Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre delivered a fiery speech Thursday that depicted the government’s latest budget as a threat to the country’s future, and suggested a number of new social programs will get a second look if he leads the next government.
He also claimed Ottawa’s push into pharmacare could dismantle private drug insurance and leave Canadians with inferior coverage and higher taxes to pay for it all.
Health Minister Mark Holland, meanwhile, accused the Conservative leader of trying to whip up fear by raising “fake boogeyman” to distract from a program that makes contraceptives and diabetes treatments more affordable for everyone.
While he attacks the Liberals’ spending plan, Poilievre is under pressure to explain what he’d cut to fulfil his stated promise to “fix the budget” if he’s elected.
In an interview with Radio-Canada, Poilievre was noncommittal on whether child care, dental care and pharmacare would be dismantled by a government led by him — but he raised questions about the programs’ effectiveness.
He also claimed Ottawa’s push into pharmacare could dismantle private drug insurance and leave Canadians with inferior coverage and higher taxes to pay for it all.
Cool, my private insurance currently costs $103/month. How much will my taxes go up? If its less than that, then its a good deal.
Not to mention:
Speaking to CityNews on Thursday, Poilievre claimed the pharmacare bill would “ban” private plans “and require you move over to a federal government plan.”
“That will make you worse off at higher cost to Canadian taxpayers,” he said.
There’s no such ban in the pharmacare legislation.
You expect his supporters to read the bill?
Con voters out there, here’s the warning. No excuses when he goes through with it. No ‘oh that’s just talk.’
It’s on you, now.
They don’t need a warning. They know he’ll go through with it. They want him to go through with it. “Oh that’s just talk” is gaslighting designed to convince you to not do anything about it until it’s too late. This is a warning to everyone else…get out there and VOTE! Don’t let the Conservative party lead us down the path of austerity and cuts like they do every time they are in power.
It’s on you, now.
I think you’re mistaken.
If the Conservatives win and things get real bad the vast majority will still believe it’s better than the Liberals running things another term as it would lead to the literal apocalypse.
The reverse would is also true if the Liberals won. As things get worse people are becoming hyper fixated on the small/short terms things when we need to look at the larger systematic problems.
My favourite was this bit:
Poilievre said many Canadians already have access to drug coverage through workplace plans that may offer better benefits than those the NDP-backed Liberal plan eventually could offer.
A 2022 Conference Board of Canada report found that about 24.6 million Canadians are already enrolled in private drug plans.
Disappointed in the CBC here. What they should’ve said is that over 15 million people are not enrolled in a private drug plan, as most people won’t do the math and 24.6M people seems like a big number.
Moreover, many of the people most in need of drugs–the elderly, disabled, and those dealing with chronic health conditions–are far less likely to be employed and have access to coverage.
Also, we pay for those insurance plans. They take money out of our paycheques every month to cover premiums. Almost certainly more than most of us pay in taxes to cover federal pharamacare.
The fact that li’l PP pants here can just lie publicly without consequence, and indeed is likely to be rewarded for it, is a crime against us all.
Not just that, but private insurance companies are cutting coverage across the board. We’re paying more for mediocrity.
Even if they weren’t making cuts, they’re still leeching money out of the system. Whatever percentage of our premiums that goes to executives and profit in general would be much better off as a reinvestment in the public system if not a simple lowering of the cost.
Tying healthcare to employment is stupid and we see it in the US. It sounds good on paper to cheap bigots who think people are freeloading.
Wow, I just realised how huge the amount who aren’t is. That’s over a third! Tabarnak.
Why don’t we have corporations pushing for pharmacare so they don’t have to pay for them and reduce cost per employee? It’s a competitive advantage for employers if done right.
Walmart for example happly celebrates that its employee benefits are 100% employee paid! They will automatically take the amount off your check. There is no cost to them but they get to claim there are jobs get health benefits.
24.6m is more than 15m as CBC is impartial it is better for them to list the larger number
No, being “impartial” would be highlighting both the number of covered and not covered so the reader appreciates just how many people the UCP wants to leave behind. “Big number is bigger” is not how impartiality is measured.
