Chiang affair proves Carney will put himself ahead of Canada: Poilievre

Article content

OTTAWA — Former Liberal MP Paul Chiang’s decision to take himself off the ballot only proves the Liberal leader instinctually puts his own interests ahead of the country’s, Pierre Poilievre said on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters from St. John’s, the Conservative leader commented on the news overnight that Chiang, seeking re-election in his riding of Markham-Unionville, announced he would be stepping aside — just hours after Liberal Leader Mark Carney said he saw no issue with the former York Region cop staying on as a candidate.

“A Liberal candidate who said that a Canadian Conservative candidate should be turned over on a bounty to the Chinese government that wants to imprison him and possibly even kill him because he is a political dissident,” Poilievre said.

“It wasn’t until midnight when we found out that the police were involved, because it is a potential criminal offence, that the candidate stepped aside himself — not being pushed out by Carney, but because he decided on his own.”

Earlier this year, Chiang told Chinese-language reporters that somebody should turn Don Valley North Candidate Joe Tay — whose anti-Communist advocacy prompted Beijing to put a HK$1 million bounty on his head — over to the Chinese consulate.

Chiang has since apologized, with Carney spending Monday vehemently defending Chiang’s candidacy.

The Liberals have until April 7 to choose a new candidate for the riding.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

“Mr. Carney will never put our country first, he will always put himself first,” Poilievre said.

Poilievre was in St. John’s announcing that, under a Conservative government, he would implement five key policy asks from Canada’s energy sector to make Canada independent from the United States.

Ticking off the policy points printed on a large card, Poilievre’s plan includes repealing Canada’s B.C. coast oil tanker moratorium and Liberal policy prohibiting a ban on new pipelines, set a new six-month benchmark for approving new resource projects, doing away with Canada’s energy cap, removing the industrial carbon tax,  and establish an Indigenous-led corporation dedicated to offering loan guarantees for Indigenous resource projects.

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume