Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last night gave his annual speech to Liberal party members at their national caucus
holiday party, during which he focused heavily on criticizing official Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre.
“Mr. Poilievre might choose to undermine our democracy by amplifying conspiracy theories. He might decide to run away from journalists when they ask him tough questions. That’s how he brands himself. That’s his choice,” said Trudeau during his speech on the evening of Dec. 14.
“But when he says that Canada is broken, that’s where we draw the line. This is Canada.”
Trudeau was referring to comments by Poilievre while speaking to reporters on Nov. 9 in Vancouver.
“It feels like everything is broken in this country right now,”
Poilievre said, citing 40-year record-high food prices due to inflation and focusing on the increased numbers of Canadians visiting food banks this year.
In a subsequent
Twitter post on Nov. 20, Poilievre wrote: “Everything feels broken. But we can fix it.”
The words captioned a video of Poilievre overlooking a tent city in Vancouver housing homeless people while the Conservative leader says, “Do you ever feel like everything’s broken in Canada?”
Trudeau told Liberal MPs and supporters during his speech last night: “Let me be very clear for the record: Canada is not broken.”
“In Canada, better is always possible. But I don’t accept Canadians and politicians that talk down on our country,” Trudeau said.
Trudeau also criticized Poilievre’s past comments about cryptocurrencies being a possible way to “
opt out“ of inflation.
“Mr. Poilievre is a career politician that’s been part of the Conservative Party establishment with Stephen Harper and others for 20 years,” said Trudeau. “He’s ready to say anything to anyone if he thinks that will help him win. That’s reckless.”
Conservative Criticism
Since winning the Conservative leadership, Poilievre has mostly criticized Trudeau and his government’s handling of the cost-of-living crisis in Canada, saying federal spending has largely contributed to Canada’s current inflation rate of around
6.9 percent.
“What he [Trudeau] has delivered is a 40-year-high inflation, the fastest-rising interest rates in Canadian history, and one in five Canadians not being able to afford food,” Poilievre
said during question period on Dec. 14 in the House of Commons.
“We wish everyone a merry Christmas, but it will not be merry for a lot of people. One in five Canadians are skipping meals. There is a 20 percent increase in the cost of a turkey dinner for the average family.”
Other issues Conservatives have criticized the Liberal government on include its pending gun-restriction legislation,
Bill C-21, and the large amounts of COVID relief subsidies sent out during the pandemic to ineligible recipients.
“According to the auditor general, there is $28 billion of suspicious spending and another $4.6 billion of outright waste, money that is driving up the inflationary prices Canadians are paying right now. He gave cheques to dead people and prisoners,”
Poilievre said in the House yesterday.
The House
yesterday completed its fall session of Parliament and is set to reconvene on Jan. 30, 2023.
Marnie Cathcart contributed to this report.
