OTTAWA –
Conservative leadership candidates met with each other over the mandates of COVID-19 and the convoy of trucks in downtown Ottawa in the first informal debate of Thursday’s race.
Leslin Lewis, a third-ranked lawmaker in the 2020 race, has challenged longtime Ottawa lawmaker Pierre Poaliever over his record in defending Canadian freedoms during the pandemic. Many conservatives have opposed health measures such as vaccine and mask mandates for fear of violating personal choice.
While Poilievre – who is campaigning for more freedom for Canadians and attracting crowds of thousands to rallies across the country – tried to claim he was one of the strongest voices, Lewis accused him not.
“You didn’t speak until you were comfortable talking. “You didn’t even go to the truckers’ protest,” she said.
“You actually went and took a picture in your neighborhood at a local bus stop.”
Lewis, who has promised to ban so-called sex-selective abortions, has also challenged Poaliever over his stance on socio-conservative issues. She accused him of avoiding media coverage of abortions in recent days after a draft US Supreme Court ruling that would overturn Rowe v. Wade expired.
“As a leader, he will have to declare that,” she said. “He can’t just be finance minister if he wants to be prime minister. He will have to deal with the socio-conservative issues he has been leading throughout this campaign. “
Poliever said earlier in the week that his government would not introduce or pass laws restricting abortion.
Former Quebec Prime Minister Jean Charest, who presents himself as an experienced national leader who believes in a united Canada, won the booing of hundreds of conservative believers gathered in a conference hall in central Ottawa, saying Poilievre supported the illegal blockade.
Poilievre responded by saying that “Mr Charest learned about the CBC convoy of trucks like other liberals and misrepresented them”, adding that he maintained a culture of annulment, as he had said in previous interviews that Poilievre’s support for the protest means he must be disqualified.
Poilievre attacked Charest for his experience in Quebec and accused him of being a liberal because he led the Liberal Party of Quebec. He also repeatedly pressured Charest for how much money he made working for the telecommunications giant Huawei.
“We need to know the truth here,” Poalievr said.
“Liberals will ask that. He never told us how much he got. It is a company whose software and hardware have been banned from 5G networks in four of the five-eyed countries because of allegations, in many cases proven, that they used it for espionage. “
Speaking to reporters afterwards, Charest dismissed any suggestion that his previous work with Huawei had been a weakness for him in the race.
As Charest, Poilievre and Lewis take turns focusing on each other, Ontario MP Scott Aichison said on stage that as conservatives, “all we do is shout and shout at each other” and said that’s a problem. if the party wants to compete with more Canadians in the next election. However, there were heated exchanges throughout the debate.
“Here we call each other. Which Canadian will trust this party? We need to do better,” Aichison said.
He added: “Every time I hear a conservative talk about a conspiracy theory, there’s another group of swinging GTA voters who just won’t come to us.”
This comment was repulsed by Lewis, as well as by Roman Baber, an Ontario MP who was expelled from Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives in 2021 for opposing the COVID-19 blockade in force at the time.
Baber says many Canadians are still unable to board a plane in the country due to a federal mandate for a vaccine against COVID-19.
“Canadians are witnessing the constant erosion of our democracy, and we need to keep this conversation in mind, instead of making fun of them, as the prime minister is doing,” Baber said.
After the debate, Baber told reporters he was concerned about the separation tone.
While the contenders for leadership struggled on stage, most seemed collegial once the issues were over. However, Poalievre and Charest diligently avoided shaking hands on stage.
The debate, organized by the Canadian Strong and Free Network, began with the question of five of the six candidates who appeared at the event, why they think the Conservative Party has lost the last few elections.
During Thursday’s debate, Aichison blamed the party’s recent election losses for a lack of consistency in the message.
Baber focused on changes in former party leader Erin O’Toole’s policy between his leadership campaign and the general election later that year.
“We lost the last two elections because many Canadians were not sure where we were. We should not run to the right during leadership and run to the left during the general,” he said.
Charest pointed to the lack of places in Quebec, the Greater Toronto region, and the Lower Continent of British Columbia.
The former prime minister says one of the problems the party faces in trying to break into the GTA is the reaction of the conservative campaign in 2015, when the Tories promised to create a line for so-called barbaric cultural practices.
“The message you sent to the new Canadians is that you are not welcome in the Conservative Party of Canada,” Charest said.
Poilievre said in the room that he has never lost an election, has big followers on social media and is attracting many new party members with his rallies.
Patrick Brown, the mayor of Brampton, Ont., Did not attend. The campaign told him he was focused on selling supporters’ membership before the June 3 deadline needed to vote in the Conservative leadership race.
Moderator Jamil Givani, the future president of the Canadian Strong and Free Network, focused on Brown’s campaign tactics in his absence.
“Some Canadians are concerned that Mayor Brown is sowing division in our country. He has been criticized for manipulating diaspora policies to boost his campaign, “Givani said before inviting candidates to the stage to oppose their own approach to Canadians of different backgrounds.
“The bottom line is that Patrick Brown is saying one thing in one room and just the opposite in another room. And that’s what he did during that campaign,” Poilievre said in response, citing a flip flop for Brown’s support for the carbon tax as leader of the Progressive Conservatives in Ontario.
A Brown campaign official told the Canadian Press that his efforts to attract new Canadians to the party should be celebrated, not ridiculed.
Brown will be on the scene next week when all six candidates take part in the first official debate in Edmonton.
The party is due to elect a new leader on September 10th.
This Canadian Press report was first published on May 5, 2022.
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