Pierre Poilievre is one of five candidates in the federal Conservative race and the first to stop in Prince Albert. (Nigel Maxwell/paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

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The man vying to be the next leader of the federal Conservative Party, and who has aspirations one day to be elected Prime Minister of Canada, made several stops across Saskatchewan on Tuesday including Prince Albert.

Pierre Poilievre was greeted by well over a hundred interested residents at the Art Hauser Centre’s Ches Leach lounge, and he fielded a number of questions related to cost of living, agriculture, and gun control. Speaking with reporters afterward, he reflected the federal Carbon Tax is making life unaffordable for Canadians.

“You’ve got 35 year olds living in their parents’ basement because they can’t afford a home. Single moms putting water in their kids milk because they cant afford groceries,” he said. “People can’t afford to visit family members because gas and diesel have been up nearly to two dollars a litre.”

When asked why he would make a great leader for Saskatchewan, Poilievre cited his western roots (parents from Saskatoon) and his shared values.

“Standing with law abiding firearms owners, protecting our energy industry so that we can bring energy production home and end imports of overseas oil,” he said.

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Over the course of two hours, Poilievre met with dozens of people. (Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

Poilievre was also asked about grain prices, and how globalization is impacting farming communities. His response was the Canadian government has made it very expensive to produce food.

“Other competitor countries don’t have carbon taxes or as much red tape, nor they face the attack in fertilizers that Trudeau is bringing in,” he said. “Trudeau wants to cut fertilizer use by 30 per cent with no idea how to replace it.”

Poilievre explained all this will drive up food prices.

“And ironically hurt the environment because farmers are gonna have to drive over more acres in order to produce the same amount of food,” he said.

Another topic raised was property crime and the justice system. Describing the current system as a revolving door, Poilievre said too often the repeat violent offenders are being put back onto the street.

“We all believe in redemption and rehabilitation for a young person that makes a mistake but if someone does repeated violent offenses they should go into the slammer for the long haul and protect people and their property,” he explained.

Poilievre added Trudeau’s current gun laws goes after duck hunters, farmers and sport shooters instead of the gangsters and gun smugglers who are actually hurting people with weapons.

“And I would do exactly the opposite; put the criminals in jail and respect our farmers and our hunters,” he said.

Randy Hoback had a chance to speak briefly one-on-one with Poilievre. (Nigel Maxwell/paNOW Staff)

Prince Albert MP Randy Hoback was in attendance during Tuesday’s meet and greet, and described Poilievre as a friend.

“I’ve stayed neutral throughout this race but whenever a leader wants to commit to the riding of Prince Albert, we are gonna make sure we host them properly and pull out the red carpet one might say,” he explained.

Hoback acknowledged media reports in recent weeks about a fracture within the Conservative party and whether whomever gets elected can unite the party. He described those concerns as overblown.

“The one thing Conservatives believe in and a lot of Canadians who are joining the party believe in, is getting rid of Justin Trudeau. And they are united in that concept,” he said.

Suzanne Thiesen drove from Arborfield to meet Poilievre and told paNOW the two burning questions on her mind were whether he would get rid of funding for the media, and whether he will change the electoral system to give the East less influence.

“I’m at the point that I really believe the only way is to either change the way the electoral system is or we separate,” she said.

Conservative Party members have until Sept. 10, 2022, to vote for one of the five candidates running in the leadership race on now. The other candidates include Scott Aitchison, Roman Baber, Jean Charest, and Leslyn Lewis.

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nigel.maxwell@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell