes from Parliament Hill in 2015.
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I'd be a much richer man if I had wrenched it out.
00:21:54.960
But the point is that housing was cheap 10 years ago in Canada.
00:22:01.040
This should be the cheapest place in the world to own a home because we've got so much dirt
00:22:05.800
We've got more land per capita than any country in the G7.
00:22:14.440
We have high taxes and government delays that block home building.
00:22:19.160
And the majority of the cost of a new home is government.
00:22:21.760
It's delays, permits, zoning, consultants, lawyers, accountants, lobbyists, all that.
00:22:36.200
And, you know, developers in Ottawa, as in most major cities, they work in all parts of
00:22:43.000
So this developer had put in plans to the city of Ottawa for a subdivision in or lease.
00:22:49.640
They wanted to replicate the same houses with the same plans, with similar street design
00:22:55.660
and a different part of a plot of land in the West End.
00:22:58.720
We have to review all of your house designs once again.
00:23:01.260
But they had already been approved by the city.
00:23:04.560
But no, no, nothing that you submitted before, even though you're replicating it, is valid.
00:23:09.340
And 30% of the cost of that home will be direct taxes.
00:23:13.860
Sales tax, land transfer tax, development charges.
00:23:17.760
First of all, we're going to hax the GST, the sales tax on new homes.
00:23:21.980
Second, I'm going to pay the municipalities half the cost of cutting their taxes.
00:23:29.460
So you combine getting rid of the GST on new homes with getting the municipalities to cut
00:23:37.880
That's 100 grand in taxes that we can take off home building costs.
00:23:41.780
On top of that, I'm going to be linking federal infrastructure dollars for cities to the number
00:23:45.920
of homes they allow to be built to incentivize them to speed up permits, free up land, cut
00:23:53.160
That's been described by your opponents as you're going to punish cities.
00:23:57.120
Well, there's going to be a carrot and a stick.
00:23:59.700
The carrot is that those that build more will get more infrastructure money.
00:24:04.740
And so that will incentivize them to free up the permits and speed up the approvals to
00:24:11.480
get the homes built, to stop, to go down and say to the bureaucracy in the bowels of the
00:24:16.460
city of Ottawa, you know, you can't reforce this guy to submit a new set of designs, even
00:24:22.960
The only way you're going to get these permits going is if you incentivize the municipalities
00:24:30.240
Pay them the way realtors and, um, the way realtors and home builders get paid for each
00:24:35.400
door and that's how you'll get them out of the way.
00:24:37.960
We're also going to sell off 6,000 federal buildings, thousands of acres of federal land
00:24:43.900
And finally, uh, back there are 350,000 training spots at mostly union training halls to get the
00:24:51.980
young tradespeople who can build the homes in the future.
00:24:54.800
I, uh, listened to Mark Carney's housing announcement.
00:25:05.280
Um, there is a difference in, in views and I see this, you know, I cover all levels of
00:25:13.300
politics, uh, city hall, provincial, um, federal, and there is a view among some that, but we
00:25:22.720
We just have, you know, and, and Justin Trudeau was putting that forward and it looks like Mark
00:25:28.560
You'll rent from the government or the government will, you know, own the land and lease it to
00:25:32.740
you, uh, and, and there's also this idea of, we don't need single family homes.
00:25:39.680
Look, I live in a box in the sky now in downtown Toronto.
00:25:44.000
But if you're raising one, two, three kids at a certain point, that becomes a pain that
00:25:54.560
Uh, how are you different from what you've seen Mark Carney put forward?
00:26:00.500
What the progressives at the provincial and municipal level push of this idea of, well,
00:26:05.980
we'll just, we'll put everyone in boxes and you can rent forever.
00:26:09.460
Well, at different in every way on housing, Carney wants to continue along with the same
00:26:14.480
policies that Justin Trudeau brought in that doubled housing costs.
00:26:20.320
They promised government was going to get quote unquote back into the business of housing
00:26:25.900
It's now been eight years and what has happened?
00:26:32.420
Mortgage payments has doubled and the needed down payment for a home.
00:26:37.420
We have the most expensive real estate in the world after a decade of the liberals.
