OTTAWA—Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is criticizing the prime minister for saying he does not read intelligence documents and relies instead on oral briefings, as he testified during the inquiry on foreign interference.
“His defence actually speaks for itself. The prime minister was asked why he didn’t do anything about this interference, even though he was warned in briefing notes, [and his defence] is that he doesn’t read briefing notes,” Mr. Poilievre said during a speech at the annual Canada Strong and Free Network conference in Ottawa on April 11.
“I think that most Canadians would believe that defence. I think it’s plausible that Justin Trudeau doesn’t read documents that come before him,” he said to the laughter of the mostly conservative crowd.
“The only way to guarantee, to make sure that I receive the necessary information is to give me an in-person briefing, or over a secure line if necessary, on any issue or priority issue,” he said, adding that he primarily relied on oral briefings from his national security and intelligence adviser or CSIS Director David Vigneault.
Mr. Poilievre said given that the inquiry was investigating whether “a foreign dictatorship interfered in our democracy in multiple elections to help [Mr. Trudeau] win,” the statement by the prime minister was “incredible, although not so surprising.”
Mr. Trudeau also testified that he believed it was “improbable” that Beijing would have a preference for one Canadian political party over another. Intelligence leaks published in the media had said China preferred that the Liberals win the 2021 election over the Conservatives due to the latter’s strong position against Beijing’s aggressions.
‘Deeply Illiberal’
During his keynote address, Mr. Poilievre accused Mr. Trudeau of breaking with “liberalism itself” throughout his time as prime minister. He said classic liberals used to believe in the principle of “laissez-faire,” which involves letting citizens “make their own decisions and live their own lives,” a principle that his father Pierre Elliot Trudeau “famously plagiarized when he said that the government had no place in the bedrooms of the nation,” Mr. Poilievre said.
“Now, his son wants the government to be in every room of your house, and your business, and your wallet, and your bank account, and your internet account. He wants to be everywhere,” Mr. Poilievre said. “It’s not that Justin Trudeau is too liberal, it’s that he’s not liberal at all. He is deeply, deeply illiberal.”
Throughout his speech, Mr. Poilievre outlined policies he would implement as prime minister to “give people back control of their lives,” such as increasing international exports of Canadian energy, rewarding municipalities that meet housing construction targets, bringing in tougher sentences for repeat offenders, and cutting foreign aid to “dictators, terrorists, and multinational bureaucracies,” investing instead in the military.
The Conservative leader also vowed to cut taxes, claiming that Canadians were better off spending their money themselves than giving it to the federal government.
As Mr. Poilievre spoke about his flagship political promise to “axe” the federal carbon tax to bring down the cost of living, several protesters from the environmental activist group Last Generation Canada stood up in the audience and began yelling. Mr. Poilievre led the room in an “Axe The Tax” chant as the protesters were escorted out by security.
“Whenever I announce my plan to axe the tax, there’s such an outburst of enthusiasm,” he joked. “And then further compound that with lower income taxes to reward hard work, some people find these ideas so revolutionary ... they can’t contain their enthusiasm.”
