Full Comment - Bonus episode： Pierre Poilievre gets personal

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00:01:12.320 Ready for you.

00:01:13.220 Getting personal with Pierre Polyev.

00:01:18.780 Hello and welcome to a special bonus episode of the Full Comment Podcast.

00:01:23.020 I'm Brian Lilly, your host.

00:01:24.740 And over this past weekend, I was given the opportunity to sit down and have a long discussion

00:01:29.960 with the Conservative leader seeking to become Canada's next Prime Minister.

00:01:34.180 We were three weeks into the election, the fourth week about to start.

00:01:39.080 Polls were not as favorable as they are now, but not horrible for the Conservatives.

00:01:44.180 A lot of chatter, a lot of personal items on the agenda, and of course, the ever-present

00:01:48.960 Donald Trump.

00:01:50.260 It's not easy to get politicians at times to talk about themselves in a very personal way,

00:01:55.220 but I did give it my best effort with Polyev.

00:01:58.100 I hope you enjoy the conversation.

00:02:00.320 Pierre, good to see you again.

00:02:01.700 Say, Brian.

00:02:02.040 Bye.

00:02:02.560 Thanks for having me.

00:02:03.400 Uh, let's just jump right to the, uh, the sticky question of this election.

00:02:07.220 The guy that doesn't live here in Canada, that's wreaking havoc in Canada. 0.98

00:02:11.520 Let's say April 28th comes, the voters put their faith in you and you have a servitive 1.00

00:02:15.740 team across the country.

00:02:17.900 How do you handle Donald Trump and how is your way of handling him different than Mark Carney?

00:02:24.780 Do you call him right away?

00:02:26.320 Do you start a negotiation?

00:02:28.260 What do you do?

00:02:28.720 Well, what I would propose to him is suspend the tariffs and quickly renegotiate Kuzma because,

00:02:36.120 um, this, this state of like random sudden waves of new tariffs is totally destabilizing

00:02:45.220 both our economies.

00:02:46.080 He's sending stock markets into a tailspin and I would say to him, look, it's not in your

00:02:51.980 interest to have this insanity.

00:02:53.900 Uh, you think that the current arrangement is unfair.

00:02:56.700 Well, um, let's negotiate a solution that ends the tariffs, protects our sovereignty in

00:03:03.640 exchange for which what we can offer is a much stronger Canadian military to carry our weight

00:03:08.660 on the continent.

00:03:10.880 Um, now, will he accept that?

00:03:13.360 I don't know.

00:03:14.400 Uh, he has been very unpredictable.

00:03:16.820 Um, you know, Mr. Carney had a phone call with him and came out of it saying it was productive

00:03:20.920 and that he made progress.

00:03:22.580 And then four or five days later, Trump hit us with even more tariffs.

00:03:26.800 And then the other day, Trump paused tariffs on almost every country in the world except

00:03:32.580 Canada.

00:03:33.380 So I kind of wonder what progress Mr. Carney is bragging about.

00:03:37.480 I'm not blaming him for the tariffs, of course, but I am pointing out that his singular election

00:03:42.660 promise is that he can quote unquote handle Donald Trump.

00:03:46.180 Uh, so far, there's no evidence of that.

00:03:48.900 Uh, what we need to do is focus on what we can control, which is to say, reverse all of the

00:03:56.120 disastrous policies that Carney advised Justin Trudeau to put in place and that all the

00:04:01.500 current liberal MPs running for re-election helped impose, uh, those policies need to

00:04:06.320 go.

00:04:06.640 That is to say, we need to repeal the anti-energy law, C-69, repeal the industrial carbon tax,

00:04:12.300 the energy cap, quickly approve LNG plants, factories, pipelines, et cetera.

00:04:17.800 I heard you say that, but how would you be different than Mark Carney saying, I'm going

00:04:20.840 to call them up right away?

00:04:22.280 I mean, do they take a different approach to trade negotiations?

00:04:25.180 If you remember back to when we renegotiated NAFTA into Kuzma, the Americans published this

00:04:31.660 long list of their objectives, rather required to by law.

00:04:35.960 Uh, it wasn't, uh, Donald Trump being, uh, you know, really nice to anybody that required

00:04:40.200 by law.

00:04:40.740 Right.

00:04:41.080 And it was all about better access for their producers, better access for their manufacturers,

00:04:46.720 better access to our markets and the Mexican markets.

00:04:50.080 Ours was, we wanted gender language and environmental, um, changes.

00:04:56.060 There was nothing in what the Trudeau government put out that said we need better access.

00:05:01.520 I mean, at the same time we renegotiated and we've been taken to the trade panel several

00:05:07.100 times by the Americans saying, you're not following, uh, the rule of, uh, the agreement.

00:05:11.500 So there's obviously problems with the agreement.

00:05:13.780 How would you be different?

00:05:15.420 Well, different than that, I would obviously put on the table things that the Canadians 0.77

00:05:18.800 want and need.

00:05:19.880 Like we need an end to the softwood tariffs.

00:05:22.480 Uh, it's crazy that we're being hit with 15% tariffs.

00:05:25.640 By the way, those weren't imposed by Trump.

00:05:27.400 Those were opposed by Biden.

00:05:29.540 Um, and Harper got them off 80 days after he became prime minister.

00:05:33.840 I want an end to the softwood tariffs.

00:05:36.140 Second, uh, we need, uh, an end to buy America for Canadian goods.

00:05:40.480 We had an exemption to buy America again under Harper that allowed Canadian construction companies

00:05:46.360 to sell their goods to American governments.

00:05:49.500 Uh, that's the second thing I'd like to have.

00:05:51.420 And I also want to, I want to make sure that anything we offer the Americans, particularly

00:05:57.020 on national defense or things we can pull back in the event that Trump goes back on his

00:06:01.680 word.

00:06:01.940 So if he suddenly hits us with a bunch of new unexpected tariffs out of nowhere, well,

00:06:06.480 then we're going to pull back on the things that we've committed to do for him.

00:06:09.300 One of the failures of the Kuzma negotiation and deal is the liberals did not, did not bake

00:06:16.600 in any long-term leverage to say to the Americans, look, if you go back on Kuzma, well, we're going

00:06:21.540 to withdraw these four or five things we've offered you.

00:06:24.460 And that would, uh, that's necessary because it's the only way to dissuade Trump from hitting

00:06:29.700 us again in an unprovoked way, like he did this time.

00:06:32.880 Now, um, you've been getting some criticism lately.

00:06:37.340 I know you've answered this in your news conferences, but, uh, Corey Tonek, a guy that you know, well,

00:06:43.140 you've known for a long time being very critical of the campaign.

00:06:46.460 Uh, I've heard you say why you're going to continue doing this.

00:06:50.640 What's it like getting harsh criticism from someone that you've known so long that has

00:06:55.980 been a friend?

00:06:56.440 Well, uh, it's life in the big city.

00:07:02.180 Um, we, uh, I focus on, you know, I think the criticism I'm getting is that I'm focusing

00:07:07.860 too much on the cost of living and on crime and, and those, uh, issues that affect people's

00:07:12.840 daily lives.

00:07:14.240 Um, I'm not changing.

00:07:16.280 Uh, the reality is that, uh, I meet every day I meet single moms who can't feed their 0.98

00:07:21.860 kids.

00:07:22.160 I meet seniors who tell me they don't know how they're going to, their savings is going

00:07:26.360 to run out before, uh, their, their days run out.

00:07:29.700 Uh, I meet the young couples that are in their thirties who can't have kids because the liberals

00:07:34.440 have doubled the cost of housing and, you know, the liberals and their friends in the

00:07:39.880 lobbying world want Canadians to forget about that. 0.81

00:07:43.100 Their entire election strategy is to pretend the last 10 years never happened.

00:07:47.940 But there is a big chunk of the population that is very anxious right now.

00:07:51.860 Um, I don't particularly understand, uh, how anxious some people are because this too

00:07:57.980 shall pass and government, uh, countries outlive governments, good and bad.

00:08:02.060 But I mean, speak to those people that are worried.

00:08:06.360 I mean, do you have, do you have anything to say that would make them say, okay, I'll go

00:08:14.000 back to considering if you're a folly of my conservatives?

00:08:16.460 Well, if you are anxious about the Canada U S situation, I understand that there are, if

00:08:23.740 you know, there, uh, it's the elephant next door.

