'Richer, stronger, safer': Poilievre rallies Tory troops at industrial hub south of Edmonton Monday night
"Ten years ago, inflation was rock bottom. So were interest rates. Taxes were falling faster than any time in our history."
Article content
It did not feel like a political rally. It felt like a rock festival.
More accurately, it felt like one of those summer rock festivals where a bunch of classic Canadian bands belt out the tunes we remembered from years ago. When Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre appeared in front of thousands of placard-waving supporters at a vacant warehouse south of Edmonton Monday night, he promised to bring Canada back to where it was when Stephen Harper was prime minister. He went heavy on the retro theme.
Recommended Videos
tap here to see other videos from our team.
'Richer, stronger, safer': Poilievre rallies Tory troops at industrial hub south of Edmonton Monday night Back to video
tap here to see other videos from our team.
“We left the country richer, stronger and safer,” Poilievre said of his time as a cabinet minister in the Harper government.
“Ten years ago, inflation was rock bottom. So were interest rates. Taxes were falling faster than any time in our history.”
He hit on all the campaign themes. Selling thousands of government buildings so they can be used for housing. To a roaring ovation from the crowd in the Leduc County industrial hamlet of Nisku, he emphasized the joy he’d feel when a U-Haul moves a family into the former CBC headquarters. He talked about the need to build pipelines, get tough on crime, reduce taxes and get tougher on fentanyl dealers, treating them as if they were accused of murder. He said they should be subject to life sentences. He pledged to put enough money aside over four years to treat 50,000 fentanyl addicts. He said that for every new dollar of government spending, it would be mandated to find a dollar in savings.
And he promised to end Western alienation… “forever.”
‘Everything we need here’
It played to ovation after ovation from the faithful in attendance.
Mike Shannon made the hour-long trip south from the town of Redwater to see Poilievre.
“I’m here to show him my support, even if the votes don’t matter as much here in Alberta,” said Shannon, who brought a sign that read, “Pierre defends ‘values’ our vets fought for.”
“You’ve got Ontario and Quebec who decide everything,” Shannon said. “Even if B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba all voted Conservative, it’s not going to make a difference.”
And if the Liberals win again?
“I think going to the 51st state is a little extreme,” said Shannon. “But having our own sovereign Alberta? Maybe joining Saskatchewan? If B.C. smartens up they’ll probably come along, too. That’ll work well, because we’ve got everything we need here.”
Craig Woodbeth made the short drive west from the city of Beaumont. He volunteers for Conservative incumbent Mike Lake in Leduc-Wetaskiwin. He said getting oil out of the ground is the No. 1 issue in the riding.
And that’s why the Liberals can’t win again.
“It would be a disaster for Canada. We’re going to leave the oil in the ground and it will be a dead economy.”
Same Liberals
And while Poilievre promised a vote for him would be a vote for the Harper good old days, he hammered home the point that the Liberals are the same Liberals they were under Mark Carney as they were under Justin Trudeau. The Liberals have rebounded in the polls since Carney took over, indicating Canadian disdain was aimed at the leader of the party, not the party itself. So Poilievre has to connect Carney to Trudeau.
“There is no change. It is the same Liberal ministers, same Liberal elites, the same strategists and the same Liberal promises they were making for the last 10 years.
“We know the results. Mark Carney has spent the last two months taking credit for things he did not do.”
Harper the opening act
Harper was the opening act. He took the stage after a series of Can-con classics were played over the sound system. Bryan Adams. Trooper. 54-40. Men Without Hats. Tom Cochrane. Avril Lavigne.
“I’m the only person who can say that both of the men running to be prime minister once worked for me,” said Harper. Poilievre was in Harper’s cabinet, while Carney ran the Bank of Canada.
“And my choice, without hesitation, without equivocation, without a shadow of a doubt, is Pierre Poilievre.”
Hammering on the “things were so much better a decade ago” theme, Harper reminded audiences that it was his Conservative party who steered Canada through the global financial crisis, and he bristles when others take credit for it.
The lineups were long two hours before Poilievre was slated to take the stage. Country music star Brett Kissel rolled up in a white pickup truck and was greeted with cries of “Alberta proud” from people waiting in line.
There was a line hundreds deep for “Pierre Poilievre Bring it Home” t-shirts, with people clutching bills like they were getting ready to buy Metallica merch. There was the unmistakable odour of weed.
Kissel was in the front row, and Poilievre offered him the mic.
“It is very important to understand the human being that Pierre is,” said Kissel. “The guy has become my friend, and is someone who truly believes in the future of Canada and understands that the past 10 years we’ve had have not been great.”
While Poilievre hammered a lot of national themes, he brought up the 2023 Chinatown slayings of Hung Trang and Ban Phuc Hoang in central Edmonton. The accused in the case, Justin Bone, was on probation at the time the two men were slain. Poilievre met with Trang’s daughter, Christina, before the rally.
“This crime was entirely preventable,” said Poilievre, pledging to make probation a lot more difficult for convicted criminals to attain. “Christina and her family would still have their wonderful father with them.”
Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters.
You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post, and 13 other Canadian news sites. The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.