EDMONTON — Conservative Party of Canada Leader Pierre Poilievre's Alberta tour rolled through Edmonton for the CPC’s annual BBQ on Monday, during which Poilievre sold party members on 99-cent hamburgers and unity with other Canadians standing up against Ottawa. "This is the Affordability team," said Poilievre when introducing his caucus's team charged with tackling the cost of living. "We have three priorities: affordability, affordability, and affordability." Poilievre said his mother used to give him $2 at lunch so he could walk down the street and get a pair of hamburgers. "It's been about 35 years," Poilievre said. "The economy is up 100%, and the money supply is up 600%. That means the money is growing six times faster than the stuff that money buys, and we're adding dollars faster than we add burgers, so now it's five bucks for that same burger I used to buy as a kid." He claims the CPC caucus is working to lower the cost of living for Canadians by reducing government costs through cuts to bureaucracy, consultants, and foreign aid. .The Edmonton crowd was entertained by numerous shots at Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Liberal government sprinkled throughout Poilievre's 20-minute address. "We have the best engineers and tradespeople who know how to turn those miraculous molecules into the energy that powers us, but we have an obstacle, and it's called government," Poilievre said. "Government bureaucracy delays, and taxes block us from selling those resources.""We don't believe our workers should have to be grateful that the federal government, the Liberal government, is agreeing to do just a little bit less damage to their industry.""We think the government should get off the backs and out of the way of Albertans, so that we can build pipelines, mines, expand our ports, and ship our energy to the world, making us richer, stronger, and more global." .The Alberta independence movement loomed over the event as a group of independence advocates, expressing their lack of faith in the federal government, gathered near the venue’s entrance. "The federal government's ballooned," said Jason LaFace to the Western Standard. "They don't listen to the people; they keep making these virtue-signalling deals, MOUs, and I don't believe in the pipeline that they're saying that they're going to build.""So, you know, up to this point, they failed, they failed the trust of Canadians."Poilievre addressed LaFace and other individuals who have lost faith in Canada by calling on Albertans to "lock arms" with Quebecers who convinced municipalities to pass resolutions refusing to follow Canada's gun grab. "We have allies across this country who share our aspirations as Albertans and Canadians, and my view is that we need to lock arms with them in order to achieve our goals," Poilievre said. "I don't believe that we should give up on a stronger Alberta within a united Canada."
