Canada needs to build, not cut its way back to strength: Carney

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OTTAWA — While the Conservatives talk tax cuts, Canada’s Liberal party leader insists the way forward is to spend.

Speaking Tuesday morning at a campaign stop in a Montreal suburb, Mark Carney accused Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of relying too heavily on cuts, particularly in the face of the American trade war.

“Our approach to this crisis, our approach to this new economy is that we are all in this together, because when we’re united, we build Canada strong,” Carney said.

“Pierre Poilievre is about everyone for themselves, he’s all about cuts — cuts to dental care, cuts to childcare, cuts to pharmacare, cuts to foreign aid, cuts to our most valued institutions.”

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Earlier in the campaign, Poilievre said his platform wouldn’t include cuts to existing programs including childcare, pharmacare or dental care.

“I know, after long experience, we need to build our way out of a crisis,” Carney said.

Building out of this crisis, however, doesn’t include major energy projects like pipelines — which Poilievre maintains are vital to sever Canada from its dependency on the United States as our nearly-exclusive customer for Canadian energy.

“We are in a crisis, we must act,” Carney said Sunday during an interview on Radio-Canada’s Tout le Monde en Parle, a popular Quebec talk show.

“We must choose a few projects, a few big projects — not necessarily pipelines, but maybe pipelines.”

Canada has no cross-country oil lines, and relies on an Enbridge pipeline that goes through the United States to bring western Canadian oil east.

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume