Water study discussed at Council

Poilievre wows a full house at River Cree with stump speech

BY JOHN MATHER

“Pierre stands for the exact same things he says in French as he does in English,” said Lakeland MP Shannon Stubbs to a crowd of several thousands at Edmonton’s River Cree Casino Apr. 14.

“With Pierre what you see is what you get! He will stand up with all Canadians.

“He will never take Albertans for granted and he knows that the place for Alberta is in Canada.”

With that she introduced Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre, who came to Edmonton to give a stump speech following a very successful evening in Calgary two days prior with an estimated crowd of 6,500.

Stubbs was joined on the platform by fellow MPs Tim Uppal and Michael Cooper, and former MP Kerry Diotte all who are supporting Poilievre’s leadership bid.

“It’s great to be back in my home province of Alberta,” said Poilievre as he mounted the centred stage to deliver a 45minute speech.

He quickly gave a summary of his childhood background and upbringing in both Saskatchewan and Alberta before hitting the meat of his speech.

Throughout his talk he peppered it with such catch phrases as “freedom” and “gatekeepers.”

“If you were a courageous trucker who for two years delivered without a vaccine, supplies back and forth across our borders - until the Prime Minister Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre waves as he enters the room at the River Cree Casino where he made a pitch for support to several thousand cheering admirers Apr. 14.

Photo by Jana Semeniuk.

decided you were a ‘germ spreading, hateful villain,” he said, as he described how some freedoms of Canadians had been eroded during the pandemic.

“Even though this same trucker was alone in his truck all day. “

“Because of a medical decision that should have rested in his hands, suddenly Liberals like Jean Charest and Justin Trudeau are calling them criminals.

“You know I was proud to stand with those peaceful and law abiding truckers who fought for their freedoms.”

As boos rained down at any mention of Trudeau, he added he was proud to stand with Conservatives who wanted to see an end to vaccine mandates and pandemic restrictions.

Yells of “We’re proud of you, Pierre,” cascaded through the crowd as he held them in the palm of his hand with his speech.

He further discussed economic freedoms where young people can’t afford their own homes.

“Can you imagine the hardship and lack of independence these young people must feel when they can’t even afford their own homes,” he said. “It’s tough on them living in today’s society.”

He added that he had talked to people in his home riding of Carleton, near Ottawa, where they

It was a large turnout that attended at the River Cree Casino Apr 14, to hear a speech by Conservative Party of Canada leadership hopeful Pierre Poilievre. Poilievre received many long, loud ovations and he outlined his platform and spoke out against current government policies and restrictions. worked in the home construction industry building homes they knew they never would have an opportunity to own.

“And then there are the families that have had to cut back on their diet just to try and afford a couple of affordable meals because of inflation,” he added. “A guy works all week and then can’t afford to go hunting or fishing because he can’t afford the price of fuel at $1.60 per litre. And now Justin Trudeau wants to tax trucks.

“Conservatives will fight tooth and nail to stop the truck tax and axe the carbon tax,” he stated to loud cheers.

He said he was running to be the Prime Minister of Canada to put Canadians back in control of their lives and make the nation the “freest nation on earth.”

This launched his segment lambasting the “gatekeepers,” the bureaucrats who run the financial institutions and other departments which create more red tape and keep ordinary Canadians from making progress.

“We have 30-year highs in inflation in the past year alone and that doesn’t even include the hike in housing prices,” he said. “We’re going to bring in sound money policies in this country and bring back the Bank of Canada’s original mandate.”

He said Conservatives would tackle the deficit by cutting the Trudeau slush funds, and bring back a free market system.

“And yeah, we’ll defund the CBC,” which brought the loudest cheers of the night from the partisan crowd, leading to chants of “defund the CBC,” for several seconds.

“We’ll also bring in some common sense spending rules,” added Poilievre. “Politicians have to start pinching their pennies just like everybody else does.”

“We’ll give respect and fairness to Western Canada,” he stated.

“When I’m Prime Minister the era of telling Albertans to put up and shut up will definitely be over.”

He said he would retroactively start paying back to Albertans, money the province was owed through stabilization funding.

He added he would fight to see Alberta get closer and closer to full per capita representation in the House of commons.

“I will only appoint Senators from this province that are elected by the people of this province,” he stated.

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