Poilievre dismisses interference claims, questions Carney's dealings with China

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Pierre Poilievre responded to Liberal allegations that his leadership of the Conservative party came about due to foreign interference from India by saying the person most compromised in this election is Mark Carney.

The Globe and Mail released a front-page story on Tuesday, mostly rehashing old claims about India interfering in the 2022 Conservative leadership race. 

Asked to respond to the potentially explosive story, Poilievre quoted from The Globe’s own story and the public inquiry into foreign interference that wrapped up earlier this year. 

“Let’s quote from that Globe and Mail article. Let me quote here. ‘CSIS also did not have evidence that Mr. Poilievre or members of his inner circle were aware of these alleged actions,” Poilievre said. 

“Then I’m going to quote the Hogue commission. And I quote, “The commission heard testimony about allegations of the government of India interference in the Conservative party leadership race. CSIS witnesses noted that they had no reason to believe the impacted candidates would’ve been aware of the alleged support.” 

Poilievre then pointed out that his competitors in the race, like Patrick Brown, had testified under oath that whatever attempts there were to interfere, there was no impact on the outcome. 

Then Poilievre turned his attention to Carney. 

“After Justin Trudeau named Mark Carney his economic adviser, giving him massive power over public policy in Canada, Mr. Carney went over for meetings in Beijing where he just had secret talks with the deputy governor of the Chinese Central Bank. Two weeks later, Brookfield got a quarter-billion-dollar loan,” Poilievre said. 

“What did they talk about? What did Mr. Carney, in his role as Trudeau’s economic adviser, offer to China?” 

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Poilievre noted that Carney still has massive holdings in Brookfield. He went on to point out that these meetings took place during a time of hostility between Canada and China – after the kidnapping of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor and as China was in the middle of executing Canadians, as we recently learned. 

“Mark Carney will never be able to protect our national interests because he has massive financial conflicts of interests overseas,” Poilievre said. “What we need now is not to give the Liberals a fourth term with a weak and compromised leader. What we need is a prime minister who will put Canada first for a change.”

Carney’s campaign dismissed the Tory leader’s comments, telling Postmedia Network it was a “desperate attempt by Pierre Poilievre to distract from the fact that he refuses to get his security clearance at a time of crisis for Canada.”