Poilievre says Tories have been consistent, Grits will say whatever will get them elected

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre speaking off-the-cuff at a press conference Saturday morning said the difference between the Tories and the Liberals is consistency — or lack thereof.

“We have always been the same, the Liberals will say whatever they need to get elected," said Poilievre.

Poilievre while in Winnipeg, announcing a Conservative policy that will allow travelling trades workers to write off transportation and living costs while commuting to different jobs, was asked about his party’s campaign vision apart from the US tariff threat.

“We will obviously retaliate against unfair American tariffs and work to eliminate them, but what we really need to do is reverse the weakness caused by the Lost liberal decade,” replied Poilievre.

“They block pipelines, LNG plants, mines, nuclear power, and forced Canadians to give 75% of their exports to the Americans…costs and crime are up and our economy is down.”

Poilievre promised to “bring back the half trillion dollars that Liberals have pushed out of our country.”

“I should just say one last thing in English [before answering the question in French] that I’m calling for here,” said Poilievre.

“These are the things that we've been saying for the last 10 years.”

“If you want to question who's actually going to do these things, well, you have to vote for the ones who always stood for it, because the only way to get conservative policies is to vote Conservative.”

“The Liberals will say whatever they have to say to win, but they'll go right back to their radical policies.”

“They have the same Liberal ministers, the same Liberal MPs, the same Liberal strategists and the same Liberal agenda. No matter what they tell you.”

“The only difference is they have a weaker and more compromised leader, and they brought on even more radical people like Gregor Robertson, the former mayor of Vancouver. This guy is totally radical. He wants to distribute free drugs everywhere in the streets. He was against pipelines and all oil and gas.”

“Do you think that the Liberals are going to be any different in the next four years than they've been in the last decade? Then you will be very disappointed. We need a new Conservative government that will put Canada first for a change.”

Poilievre on Saturday announced that the Conservatives will change the Income Tax Act to allow skilled trade workers to “write-off the full cost of food, transport and accommodation needed to go from one job to another while ending write-offs for luxury corporate jets that are not needed to do business.”

“The principle of the tax system should be that people can write off costs needed to earn income. But right now, corporate insiders can write off private jets that are not needed to earn company income, while trades workers can only write off $4000 to go to jobs, even if they need to travel 20 or 30 times in a year," said Poilievre.

"Corporations do not need to fly their executives around in private jets to sell products, given that there are commercial flights. Meanwhile, workers must pay to go where the work is."

Under the changes to the Act, “anyone who must travel more than 120 km from their ordinary place of residence to a job site will be able to deduct their expenses, just as other businesses do.”

“I’ve met these workers as I’ve crossed Canada over the past few years—whether they’re flying up to Northern Ontario to work in logging operations and mines or travelling to the British Columbia interior from Alberta to build the liquefaction facility there,” said Poilievre.

“These are the people who build our country and it’s outrageous that jet-setting executives get better tax treatment than they do.”