Pierre Poilievre outlines goals, strategy, key players in Jordan Peterson interview
CBC
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre gave a lengthy interview to psychologist and media personality Jordan Peterson, touching on his vision for Canada and how he plans to implement it.
The interview was recorded on Dec. 21, five days after former finance minister and deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland resigned from the Liberal cabinet.
Since then, opposition parties like the Conservatives and the NDP have vowed to bring down the government at the earliest opportunity through a vote of no confidence, which would likely trigger a snap election — something Poilievre briefly discussed with Peterson.
Here's what we learned from the interview, which was released Friday.
Poilievre has no qualms with a federal election taking place during a possible Liberal leadership race. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing increasing calls, including within his own caucus, to step down.
"The Canadian people are not obliged — 41 million people are not obliged — to wait around while this party sorts out its shit. Like, these guys could have got rid of Trudeau a year and a half ago."
Liberal MPs will meet on Wednesday for the first time since Trudeau told them he would take the holidays to reflect on calls for him to step down as party leader.
According to an email from Liberal national caucus chair Brenda Shanahan, which was shared with CBC News, the meeting could run as long as six hours.
MPs say they still have no indication of the prime minister's intentions. One MP told CBC News they would not be surprised if Trudeau intends to stay despite efforts to remove him.
Poilievre chided Canada's energy sector for seeming to go along with Liberal policies such as on the environment.
"The big five oil companies in Canada have idiot lobbyists. They have brilliant workers, incredible workers, but idiot lobbyists. And they've been trying to suck up for the last 10 years and did nothing to support the right policies in the prior years. So that's going to have to change."
Poilievre also pledged "the biggest crackdown on crime in Canadian history, a massive crackdown" but was sparse on details when Peterson asked what that means, other than saying that "habitual offenders will not get out of jail anymore."
Poilievre says Trudeau has governed with "an extremely radical ideology" that is "basically authoritarian socialism," and says the NDP would have done exactly the same if they were in power.
He also says "it is a classic for socialists" to try to disown what they've done and change their names.
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