Former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer is throwing his support behind Pierre Poilievre’s leadership bid, True North has learned.
Scheer appeared with Poilievre at a campaign press conference Friday morning, and is set to formally endorse the Conservative MP’s leadership candidacy at an evening rally, a source connected to Poilievre’s campaign told True North.
Scheer was not immediately available for comment.
Poilievre was in Regina announcing a campaign pledge to repeal bills C-48 and C-69, which he characterized as “anti-energy and anti-pipeline legislation that limits Canadian prosperity and enriches dictators abroad.”
Bill C-69 subjects critical infrastructure projects to bureaucratic hurdles that force companies to comply with “a variety of Liberal priorities,” a statement from Poilievre’s campaign says. Bill C-48 is a tanker ban that restricts the export of Alberta oil from the west coast.
During his prepared remarks and in response to several reporters’ questions, Poilievre took aim at former Quebec Liberal premier Jean Charest, who is widely rumoured to be seeking the Conservative leadership himself.
“Jean Charest and Justin Trudeau support higher taxes on consumers,” he said. “He and Justin Trudeau believe that they are better at spending your money than you are at spending it yourself. I disagree. Jean Charest and Justin Trudeau are wrong.”
The Conservatives will announce the winner of the leadership race on September 10, the party announced this week after its Leadership Election Organizing Committee settled on the race’s rules. Candidates have until April 19 to enter the race, which gives time for challengers to mobilize.
Poilievre said he wasn’t concerned with the timeline.
“I couldn’t care less,” he said. “Bottom line is I’m the low-tax candidate. I’m the person who will make life more affordable for hard-working Canadians. I’m going to bring down energy costs. I’m going to restore big, powerful pay cheques that will allow people to take back their lives. So it doesn’t matter to me when people vote. If they want a low-tax, pro-paycheque candidate who will put them back in charge of their lives, then I will win the race.”
Poilievre said that if he becomes prime minister, “taxes will only ever go down.”
The Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) has announced that it will select its new leader on Sept. 10.
The party’s Leadership Election Organizing Committee (LEOC) announced it adopted the rules and procedures for the race on Wednesday and that they will be made public later this week.
“As a party with a long grassroots tradition, these dates will allow as many Canadians as possible to join the Conservative Party and participate in the election of our next leader,” said LEOC chair Ian Brodie in a statement on Thursday. “It will also allow Conservative Members of Parliament to return to the House of Commons in September with a new leader in place to take on Justin Trudeau and the Liberals.”
The statement said that prospective candidates would have until April 19 to apply to enter the leadership race. Prospective candidates would need to provide a total entry fee of $200,000 as well as a compliance deposit of $100,000 that is refundable after the race concludes.
According to the statement, the deadline for membership applications to be submitted is June 3. Party staff, it said, would be given multiple weeks to verify members’ eligibility, which will be followed by a period for leadership campaigns to look over the final voter list for accuracy.
Ballots are expected to be mailed to party members in late July to early August.
“We are confident that by following the rules and procedures adopted by LEOC, which comply with the party’s constitution, Canada’s Conservatives can hold a leadership election that is open, fair, transparent, democratic and professional,” said Brodie.
The only declared candidate in the race at the moment is CPC MP Pierre Poilievre.
Poilievre announced on Feb. 5 that he intends to become party leader and eventually Canada’s prime minister.
“I’m running for prime minister to give you back control of your life,” he said.
Former Liberal Quebec premier Jean Charest has also expressed interest, saying he would review the rules before deciding whether to run.
Charest met Wednesday with Conservative MPs and senators at a hotel in downtown Ottawa at a reception planned by two people who wanted him to run.
“The rules will tell us where a campaign is viable or not,” Charest said.
Just how far will the legacy media go to defend Chrystia Freeland and the Liberals?
Freeland recently posted – and then deleted – a photo of herself at a Ukrainian rally in Toronto holding a black and red flag representative of a militant Neo-Nazi movement in Ukraine.
The banner represents the Bandera movement – Bandera was a literal Nazi who helped carry out Hilter’s holocaust in Ukraine by murdering over 100,000 Jews and Poles.
The legacy media didn’t cover Freeland’s colossal misstep – True North did.
But now, three days later, multiple legacy media outlets finally got around to covering the story. But, get this: rather than holding Freeland accountable for this reckless move, instead these articles seek to hold True North accountable for the crime of reporting it.
They smeared us as “unwittingly participating” in Russian disinformation.
The lowest of the low was the National Post, once considered Canada’s last bastion of conservative thought in the legacy media. I kid you not, the National Post quoted some “expert” minimizing and whitewashing the concept of “blood and soil” – the most prominent and despicable Nazi slogan.
You can’t make this stuff up. What a sad, pathetic new low for Canada’s bailout media.