That would be unbiased
You can hide information without being partial to a side. You can’t hide information without being biased
Why isn’t CBC reporting on all of the people I didn’t murder!? It’s a far bigger number
With cops and firefighters they often do that
It must be easy to be a conservative. You don’t have to do anything, just complain about what the other guys are doing. I wish I could have that job.
This is what frustrates me
Before reading the budget: it’s an inflammatory inflationary budget (except mathematically, it isn’t)
After the details are out: it’s too much spending! Plus they throw in some straight out lies about the pharmacare.
Why the fuck would anyone support this clown? If he was honest I could understand it, if he actually said anything of substance I could understand it. But it’s just “that’s bad” with no elaboration and clear as day lies.
Wake me up when Pollievre, the former god damn finance critic, actually says something worth listening to.
Oh and fuck the press for even airing the clips of Pollievre lying. They should be censured for that. Even CBC is just clips of Pierre so they look balanced.
Why the fuck would anyone support this clown?
There is a huge demographic of people who are angry, dumb, and see their world changing in ways that scare them. They are told that they need to suck it up, their opinions are bigoted and racist, and that they are the bad guy in this story. Then chuckle-fuck comes along and validates them.
They don’t care that he is lying only that he tells them “it’s ok to be an ignorant shit.”
Right? He can just smugly munch on an apple while thinking of low-iq rhetorical questions to interject with, and that’s the entirety of his politics. That’s all it takes to become champion of the reactionaries.
That’s a bit of a mischaracterization. They do in fact have to put annoying attack ads on every other party once per election season.
It’s not about being Conservative, it’s about being the Official Opposition. The Liberals did the same thing when the Conservatives were in power and they’ll do the same thing when the Conservatives are in power again.
It’s gamesmanship is what it is: why offer up ideas that your opponent will then proceed to attempt to take full credit for (and many will fall for it)? This is part of the NDP’s big failing: lots of people will ignore that they were the reason any of the good stuff got passed (the other major failings are the fact that what they did get passed is extremely watered down and that although they keep calling out the Liberals on bad policy/failings the continue to support them; they look like massive hypocrites)
why offer up ideas that your opponent will then proceed to attempt to take full credit for (and many will fall for it)?
Because it is literally the job of the Canadian Government to do what is best for Canadians.
This is part of the NDP’s big failing: lots of people will ignore that they were the reason any of the good stuff got passed
Anyone paying attention will know that the NDP is working to help Canadians, unlike the Conservatives and Liberals. They’re actually doing their job as opposition by getting the party in power to get things done that are good for Canadians.
Anyone not paying attention will vote Conservative.
Because it is literally the job of the Canadian Government to do what is best for Canadians.
“Canadian Government” refers to the executive (ministers and Cabinet) and the federal civil service. By definition, no party other than the Liberals is the government until the Liberals decide to add non-Liberal MPs as ministers or cabinet members. This is further supported by titles used, such as “His Majesty’s Government” and “His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition” in the House of Commons or “the representative of the Government” in the Senate (who is responsible for introducing and representing Government bills in the Senate after the pass the HoC).
This is how the Parliamentary system we inherited from the British works. Perhaps you are confusing our system for a republic (like the US) where all elected members collectively form the government.
Anyone paying attention will know that the NDP is working to help Canadians
That’s not evident given the current decline of the country during the time period over which the Liberals have required NDP support.
Define government however you want. One party that’s not in power does nothing but removed and moan and get in the way. Another party that’s not in power is helping to get things done that will help you and me.
But I can see from your comments you don’t actually give a shit. Politics is like sports to you and you’re team blue all the way.
I don’t know, they seen pretty effective at getting supremely dumb shit passed with the help of the other parties except for the governing party who simply wants their own version of the supremely dumb shit (S-210 and C-63)
You must really like your (potentially underage) porn.
Like his word would be worth anything.
good. stop the deficits. stop inflation.
Tax cuts will fix it all better, right?
Gotta love trickle down economics. The rich get to piss all over everyone else.
Mmmm champagne piss.
Looooool as if Mulroney-era and later Conservatives actually cared about deficits when they’re in power. Shovel those government funds to the wealthy!
Please, define inflation. Tell the class what the ever loving fuck you’re talking about.
Use small words. We already know you don’t know what the big ones mean.
