Poilievre slams ‘utterly useless’ lobbyists in business speech

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OTTAWA — Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre delivered a message to corporate leaders who want policy favours from his government if he becomes prime minister: forget about schmoozing and get to work making your business case to Canadians.

“My message to corporate Canada is that when I’m prime minister, if you want any of your policy agenda pushed forward, you’re going to have to convince not just me, but the people of Canada that it is good for them,” Poilievre said in a speech to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade on Friday.

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He admitted to the audience that this was his first time speaking to a chamber of commerce or board of trade since he became leader of the federal Conservatives 18 months ago. And he did not beat around the bush.

For too long, he said, corporate leaders have seen their role as “simply to write a policy statement and expect it to be implemented” by the government of the day.

“Meanwhile, it has been left to workers on the ground and First Nations in their communities to fight for the projects that have been good for them, projects that are ultimately blocked by government gatekeepers and leaving those workers and those communities on the sidelines,” he said.

Poilievre said the reason why he has not spoken to a business group before has nothing to do with his views on business, and he emphasized that he loves “free enterprise”.

“Rather, the reason this is my first time speaking to a business association of this type is because my experience with the corporate lobbyists in Ottawa … (has) been that they’ve been utterly useless in advancing any common sense interests for the people on the ground,” he said.

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“The corporate lobbyists in Ottawa are focused on getting lunches with ministers at the Rideau Club or showing off their latest ESG (environment, social and governance) brochure or expecting that politicians are going to do things for them without actually convincing the people on the ground on the benefit to them,” he said.

“And so, when I’m prime minister, my daily obsession will be about what is good for the working-class people this country.”

NDP MP Charlie Angus scoffed at Poilievre’s claims to represent the working class, arguing that he was part of the Conservative Harper government that delayed the retirement age and passed laws limiting the power of unions.

“What would Pierre Poilievre know about the working class? He has never had a job outside political attack dog. His record shows it. When it came time to stand up to the profiteering by grocery giants, he supported the CEOs and their lobbyists. He has voted against fair wages for workers, and he will cut off dental care for working-class families. Who is he kidding?” said Angus.

Poilievre has been laser-focused since he was elected leader on messages aimed at the working class and has been trying to appeal to blue-collar voters in areas that would traditionally vote NDP. The corporate world, meanwhile, has received far less of his attention.

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Conservative strategist Laryssa Waler, who is a principal at GT and Company, a public affairs group, told the National Post earlier this year that because of the lack of detail, many of her corporate clients are left wondering what their businesses would be facing under a Conservative government.

In his keynote address, Poilievre mainly stuck to the key messages that he’s been repeating since the start of the year and made it clear that no corporate leader would be receiving beneficial treatment from a Conservative government.

“My common sense plan to axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget and stop the crime is a bottom-up free enterprise agenda — not a top-down state capitalism agenda. It is not about politicians and CEOs working together for their own interests,” he told the business audience.

“It is about unleashing the power of free enterprise so that workers and entrepreneurs and consumers can exchange the voluntary purchase of goods for services or goods for dollars, of investment for interests and work for wages. It is about putting people back in charge of their lives,” he said.

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Poilievre said the same principles would apply for energy projects as for the rest of business in Canada, but said he was in favour of granting permits to “environmentally friendly and strategically important” projects like liquefied natural gas facilities and would speed up mine approvals.

“Let me be very clear with you: it will not be a free ride for the resource corporations who have proposed these projects and (have) then sat back and done nothing to convince people of their benefits.”

“They’re going to have to stand up and fight because, frankly … I meet with resource companies when they come to Ottawa, and all they do is suck up to the Liberal government. They have no backbone and no courage, and they don’t fight for their workers,” he continued.

Poilievre said he knows a lot of corporate leaders do not want to blame the federal government directly for damaging the business environment “because they want to get along with everybody” but he said it is time for them to “speak the truth and stop sucking up to the people who are doing the damage to our country.”

“I think that we’ve been too polite for too long with the politicians who caused this mess,” he said.

National Post
calevesque@postmedia.com

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