Leaders take their campaigns to Western Canada as federal election nears midpoint

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OTTAWA — The leaders of the top three federal parties were campaigning Tuesday in Western Canada, where Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre promised to crack down on offshore tax loopholes by appointing a tax task force.

The Conservatives said the task force would make the rules more fair and simple and ensure large companies can’t “stash their money in offshore tax havens.”

They also pledged to create a website to “name and shame” the wealthy companies that are dodging taxes. They say that list includes Brookfield, the company that Liberal Leader Mark Carney chaired before he took on the party leadership.

Radio-Canada has reported that Carney led $25 billion worth of green investment funds that were headquartered in Bermuda, a country that’s viewed as global tax haven.

“While you’re double-checking your tax return to avoid a penalty, Carney and his global elite Liberal friends dodge theirs,” Poilievre said.

He said that under a Conservative government, the Canada Revenue Agency would have “fewer auditors going after charities and small businesses, and more going after international tax evaders.”

Poilievre also promised to expand an existing program to give whistleblowers reporting illegal tax schemes “up to 20 per cent” of recovered funds.

The Conservative announcement followed a promise by NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh last week to close loopholes that allow corporations to put money in offshore accounts, saying companies would have to provide a “genuine business reason” for having such accounts.

Poilievre held a rally in Edmonton Monday night, where he received an endorsement from Stephen Harper, Canada’s prime minister from 2006 to 2015.

Harper said Poilievre’s experience, including his time in Harper’s cabinet, should outweigh the resume of Carney, a political newcomer who served as the governor of the Bank of Canada during Harper’s time in office.

“I am the only person who can say that both of the men running to be prime minister once worked for me,” Harper told the crowd. “And in that regard, my choice without hesitation, without equivocation, without a shadow of a doubt, is Pierre Poilievre.”

Poilievre is scheduled to end the day with an evening rally in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.

Carney was expected to make an announcement in Delta, B.C., Tuesday and to visit a business in New Westminster, B.C., before heading east for a suppertime rally in Calgary.

The Liberal and Conservative leaders both started the third week of the federal election campaign in British Columbia — a battleground province with 43 seats up for grabs when Canadians go to the polls on April 28.

In Vancouver Tuesday, Singh announced his plan to clamp down on foreign, corporate and speculative home buyers before setting of to join striking workers on a picket line and meeting with Stewart Philip, grand chief of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, in Burnaby, B.C., in the evening.