With just days remaining in the federal election campaign, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre stopped in Woodbridge, Ontario, to unveil his fully-costed election platform.
It shows $20,000 billion in revenue from counter-measures designed to combat the U.S. trade tariffs and more than $23 billion in reduced program spending to reduce the country’s deficit to nearly $14 billion within four years.
“We will cut the Liberal deficit by 70% by cutting back on bureaucracy, consultants, foreign aid to dictators, terrorists and global bureaucracies, slashing money for special interests and unleashing a half trillion dollars of extra economic growth by unlocking the power of our resources and home building,” says Poilievre.
The Conservative leader also promises every dollar of new spending will be matched by savings of $1.50.
Poilievre also looks for savings within the federal civil service.
“Gradually and through attrition without mass layoffs, we will wind down the cost of the bureaucracy by hiring back only two people for every three who voluntarily retire.”
His opponents quickly attacked the plan, with Liberal leader Mark Carney calling it full of phantom numbers.
“There’s phantom growth that comes from the sky in his platform that arrives and changes his numbers,” says Carney.
The Liberal leader also notes a planned $15% tax cut will not be realized until late in the mandate.
“These numbers are a joke. We aren’t in a joke. We are in the worst crisis of our lives. It takes a serious government. It takes a serious plan. It takes a plan that delivers today. It takes a plan that delivers investment. It takes a plan that grows this economy, stands up to Trump,” says Carney.
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh is not surprised by the decision to make programming cuts.
But he is not buying the Conservative commitment to maintain pharmacare.
“He’s fought against them. He opposed them, and now we’re to believe that he’s somehow going to defend them?” asks Singh.
“I think people know what Conservatives do, and if someone tells you they’re against something, they vote against something. They oppose something. They criticize it, and now, on the eve of an election, they tell you that they’re going to keep it. Canadians know better.”
Singh also sidestepped questions about his future, with the NDP lagging in opinion polls.
“I’m not looking to after the election. Right now, I’m focused on the election in front of me. And, right now, we’ve got seven more days. We’re going to fight hard for people.”
The federal election takes place on April 28th.
