Pierre Poilievre

[Foreign Affairs, May 1st, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, when leaders in China dismissed the Prime Minister as “little potato”, he thought they meant it as a compliment—

[Finance, April 30th, 2019]

It is to get it off coal, Mr. Speaker, and yet just yesterday, Edward Cunningham, a specialist on China and energy markets at Harvard University, indicated that China is investing in 300 new coal-fired plants. That is after the quarter-billion-dollar handout this Prime Minister is giving China through the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. That is our tax dollars for China. If this is really about getting off coal, how many tonnes of coal will the Chinese burn in the next decade?

[Finance, April 30th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, the foreign affairs minister has announced a massive diplomatic breakthrough with China. That country's leaders have given the Prime Minister the nickname “little potato”.

In order to reciprocate that gift, he provided them with a quarter of a billion dollars of Canadian tax money in the form of a contribution to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. That is no small potatoes, even for this spend-happy Prime Minister.

Will the government finally show some respect for taxpayers and cancel this waste of money?

[Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1, April 30th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, here we go again. Sunny ways have turned into cloudy days. The government, led by a Prime Minister who promised no omnibus bills and to never shut down debate, is now shutting down debate on a omnibus bill.

Of course, this bill is technically called the budget, but it reaches into areas that have nothing to do with budget policy, reaching, for example, into the laws pertaining to refugees.

Let us remember that in last year's budget bill, the finance minister snuck in an amendment to the Criminal Code to allow large corporate criminals to avoid trial by signing deferred prosecution agreements whereby they could pay a small fine, say they were sorry and promise never to do it again, without facing the wrath of prosecution that would confront any other Canadian charged with a crime. The finance minister said nothing about deferred prosecution agreements in the budget speech leading up to that bill. He skipped over that small detail. I guess we would have to read the fine print.

That has become the nature of the government, a government that is overwhelmed with hypocrisy. The Prime Minister claimed that he would never engage in omnibus bills and that he would always allow open debate, and now he is doing precisely the opposite.

This bill, though, implements a disastrous budget, a cover-up budget wherein $41 billion of brand new cash spending is designed to paper over the SNC-Lavalin scandal and make Canadians forget about the Prime Minister's interference in a criminal prosecution by spraying billions of dollars of Canadians' own money at them right before an election.

This finance minister, who is responsible for this massive engorgement of public funds, should answer for his actions. He broke his word and the Prime Minister's word that they would balance the budget this year—or, more accurately, that the budget would balance itself. He has increased the cost of government by 25% in three short years, and on top of that, middle-class Canadians are paying, on average, $800 more per household.

With all of these broken promises, can the finance minister tell us why Canadians should believe anything he or his Prime Minister have to say?

[Finance, April 29th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister famously said that his favourite model of government was the basic Chinese dictatorship. In response, the foreign minister tells us that the Chinese government gave him a nickname: little potato. To thank them for that, he gave a quarter billion tax dollars to the Asian Infrastructure Bank to build pipelines and roads in that country that we cannot even build in our own.

Will the Prime Minister finally show some respect for Canadian tax dollars and cancel this quarter-billion-dollar hand-out to the Chinese government?

[Finance, April 29th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister shattered his promise that the budget would balance itself this year. He has added three times as much debt as he said he would. The cost of government is up 25% in just over three years. Among the wasteful spending is the quarter billion dollars for the Asian Infrastructure Bank to build pipelines and roads in China.

Will the Prime Minister show even a modicum of respect for Canadian taxpayers and cancel that quarter-billion-dollar waste of money?

[Justice, April 12th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, do the Liberals really want to talk about health care and fundraisers? This from a party whose leader had a $1,500-a-plate fundraiser and threw out of the room, to cackles of laughter, an aboriginal protester who was angry about the mercury poisoning that occurred in a first nations community? We will take no lessons from the Prime Minister on health care and fundraisers.

Instead of political attacks and hypocrisy, why will the Liberals not stand up behind their words and—

[Justice, April 12th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, actually the letter of threat the Prime Minister sent the official opposition included a bunch of different objectionable claims that he said the Conservative leader had made. Therefore, the Conservative leader took the same letter, walked outside and repeated every single allegation.

If the Prime Minister does not believe the Leader of the Opposition was telling the truth, he could take action. However, he has to do so quickly. Under the principle of libel law, one has to move as soon as reasonably possible.

When will he live up to his bold threats or will he simply back down and hide?

[Justice, April 12th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, Teddy Roosevelt said, “Speak softly and carry a big stick – you will go far.” The Prime Minister, making big, bold threats of a lawsuit and then hiding from following through, is roaring loudly and carrying a small twig.

I am announcing today, on behalf of the Leader of the Opposition, that he is setting a deadline for the Prime Minister to follow through on his threat, which is Monday at midnight. Will the Liberals meet the deadline or will the Prime Minister just run for cover?

[Justice, April 11th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, we have full confidence in the director of public prosecutions. That is why we think she should be allowed to make the decision on prosecuting SNC-Lavalin. The government refuses to guarantee that this will happen. It has interfered in this case, it has interfered in the Norman case, and now we know that it implicated the RCMP for nine months in orchestrating the Prime Minister's illegal vacation to billionaire island. That vacation might have violated sections of the Criminal Code, which the RCMP would be responsible for investigating.

How can Canadians be sure that there has been an independent vetting of this issue, given past interference?