00:08:25.880 They, the biggest military and economic superpower the world has ever seen.

00:08:30.200 And the president has been very unfriendly to us with his words and deeds these last hundred

00:08:36.720 days, but we will overcome this.

00:08:39.200 I have no doubt about it.

00:08:40.660 I have no doubt that we will stabilize the relationship, get back to trading while protecting

00:08:45.540 our sovereignty and our independence.

00:08:47.900 I think frankly, the, I think what's going to happen is that midterms are going to start

00:08:53.000 to get closer and congressmen and senators are going to say to the president, okay, you

00:08:58.400 know, our factories are under pressure because of these crazy tariffs.

00:09:01.480 Our consumers are paying higher prices.

00:09:03.400 Can you please stop fighting with Canada?

00:09:05.300 Jeff, it's making our people poorer.

00:09:07.280 And I think we can get a deal that will bring peace and calm and we can get back to focusing

00:09:13.980 on the problems that were homemade.

00:09:16.720 Like, you know, before Donald Trump was reelected, we had a liberal housing crisis.

00:09:22.760 We had 2 million people lined up at food banks every single month.

00:09:25.960 We had people paying more in taxes than they're spending on food, clothing, and shelter combined.

00:09:30.840 And those problems are going to survive after Donald Trump unless we take a dramatically

00:09:36.680 different action to fix them.

00:09:38.580 Mark Carney represents more of the same.

00:09:41.220 It's going to be the same liberal MPs, same liberal ministers, same liberal promises, and

00:09:45.580 you'll get the same liberal result.

00:09:47.760 We need a change.

00:09:49.220 And I'm the only change in town.

00:09:51.060 That's just the reality.

00:09:52.560 If you want to, to lower the tax burden, unleash our resources, green light home buildings

00:09:58.520 so our youth can afford a place to live, lock up the criminals to bring home safety, you've

00:10:04.100 got one option in this election, and it's conservative.

00:10:08.800 The stock market didn't just tank, oil prices tanked.

00:10:12.360 I was speaking with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith the other day at the Canada Strongman

00:10:16.860 Free networking event.

00:10:18.420 I interviewed her on stage and she told me that the price of oil dropping, the way it has,

00:10:25.500 it's gone down, at that point, it's gone down about 15.5% on West Texas Intermediate.

00:10:31.880 Western Canadian Select, which is what we sell at, always at a 15-20% discount, had dropped

00:10:37.720 20% since Donald Trump's Liberation Day.

00:10:41.680 She said that'll cost her a $5 billion deficit is their estimate if it continues.

00:10:47.420 It's going to have huge economic impact on this country, won't it?

00:10:51.840 Very much so, and the fact that we are so dependent on the Americans is the reason why 0.99

00:10:57.340 Canadian oil is so much cheaper than American, or than the world price.

00:11:01.240 Western Canada Select is a discount that we get for our product because we can't get it

00:11:06.240 anywhere else in the world.

00:11:08.680 We send some along trans amounts, a very small amount, but most of it is to the states.

00:11:15.100 Yes, it's a very small fraction.

00:11:16.680 Even some of the trans-mountain oil actually does transit down the west coast of California.

00:11:21.580 So it is, you know, Trudeau killed the Northern Gateway Pipeline, which would have taken 500,000

00:11:28.560 barrels from Alberta through BC off to Asia.

00:11:33.320 Mark Carney testified in favor of killing that pipeline.

00:11:36.720 I think you may have quizzed him on that.

00:11:38.200 I did quiz him on it.

00:11:39.140 And he, you know, the liberals effectively killed the Energy East Pipeline, which would

00:11:43.740 have taken a million barrels to New Brunswick from Alberta, oil that would have displaced

00:11:50.080 Prutin's oil in Europe and probably helped defund him.

00:11:54.380 Then they passed C-69, the anti-development law that Carney says he wants to keep in place,

00:11:59.680 and he wants to keep the energy cap and an industrial carbon tax.

00:12:02.940 So when it comes to energy independence, Trudeau and Carney are identical.

00:12:08.320 And the choice in the election after this lost liberal decade of keeping our wealth in

00:12:13.920 the ground is whether you want to give them a fourth term or whether you want a change

00:12:19.080 with a new government that will repeal these anti-energy laws and get our goods to market.

