Liberal leadership 2024 has kicked off, and “carbon tax Carney” has come blazing out of the gates first. He's jet-setting around on his celebrity tour, going from outlet to outlet promoting the carbon tax scam, talking about fiscal and monetary policy, trying to get ahead of all the other candidates. He's supported every single decision that this Liberal government has made over the last nine years, which gave Canadians 40-year highs in inflation and the most rapid interest hikes seen in Canadian history, which put Canadians most at risk in the G-7 for mortgage default crisis. He is jet-setting around, making all sorts of monetary and fiscal comments in support of the carbon tax scam. He is one of those people who will do everything they can to follow the radical woke agenda of the Prime Minister to kill the energy sector, putting more dollars for dictators instead of powerful paycheques for Canadians.
As Mark Carney, Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland look down upon Canadians from their ivory tower, they look at the mom who can't feed her kid and who has to skip meals herself. They're looking at the two million people waiting in a food bank line, and a million more projected too this year, because they can't afford food. They're looking at the international student who was promised the Canadian dream and who, like many others did, came to this country like my family but now have to live under bridges. They're looking at the nurse who has to make a decision on whether she should live in her car now because she can't afford gas, groceries and home heating: She can't afford to eat, heat and house herself, because after nine years of Justin Trudeau they've doubled housing costs. They've doubled rents, mortgages, the down payment that's needed for a house now. They're looking down from their ivory tower at all those people, unmoved by the fact that they increased the carbon tax scam 23% on April 1—as 70% of Canadians told them to spike the hike and not to—on their path to quadruple the carbon tax, to make everything even more expensive for all those people they caused so much pain, all to follow with their woke, radical climate ideology, which does absolutely nothing to help fix the environment and just causes more economic pain for Canadians.
Now we have Mark Carney trying to get ahead of all the other candidates, going around, jet-setting, talking about all the ways he supported the government in leading to all the pain Canadians see today, but at the same time promising to continue down that path and not take another path. He was asked to come to this committee for the fall economic statement, and he declined. He refused to answer for all the radical comments he was making outside. He refused the ask to come here and tell us what he will do once he is coronated, as “carbon tax Carney”, for the Liberal leadership. We need to hear from him on why he supports the doubling of housing that happened under this government and the same old same old, building more bureaucracy and not more homes; why he supported the reason that more Canadians are going to food banks because they can't afford to eat, house themselves and heat their homes; and why he wants to make all of that even more expensive. We need him to answer why he supports pipelines in places like the UAE and Brazil but not places like Canada, and why the ideology of this Liberal government is that Canada is the problem and not the solution to help out with the energy crisis that's happening.
Common-sense Conservatives have a simple ask, that Mark Carney come to this committee, show some courage, come here and stand behind some of the comments he's making out in the public on why he supports the disastrous policies of the Liberal government over the last nine years and what he's going to do once he's coronated as the next Liberal leader.
Thank you, Chair.