Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre addressed a crowd at a warehouse in Oliver.

Image Credit: Dan Walton, Local Journalism Initiative

Hundreds of people filled a warehouse in Oliver yesterday to hear what Pierre Poilievre had to say.

The leader of the Conservative Party of Canada was in the Okanagan yesterday, Oct. 12, beginning his day in Kelowna before heading south.

Prior to his rally, Poilievre met with Chief Clarence Louie of the Osoyoos Indian Band, got taken on a tour of the Area 27 race track, and was impressed by what he saw.

“That’s the kind of thing bureaucrats in Ottawa can’t stand — people earning their own money, making their own way, charting their own course,” Poilievre told the crowd.

The NDP may frame itself as “for the little guy,” but he said that party supports big government now that it’s keeping the Liberals in power.

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“You elected an NDP MP for this area (Richard Cannings) to represent the South Okanagan-West Kootenay and he turned his back on you and he decided he would work for Justin Trudeau instead.”

Poilievre doesn’t believe it was a good idea for health authorities to fire doctors and nurses who refused to get vaccinated.

“It is crazy, I think it was Oliver that had its emergency room closed because they don’t have enough physicians,” he said.

Then members of the audience shouted Merritt, Keremeos and Grand Forks, where emergency room closures are also frequent.

“So all of these emergency rooms are closing because there’s not enough doctors or nurses, and the NDP takes the hundreds or even thousands of doctors and nurses who served the system, and throws them out onto the street simply because of a personal medical choice.”

Poilievre promises to reform bail if elected, as he believes some criminals are taking advantage of the status quo. While visiting Penticton in July, he said the police told him about one particular prolific offender who’s responsible for a substantial amount of crime.

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“There’s one criminal where Stats Canada — you look at Stats Canada data —you can tell which months he’s out of prison, because he does so much crime, the entire crime rate goes up when he’s free.”

Some of the loudest cheers of the night came when Poilievre said “Justin Trudeau and his sergeants in the NDP are now demonizing parents,” suggesting the nationwide protests against Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity held in September.

Poilievre made numerous other criticisms of the Prime Minister’s performance — the amount of money that was printed since COVID; the steep rate of inflation; housing prices; the carbon tax; the softening of laws against heavy drugs; proliferation of tent cities; funding the CBC; participation in the World Economic Forum; creating infrastructure banks that don’t benefit the taxpayers; and making it too hard for immigrants to prove employment qualifications.

There was a strong focus on his support for Canada’s oil and gas industry. It’s the most ethical on the planet, he said, and when it gets displaced on the international market because of restrictive federal policies, those oil profits make their way to Hamas rather than working-class Canadians.

Across the street from the venue were several signs and posters in support of Tamara Lich, who was a prominent protester during last year’s convoy protests.

In anticipation of Poilievere’s visit, Cannings issued a press release.

“Poilievre puts on a good show, but that’s all it is — a performance,” Cannings said in a statement.

“He gets up and says all the right things, but then fights to save big bosses a few dollars at the expense of working people. Canadians are struggling to find affordable housing and pay for grocery bills, and they deserve to have someone in Ottawa that has real solutions to their problems.”

— This story was originally published by the Penticton Herald.

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