00:26:42.200
By continuing with the same policy, you're going to get the same result.
00:26:48.220
Carney is actually even more extreme than Trudeau in this idea.
00:26:52.400
He wants to create some kind of a grand government corporation that's going to build prefab homes
00:26:59.600
And no one will ever be able to own a house under that model.
00:27:03.900
How do you build up equity for your retirement?
00:27:07.260
How do you build up your biggest asset when you're a permanent renter?
00:27:09.820
And how do you start a family if you can't have a yard or a driveway where they can play street hockey
00:27:16.980
and where you can, where they can let the dog outside the beautiful suburban life that Canadians want
00:27:32.260
What we need is the government to get out of the way, get the taxes and the red tape off
00:27:38.580
I forget the name that he gave to the new group, but it's basically taking, creating a new bureaucracy
00:27:45.700
because the old bureaucracy that is in charge of this, Canada Mortgage and Housing, isn't doing a very good job.
00:27:54.300
That bureaucracy isn't good enough, so let's have a different bureaucracy.
00:27:57.980
And that's what they're going to build is bureaucracy.
00:28:04.960
Well, why is it that housing in the United States, where they have eight times the people
00:28:09.040
that house on a smaller landmass is 25 to 45 percent cheaper than it is here in Canada?
00:28:14.740
Why is it that you can buy a house for half the cost in the American side of Niagara than
00:28:20.740
The answer is that you can get things built there and you don't get taxed through the
00:28:28.480
That's why housing was always cheap in this country.
00:28:33.140
I just get depressed, but I look at what's for sale in my building and I say, oh, I could
00:28:39.000
actually buy a mansion in Texas or a castle in Scotland.
00:28:44.360
Then it is cheaper to buy a castle in Sweden or Scotland than it is to buy a single family
00:28:54.420
Uh, in terms of, but it's not going to change if we reelect the liberals, they will be exactly
00:29:01.840
The liberals have put forward that they're big on affordability because they brought in
00:29:05.540
dental care, they're starting pharma care and childcare, all of which they say you will
00:29:12.100
I think they just claim that you'll cut everything.
00:29:14.720
Uh, but on childcare, you know, when you've got young kids, that can be a big expense.
00:29:21.780
If, sure, you want to be able to buy a house, but you know, what about the kids if you have
00:29:30.160
And, and ironically, the family, the number of families without childcare has actually
00:29:41.560
And the reason is that they've imposed so much bureaucracy on the providers.
00:29:47.260
They've want, they want to limit private sector providers.
00:29:52.480
So you don't help the shift worker and the, the weekend worker.
00:29:56.200
Uh, they want to exclude, um, home-based daycares.
00:29:59.900
And so by excluding all these options and by putting so much of the money into bureaucracy,
00:30:03.820
the good intention of affordable childcare has not played out for enough families.
00:30:11.160
Keep the childcare program, but provide the freedom and flexibility to provinces, providers,
00:30:16.100
and parents to choose the type of childcare they want, whether it's private or public,
00:30:20.440
whether it's home-based or, uh, um, um, institutional based.
00:30:25.580
Um, all of those decisions should be left to the freedom of parents, providers, and provinces
00:30:31.180
so that we can help more kids and our money goes further.
00:30:36.200
There was, uh, a single parent that I worked with.
00:30:40.820
Uh, you know, morning radio, you start at four 35 o'clock.
00:30:45.180
In the morning, he'd have to drop his kids off on the way in.
00:30:48.680
Uh, there was thankfully for a childcare center that was, uh, there for shift workers.
00:30:57.340
And I kid you, does a kid wake up at that time?
00:31:00.060
Must've been a really roach kid at four in the morning.
00:31:03.800
Four in the morning was why I don't do morning radio anymore.
00:31:06.260
So you, you would keep the, the program in place, but you would alter how the provinces,
00:31:13.860
Uh, the provinces, uh, can support more options, support community-based, uh, home-based
00:31:19.200
and other, uh, flexible options that serve more parents and, um, have less government
00:31:28.940
We were, uh, promised a new era of, um, federal provincial cooperation by the last government.
00:31:35.800
I don't know what Mark Carney will be like on, on that issue, but instead what we've had
00:31:45.660
I'm not sure if you saw the, uh, Angus Reid poll that came out recently on, uh, would you
00:31:53.640
Mark Carney liberals win, uh, 30% in Alberta said yes, 30% in Quebec said yes, 33% in Saskatchewan
00:32:01.980
Um, so there is a real sense in, in this country, I go to Western Canada a lot.
00:32:09.600
There's a lot of anger about the way that they feel they have either been neglected in
00:32:14.380
the agriculture side or oppressed on the, uh, on, on the side of, uh, resource industries.
00:32:21.580
You go to Quebec, looks like the party Quebecois could be in power in that province again.
00:32:27.680
What would your approach to national unity and working with provinces be?
00:32:31.580
Oh, we've been too divided for too long after, uh, this last liberal decade, the government
00:32:36.840
has attacked Western Canadian industries like oil and gas.
00:32:43.240
They've deliberately tried to turn one region against another in order to exploit, uh, divisions
00:32:51.780
But, you know, there were 10 years ago, there were, there were no separatist movements.
00:32:55.660
The Bloc Quebecois and the PQ in Quebec had been wiped off the map.
00:32:59.500
No one in, no one in Saskatchewan and Alberta we're talking was separate, separation wasn't
00:33:08.000
People would think you would, you look at you like you had three heads.
00:33:17.100
We need to bring our people back together, unite the country.
00:33:19.820
We need to have a small federal government that allows more independence and autonomy for
00:33:25.360
our provinces and, uh, maximizes the freedom of our people, unleash all of our industries
00:33:31.900
so that people feel a stake in the economy again.
00:33:34.680
Uh, that's, and then by the way, unite the country around our symbols again, you know,
00:33:39.620
liberals bashed our symbols, our history, our nation's founder, and then they wonder
00:33:46.360
Well, the glue that held us together was national pride.
00:33:49.140
I want to bring that back by upholding our symbols, rebuilding statues, uh, um, putting
00:33:56.960
In Picton, Ontario, there was a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald standing as a lawyer.
00:34:01.220
That's where he started as a first law practice.
00:34:03.280
And standing next to a witness box, and you could go and stand in the witness box and
00:34:07.480
get your picture taken with John A. It's great fun.
00:34:15.220
And now we're being told, you know, we've gone from, we're a horrible country.
00:34:21.400
You were never saying that, but the folks that were are now saying, elbows up.
00:34:25.360
And, uh, and we're the greatest country on earth.
00:34:28.480
It was a bit of whiplash inducing in terms of how quickly that happened.
00:34:32.940
It's amazing how quickly they can reverse themselves on these things.
00:34:36.080
But listen, we've got to, we've got to unite around our history.
00:34:40.400
There's a reason why so many people want to come to Canada.
00:34:43.160
It's because we have a great history and a great future.
00:34:54.140
Uh, I believe he got the job and you were fired.
00:34:59.600
What, what's it been like campaigning with the kids?
00:35:09.300
She does not like standing still or sitting still.
00:35:20.840
Uh, and so I've, I've enjoyed having her along and she's been extremely well, uh, adapted.
00:35:32.920
She's had one or two nights where it was tougher to sleep.
00:35:35.140
Um, I think she got too much sugar one day and then she was bouncing off the wall.
00:35:47.400
He's always got questions, questions, questions, questions, questions.
00:35:52.000
I know he'd be very good in a parliamentary committee one day, maybe.
00:35:55.600
But, um, no, he's a wonderful little boy and he's been by daddy's side for most of the campaign.
00:36:00.740
Our in-laws took them back home for a few days to let them rest up and regroup.
00:36:05.320
But it's been a rewarding time and Anna has been so strong in helping us get through this wild adventure.
00:36:12.400
Um, but we're very blessed as a family to get to do this.
00:36:14.800
You know, it's, uh, it's gotta help you because people think that travel is glamorous and it is until you do it.