00:12:24.260 Have you noticed that he doesn't really use the words oil, gas, pipelines?

00:12:29.340 Yeah, so he talks about conventional energy and energy infrastructure.

00:12:35.220 When I look at the investments that he made as chair and vice chair of Brookfield asset

00:12:42.400 management over the last bunch of years, I quite frankly think that his plan is not to

00:12:47.220 increase Canadian conventional energy, as he calls it, but to make us a green energy

00:12:52.780 superpower, I don't know, with hydrogen or hydro.

00:12:57.540 Those are the same promises that liberals made for a whole decade.

00:13:00.940 Remember, we were going to be selling boatloads of hydrogen off to Europe instead of natural

00:13:06.000 gas.

00:13:06.360 How many shipments of Canadian hydrogen are being sold to Germany after all these years

00:13:11.360 of these promises?

00:13:12.820 You know, billions, tens of billions of dollars of subsidies to supposedly invent these industries

00:13:19.380 from scratch, paid for by taxpayers.

00:13:22.440 And what is the result after a decade of the liberals in power?

00:13:27.420 Half trillion investment is left to the South.

00:13:29.740 We're more dependent on the Americans than ever before. 0.98

00:13:32.320 We've had the worst growth in the G7.

00:13:34.420 This liberal experiment has failed.

00:13:37.320 And Mark Carney will not change it.

00:13:38.960 He fundamentally agrees with everything Trudeau did.

00:13:41.520 He advised him to do it.

00:13:43.020 And he will keep doing it if he gets the chance.

00:13:45.320 If you want a change to unleash our resources, there's only one party that will do it.

00:13:50.480 And it's the conservatives.

00:13:52.520 I got an email from a reader the other day saying to me that he fully sports it and has

00:13:59.020 for a while, but he's on a Facebook that is filled with seniors in his community.

00:14:05.840 And he said one of the reasons that he keeps reading as he tries to convince them on why

00:14:11.340 to vote for you instead of Carney and the liberals is that they say, but he'll cut our pensions.

00:14:18.540 He's going to cut our OAS.

00:14:19.700 He's going to cut our CPP.

00:14:21.300 He's going to cut our GIC.

00:14:23.520 That's a total line.

00:14:24.960 We're going to protect OAS, GIS, and the CPP.

00:14:28.600 Keep the age of retirement at 65.

00:14:31.220 We've also said we'll allow working seniors who choose to keep a job to earn $34,000 tax-free.

00:14:38.460 That's $10,000 more than right now.

00:14:40.240 Which is how it reduces the penalties that exist for seniors who go into the workforce.

00:14:46.120 We're also going to allow seniors who choose to keep their RRSBs growing to do that for another two years.

00:14:54.680 You announced that recently, and that was in response to the-

00:14:58.960 Actually, it was prescient.

00:15:00.500 We announced it even before that.

00:15:02.480 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.

00:15:09.880 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.

00:15:21.060 Well, you know, you have some time for the stock market to recover.

00:15:23.980 That's right.

00:15:24.420 So that you're not, you know, hit with, I forget how bad it was back then, but we survived.

00:15:28.780 That's right, 20 or 30%.

00:15:30.300 So at the time, the markets crashed way back then, and we didn't want to force seniors to withdraw with those losses.

00:15:36.200 They let them to keep it longer.

00:15:38.140 They recovered their losses, and that's what I'm saying now.

00:15:40.480 But even beyond that, I think that those seniors who decide, because they're, say, I'm in great health.

00:15:45.920 I'm going to be around for a long time.

00:15:47.400 I want to grow my nest egg tax-free a little longer.

00:15:50.400 Great.

00:15:50.840 I'll have another two years to do it.

00:15:52.760 Okay.

00:15:52.860 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.

00:16:08.080 I don't like him.

00:16:09.000 You see, you're smiling.

00:16:09.840 Have I ever been mean to you?

00:16:11.120 No.

00:16:11.660 And this is what I say.

00:16:13.480 That's not the guy I've known for the last 20 years.

00:16:15.720 I said, this is a guy that laughs more than he frowns.

00:16:18.720 So, like, talk about your personality, but loosen up a little bit.

00:16:25.640 Be like, come on.

00:16:27.120 Yeah, at first you were trying to get me drinking.

00:16:29.280 Now, I did offer, you know, do you want a beer for the start?

00:16:37.000 He said no.

00:16:38.340 I don't drink as much as I did when I was younger.

00:16:40.580 I'm going to be too old for that.

00:16:42.040 But, no, listen, I think the challenge is that I do get upset with the way that politicians have ruined people's lives.

00:16:53.500 It upsets me when I meet someone who can't afford a home because of political decisions or, you know, a small business owner.

00:16:59.780 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.

00:17:11.740 And I think sometimes that frustration comes across as aggressive.

00:17:15.840 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.

00:17:28.140 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.

00:17:37.500 And so that's one of the challenges to communicate.

00:17:41.740 Bleed with empathy?

00:17:42.420 I mean, just tell people why you're doing it.

00:17:46.160 You know, what are you fighting for?

00:17:48.020 And what I'm fighting for is just to bring back the promise the country had that I got when I was a kid.

00:17:53.800 You know, you can work hard, you get a great life.

00:17:56.360 And that's what it was in Canada before the liberals were in power.

00:18:00.140 When I first met you as a young whippersnapper trying to get elected the first time, you're what, 23, 24?

00:18:05.760 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.

00:18:21.140 Let's go do that.

00:18:21.920 But I couldn't run to because it was a cool job.

00:18:23.820 I believed in actually the same things back then that I believe in now.

00:18:26.940 I mean, what drives you to say, I want to be the guy, I want to be the person leading the country.

00:18:34.440 That's what makes me want to get up in the morning.

00:18:38.700 Well, it's like I'm saying, I was given a great opportunity in this country.

00:18:44.320 You know, I came from very, very humble beginnings.

00:18:46.680 I started off the adopted son of two school teachers and was able to make it to this place.

00:18:53.020 My wife came here as a refugee from Venezuela and look how far she's come. 0.74

00:18:57.460 There's nowhere else where this story is possible.

00:19:01.020 That was the promise the country made all of us.

00:19:03.400 But that promise is broken right now.

00:19:06.100 Young people don't feel that way.

00:19:07.540 You walk around the streets and you meet the youth.

00:19:10.800 They say, you know, I'm giving it everything I have.

00:19:12.760 I'm not getting anywhere.

00:19:13.640 I don't see any hope of ever owning a home or having kids.

00:19:17.120 Many are considering just leaving the country for better opportunities elsewhere.

00:19:20.680 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.

00:19:29.940 And I just see our economy so weak that it's not going to give my kids the opportunity that

00:19:35.480 existed when I was 20, 25.

00:19:37.980 So I want to bring back that promise.

00:19:40.400 And I know how to do it.

00:19:41.920 I know if we get back to the basics, the common sense ideas that used to guide the country,

00:19:48.540 that we can bring back the promise for everybody.

00:19:51.180 And that's why I'm running.

00:19:53.040 You mentioned your wife, Anna, her coming here as a refugee.

00:19:58.200 My parents came here as immigrants in 1968.

00:20:01.660 And back then, it took about five years for new immigrants to catch up to the Canadian standard of living.

00:20:08.360 My understanding, it is much longer now.

00:20:11.360 Within five years, they'd saved up to buy a house.

00:20:15.320 You can't do that, though.

00:20:16.980 My oldest son left Ottawa a couple of years ago to move to New Brunswick.

00:20:21.300 Why?

00:20:22.120 Better opportunities in terms of hopefully one day being able to buy a house.

00:20:26.620 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.

00:20:34.660 People are leaving mid-sized cities like Ottawa and saying, it's too much.

00:20:41.800 Speak to the, I've asked you already to speak to the older voters.

00:20:45.340 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.

00:21:07.500 He makes very good money.

00:21:08.540 He says, why should I be making high six-figure income?

00:21:12.840 And I can't buy a place to lose.

00:21:14.880 It's nuts.

00:21:16.060 It's nuts.

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 0.85

00:21:31.260 in Orleans, east end of the nation's capital.

00:21:34.820 That's how it was.

00:21:36.660 It's funny.

00:21:37.500 I shouldn't have sold it.

00:21:38.540 I sold my condo in Barhaven, 35 minutes from Parliament Hill in 2015.

00:21:43.200 It went for $219,000 or something like that.

00:21:46.260 $219,000?

00:21:47.320 It's unbelievable.

00:21:48.260 How might that be going for an hour?

00:21:49.400 Oh, it hurts too much.

00:21:51.940 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.

00:21:59.860 And it should be cheap.

00:22:01.040 This should be the cheapest place in the world to own a home because we've got so much dirt

00:22:04.920 to build on.

00:22:05.800 We've got more land per capita than any country in the G7.

00:22:08.760 I hear we have lumber.

00:22:09.880 We've got lumber.

00:22:10.720 We've got workers.

00:22:11.680 We have companies to build it.

00:22:12.820 What we don't have is permits.

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.

00:22:28.620 A lot of that is local.

00:22:30.500 Some of it is.

00:22:31.400 And I'll give a quick example from here.

00:22:33.880 You mentioned our leads.

00:22:35.100 Spoke to one developer.

00:22:36.200 And, you know, developers in Ottawa, as in most major cities, they work in all parts of

00:22:42.680 the city.

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.

00:23:16.080 So here's my plan.

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.

00:23:26.980 So up to 50 grand.

00:23:29.460 So you combine getting rid of the GST on new homes with getting the municipalities to cut

00:23:35.280 them their taxes by up to 50 grand.

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

00:23:50.260 the development stuff.

00:23:51.120 Explain that a little bit.

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.

00:24:02.740 Those that build less will get less.

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

00:24:20.000 though he's already done it once before.

00:24:22.960 The only way you're going to get these permits going is if you incentivize the municipalities

00:24:27.360 with money for homes, money for doors.

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

00:24:42.860 to build new homes.

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.

00:24:57.780 I went through the news release.

00:24:59.620 I went through the backgrounder.

00:25:01.920 There was a word missing.

00:25:04.840 Ownership.

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

00:25:21.340 don't need to have home ownership.

00:25:22.720 We just have, you know, and, and Justin Trudeau was putting that forward and it looks like Mark

00:25:26.500 Carney's, uh, carrying that on.

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.

00:25:37.860 We, everyone can live in a box in the sky.

00:25:39.680 Look, I live in a box in the sky now in downtown Toronto.

00:25:42.380 I quite like it.

00:25:43.100 It's great.

00:25:44.000 But if you're raising one, two, three kids at a certain point, that becomes a pain that

00:25:50.820 you want a yard for the kids.

00:25:52.400 You want a place for them to play.

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.

00:26:17.460 Look at the result.

00:26:18.620 The results speak for themselves.

00:26:20.320 They promised government was going to get quote unquote back into the business of housing

00:26:24.440 in 2017.

00:26:25.900 It's now been eight years and what has happened?

00:26:29.820 The cost of everything has doubled.

00:26:31.620 Rent has doubled.

00:26:32.420 Mortgage payments has doubled and the needed down payment for a home.

00:26:36.180 They've all doubled.

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.

00:26:46.220 You vote the same, you get the same.

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

00:26:57.960 and rent them to you.

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

00:27:23.420 require single family homes.

00:27:25.720 So governments don't build homes.

00:27:27.720 The good news is they don't have to.

00:27:29.280 We have lots of builders.

00:27:30.760 We have lots of land.

00:27:32.260 What we need is the government to get out of the way, get the taxes and the red tape off

00:27:37.200 so that they can build.

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.

00:27:52.760 Well, he's going to give it a new name.

00:27:54.300 That bureaucracy isn't good enough, so let's have a different bureaucracy.

00:27:57.500 That's right.

00:27:57.980 And that's what they're going to build is bureaucracy.

00:27:59.900 We don't need to build more bureaucracy.

00:28:01.700 We actually need to build more homes.

00:28:03.740 And we can do that.

00:28:04.600 We will.

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

00:28:19.220 on the Canadian side?

00:28:20.740 The answer is that you can get things built there and you don't get taxed through the

00:28:24.700 nose for doing it.

00:28:26.080 We need to do the same.

00:28:27.080 That's what we used to do in Canada.

00:28:28.480 That's why housing was always cheap in this country.

