Poilievre, Charest trade barbs in Conservative leadership’s first unofficial debate
Global News
While five of six leadership candidates sparred on stage at the Canada Strong and Proud Networking Conference, Pierre Poilievre and Jean Charest took up most of the oxygen.
Five Conservative leadership hopefuls faced off in the contest’s first unofficial debate Thursday night, but most of the oxygen was taken up by Pierre Poilievre and Jean Charest.
The two candidates — who lead the pack in terms of fundraising, according to the most recent available data — spent the evening exchanging attempted haymakers and accusing the other of being unfit to lead the party into the next election.
Poilievre, the Carleton MP and former cabinet minister, accused Charest of not being a true conservative and raising taxes during his tenure as premier of Quebec. Charest, to the chagrin of the right-wing audience at the Canada Strong and Free Network conference, attacked Poilievre for backing the illegal convoy protests in Ottawa and at international border crossings.
Charest was booed by the conservative crowd when he referred to the blockades as “illegal.”
“This mess (with the convoy protests) is the fault of Mr. Trudeau. But Mr. Poilievre, during that time, supported an illegal blockade,” Charest said.
“You cannot make laws, and break laws, and then say I will make laws for other people. I’m sorry,” as Charest was shouted down by the crowd and cut off by the moderators.
“In addition to once again repeating a bunch of Trudeau rhetoric on our hard-working truckers, Mr. Charest misrepresents his track record on taxes,” Poilievre shot back.
“I fought for lower taxes and balanced budgets and making life more affordable, and that is how we’re going to win the election in the suburbs: by giving people their purchasing power back, something that I can do because I have a strong track record of fighting for it my entire life.”
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