00:36:21.700
And yeah, I've stayed in, uh, I've stayed in all the cheapest hotels in Canada, all the motels and, uh, uh, along the, the highways and byways, uh, of small town Canada, I've been in them and, uh, but it's fun.
00:36:35.720
This is, uh, Stephen Harper used to say, as soon as you complain, your voters will relieve you of your complaints.
00:36:43.620
When I used to be on the campaign trail, I stayed at some very bad cheap hotels.
00:36:47.860
With, uh, Stephen Harper when he was leading the conservatives and yeah, with, you know, the liberal leaders on there.
00:36:53.300
It's, it's, you just end up where you end up and sometimes that's the best thing going.
00:36:57.140
So, uh, uh, in terms of, uh, what are you doing for relaxation for focus?
00:37:02.740
I mean, people have said to me many times over the last while, wow, did Pierre Polyev just get jacked?
00:37:08.500
Of course, the wackos online saying you're wearing girdles and, uh, fake muscles and all this.
00:37:18.220
Um, I used to run into a pure Tony Greco's gym and, uh, you obviously kept going and I stopped.
00:37:26.500
So what are you doing to relax, to focus, to stay in shape?
00:37:32.600
I try to bang on, bang on some pushups in the morning, maybe a little bit of body weight squats.
00:37:36.960
Uh, I, I did get into the gym yesterday for literally like 10 minutes, you know, just like hit every body part for one minute and then leave.
00:37:47.560
I did keep it up during the parliamentary session before, uh, and the lead up to the campaign.
00:37:52.300
But since the, the, the rate has been dropped and we, we, we get to the hotel so late and we leave so early that there's just no time to do it.
00:37:59.720
But, you know, I'm trying to get in two, three workouts a week.
00:38:02.760
So I keep my sanity and health and, um, it's been great to have Anna along with me.
00:38:09.460
And, you know, uh, if you have a bad day or a bad moment, you go to, I go to Anna and she can put it in context and get me through it.
00:38:17.780
So that's the, I think having Anna has been the number one help to my, uh, mental, uh, sanity throughout this adventure.
00:38:26.180
Well, what she can tell you about how things are looking.
00:38:29.400
I know a lot of people are saying, well, the polls are what they are.
00:38:37.600
Are you, you know, listen, it's going to come down to whether people want to change.
00:38:42.920
They think the liberals, uh, had done a good job on housing and crime and cost of living and they want a fourth term.
00:38:49.600
Well, then they'll get, they'll get a fourth term of that.
00:38:51.980
If they think it's time for a change, um, then I think we've got a good shot.
00:38:58.480
Uh, we know we're giving people a chance to keep more of their money with a 15% income tax cut.
00:39:03.980
We're the only guys who got a plan to bring down housing costs.
00:39:07.440
We're the only ones who are going to lock up the criminals and restore street safety to our streets.
00:39:13.400
The only ones that will unleash our resources to, uh, strengthen our economy against the Americans.
00:39:23.080
If they want change, then I'm, as I said earlier, I'm, I'm it.
00:39:32.040
Uh, you know, it'd be bad if he endorsed somebody else.
00:39:35.060
Although he did say that, uh, both of you, uh, have worked for him and, and he chose you,
00:39:40.380
but you got the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, not a huge union, but a significant
00:39:48.400
They have never endorsed federal conservatives.
00:39:51.040
You've also got a bunch of police unions and other trade unions.
00:39:58.360
We had the Atlantic Carpenters, the Atlantic Wide Carpenters Union backed us up.
00:40:03.300
Um, so, uh, oh, the United Association of Plumbers, uh, steam fitters and, uh, uh, pipe
00:40:13.820
Um, we've gotten very good support from La Una.
00:40:17.100
They haven't endorsed our party, but they've endorsed our, my platform.
00:40:20.320
They're the biggest laborers union in the country.
00:40:24.820
But then on the flip side, just today, we had, uh, some of the most respected business
00:40:30.700
So, yeah, I've never seen that before where labor and business are both say, uh, this
00:40:43.100
And they know that I'm the guy with the plan to change that.
00:40:46.260
Well, uh, enjoy the rest of the, uh, campaign, including the debates.
00:41:01.560
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