00:28:30.980 And we will make it affordable again.

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.

00:28:42.620 Literally.

00:28:43.400 Literally.

00:28:43.840 Literally.

00:28:44.360 Then it is cheaper to buy a castle in Sweden or Scotland than it is to buy a single family 0.91

00:28:50.920 home in Kitchener today.

00:28:52.520 That's utterly a shame.

00:28:54.060 I'm boggling.

00:28:54.420 Uh, in terms of, but it's not going to change if we reelect the liberals, they will be exactly

00:28:59.540 the same policy.

00:29:00.740 We need to change.

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

00:29:10.360 cut again.

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

00:29:27.340 to go to work?

00:29:28.960 That's exactly right.

00:29:30.160 And, and ironically, the family, the number of families without childcare has actually

00:29:35.460 grown since the liberals made this promise.

00:29:38.780 Uh, the number of spaces has actually shrunk.

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.

00:29:50.220 They want to limit it to nine to five.

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.

00:30:09.340 So we're saying is sure.

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.

00:30:34.540 Well, I used to work morning radio.

00:30:36.200 There was, uh, a single parent that I worked with.

00:30:38.260 He had to drop his, uh, uh, kids off.

00:30:40.820 Uh, you know, morning radio, you start at four 35 o'clock.

00:30:44.460 Yes, that's right.

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.

00:30:54.920 Wow.

00:30:55.240 But only one in all of Ottawa.

00:30:56.660 Jeez.

00:30:57.340 And I kid you, does a kid wake up at that time?

00:30:59.560 Yes.

00:31:00.060 Must've been a really roach kid at four in the morning.

00:31:02.280 Well, I'd be really crouched.

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,

00:31:12.620 what is quality?

00:31:12.760 I'll just get out of the freedom.

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

00:31:25.360 restraints.

00:31:26.020 Because it's about parents, not politicians.

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

00:31:40.920 is, uh, well, fractured national unity.

00:31:45.660 I'm not sure if you saw the, uh, Angus Reid poll that came out recently on, uh, would you

00:31:51.060 vote to make your province independent?

00:31:53.640 Mark Carney liberals win, uh, 30% in Alberta said yes, 30% in Quebec said yes, 33% in Saskatchewan

00:32:01.380 said yes.

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.

00:32:41.240 They've over-centralized power.

00:32:43.240 They've deliberately tried to turn one region against another in order to exploit, uh, divisions

00:32:48.480 to their political advantage.

00:32:50.380 I want to unite Canadians again.

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

00:33:03.860 even on the, on the, on the radar.

00:33:05.920 A few had mentioned it back then.

00:33:08.000 People would think you would, you look at you like you had three heads.

00:33:11.060 Um, it was a very small room.

00:33:14.100 Fair.

00:33:14.140 Yes, we all.

00:33:14.900 Fair.

00:33:15.300 Fair.

00:33:15.420 Fair.

00:33:15.520 Fair.

00:33:15.620 But openly.

00:33:16.460 It shouldn't be.

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

00:33:45.100 why there's divisions.

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

00:33:55.480 our heroes back in the, in the.

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.

00:34:03.020 Okay.

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.

00:34:10.460 They took that out.

00:34:11.420 They took out a statue in Victoria.

00:34:13.280 They tore it down in Montreal.

00:34:15.040 Terrible.

00:34:15.220 And now we're being told, you know, we've gone from, we're a horrible country.

00:34:19.280 We need to, uh, yeah, do all these things.

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.

00:34:38.780 Be proud of what we have here.

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.

00:34:45.700 So let's unite again.

00:34:47.500 You have been campaigning with your kids.

00:34:50.000 Um, I saw you making a pizza with Cruz.

00:34:54.140 Uh, I believe he got the job and you were fired.

00:34:56.640 I only, it almost dropped on the ground.

00:34:58.360 I almost lost the pizza.

00:34:59.600 What, what's it been like campaigning with the kids?

00:35:03.000 Well, it's been a lot of fun.

00:35:04.640 The, the Valentina loves motion.

00:35:06.680 She loves to be in motion all the time.

00:35:09.300 She does not like standing still or sitting still.

00:35:12.540 And, uh, so campaigns move.

00:35:15.320 You're on a bus, it's moving.

00:35:16.520 You're on a plane, it's moving.

00:35:18.020 Um, and when we're moving, she's happy.

00:35:20.840 Uh, and so I've, I've enjoyed having her along and she's been extremely well, uh, adapted.

00:35:27.060 And how old is Valentina?

00:35:28.240 She's six now.

00:35:29.080 She's got some special needs. 0.94

00:35:30.840 Um, but she's been very resilient.

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. 0.97

00:35:39.520 That doesn't ever bother kids.

00:35:40.980 Oh, no, it bothers the parents.

00:35:42.700 Um, and then, uh, Cruz is a Mr. Inquisition.

00:35:47.400 He's always got questions, questions, questions, questions, questions.

00:35:50.360 Where does he get that from?

00:35:51.360 That's a good question.

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.

00:36:34.600 You know, I don't complain.

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.

00:36:40.940 So I'm not here whining.

00:36:42.880 I enjoy it.

00:36:43.620 When I used to be on the campaign trail, I stayed at some very bad cheap hotels.

00:36:47.700 Yeah.

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.

00:37:16.360 And, and I say, no, no.

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.

00:37:25.060 Tony told me he saw you a little while ago.

00:37:26.500 So what are you doing to relax, to focus, to stay in shape?

00:37:29.720 Are you able to get exercise?

00:37:31.140 I'm not getting as much as I'd like.

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.

00:37:45.540 It's been tough on the campaign trail.

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.

00:38:07.560 She's a great sounding board.

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.

00:38:32.880 And so therefore it's over.

00:38:34.840 Um, are, are they getting you down?

00:38:37.600 Are you, you know, listen, it's going to come down to whether people want to change.

00:38:41.980 People want to keep going.

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.

00:38:56.680 We've got a great platform.

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. 0.97

00:39:19.440 So it's up to Canadians. 0.96

00:39:20.980 If they want a fourth term, they'll get one.

00:39:23.080 If they want change, then I'm, as I said earlier, I'm, I'm it.

00:39:26.040 I'm the only change in town.

00:39:27.560 You've got some surprising endorsements.

00:39:30.220 Yes.

00:39:30.480 I'm not talking to Stephen Harper.

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

00:39:44.760 one, especially for the resource industry.

00:39:46.860 That's my dad's old union.

00:39:48.400 They have never endorsed federal conservatives.

00:39:50.940 Right.

00:39:51.040 You've also got a bunch of police unions and other trade unions.

00:39:54.000 Yes.

00:39:54.580 Yesterday, the IBEW in Windsor endorsed us.

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

00:40:10.540 fitters.

00:40:11.000 Yep.

00:40:11.540 They endorsed us.

00:40:12.220 That's a very big union.

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.

00:40:22.660 One of the biggest in North America.

00:40:24.820 But then on the flip side, just today, we had, uh, some of the most respected business

00:40:28.840 leaders in all of Canada publishing it.

00:40:30.700 So, yeah, I've never seen that before where labor and business are both say, uh, this

00:40:35.580 is the guy.

00:40:36.400 What do they have in common?

00:40:37.360 They want to get things built.

00:40:39.160 They want to get things built.

00:40:40.920 They want to stop stopping and start starting.

00:40:43.100 And they know that I'm the guy with the plan to change that.

00:40:45.720 All right.

00:40:46.260 Well, uh, enjoy the rest of the, uh, campaign, including the debates.

00:40:49.940 Thank you, my friend.

00:40:50.560 I hope you guys are right to see it.

00:40:51.860 Good to see you.

00:40:52.280 Full Comment is a post-media podcast.

00:40:55.740 This episode was produced by Andre Pru.

00:40:57.700 Theme music by Bryce Hall.

00:40:59.180 Kevin Libin is the executive producer.

00:41:01.560 Please remember to hit subscribe on Full Comment, whether it's Apple, Spotify, wherever you get

00:41:06.100 your podcasts.

00:41:07.320 Help us out by giving us a rating or leaving us a review.

00:41:10.920 Thanks for listening.

00:41:11.920 Until next time, I'm Brian Lilly.

00:41:13.600 We'll see you next time.

Full Comment - April 17, 2025

Bonus episode： Pierre Poilievre gets personal

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