Conservative MP and party leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre announced on Thursday that if elected prime minister, he would scrap the federal carbon tax.
“I am announcing today that a Poilievre government would make life more affordable by eliminating the carbon tax on gas, heat and groceries,” said Poilievre at a press conference in Saskatoon.
“Scrapping the carbon tax will reduce the cost of living, it will mean small businesses will have more money to hire workers and provide affordable goods for their people, and it will allow us to recentre the focus of environmental policy onto real results, not revenue and onto technology rather than taxes.”
As Prime Minister, I will scrap the carbon tax, so you can afford gas, groceries and heat.
Poilievre also took shots at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the announcement, as well as at potential Conservative leadership opponent Jean Charest, who has been mulling entering the race.
“These price increases are the result of Justin Trudeau’s inflationist deficits and taxes. They’re driving up the cost of living for everyday Canadians,” said Poilievre, who also accused Charest of raising taxes while serving as Liberal premier of Quebec.
“I believe we should leave more money in the pockets of Canadians. I also believe that fighting climate change is about technology, not taxes, results and not revenue. That’s why my government would introduce plans that would incentivize carbon reducing technologies.”
Canadian Taxpayers Federation federal director Franzo Terrazzano said that he was delighted to see Poilievre stick up for Canadians.
“It’s good to see Poilievre show leadership, stick up for taxpayers and commit to fight the carbon tax. Ottawa is making these tough times tougher by hiking the carbon tax during a pandemic, while Canadians suffer with pay cuts and job losses,” said Terrazzano. “Poilievre is right to fight carbon taxes because Canadians should not be punished for fueling our cars and heating our homes.”
In a press release on the announcement, Poilievre accused the Liberals of taking more from Canadians in the form of carbon taxes than they promised to return in rebates.
According to a Parliamentary Budget Office report from this year, the government took $1.4 billion more from Canadians than it gave back.
“To raise a tax that punishes working Canadians is unacceptable,” said Poilievre. “To raise that tax again and again at a time when the cost of living is soaring, and people are having a hard time just getting food on the table? It’s unforgivable.”
According to Terrazzano the carbon tax holds “no gain” for ordinary taxpayers.
“Canada’s emissions increased during the first year of the federal carbon tax. Despite having North America’s highest carbon tax, British Columbia’s emissions have increased by 10 per cent since 2015,” said Terrazzano.
Poilievre is the only candidate to have officially entered the Conservative leadership contest since former leader Erin O’Toole was ousted by his caucus in February.
According to Conservative MPs including Bob Benzen, one of the reasons for O’Toole’s ouster was his flip-flopping on carbon taxes during the 2021 election. Despite signing a pledge to get rid of the tax, O’Toole went on to devise a “personal low carbon savings account,” which some called “a carbon tax by another name.”
“All Conservative Party leadership candidates should learn from O’Toole’s failings: Don’t lie to taxpayers and don’t break your promise to fight carbon taxes,” said Terrazzano.
“Unfortunately for O’Toole, voters aren’t stupid and held him accountable for breaking his promise to fight the carbon tax. O’Toole’s own party also held him accountable by ousting him from party leader. The Taxpayers Federation will continue to hold all politicians’ feet to the fire on carbon taxes.”
Freedom Convoy fundraiser Tamara Lich is behind bars until at least Monday, nearly two weeks after she was arrested in Ottawa. A judge is set to make a decision about whether she can be released on bail Monday. True North’s Andrew Lawton breaks it down with criminal lawyer David Anber.
Also, Canadian Taxpayers Federation federal director Franco Terrazzano joins to talk about the huge number of Canadians who want to defund CBC.
The federal Liberals are scrapping a proposal to require commercial truck drivers to show proof of vaccination when crossing into another province.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, Liberal labour minister Seamus O’Regan ruled out the potential policy while being questioned on Wednesday.
“Are we still on with the vaccination mandate for interprovincial truckers?” asked a reporter.
“Interprovincial? No, no. We are listening,” O’Regan answered. “Vaccine mandates are something we continue to listen to stakeholders very keenly with but things change. Public health changes, science changes. Lots of things are changing. It’s very much in flux.”
On December 7, the Trudeau government put forward a proposal to amend the Canada Labour Code and require COVID-19 vaccination for all federally regulated private sector employers, including the transport industry.
Liberal transport minister Omar Alghabra even discussed the potential interprovincial mandate on Jan. 30 – the same weekend the Freedom Convoy arrived in Ottawa – telling CBC’s Rosemary Barton, “(n)o one should be surprised that there is work being done to get us there.”
"No one should be surprised that there is work being done to get us there," Liberal Transport minister Omar Alghabra hints at a vaccine mandate for interprovincial truck drivers in Canada. #cdnpolipic.twitter.com/mCzNUEnOG3
Business leaders said that the interprovincial rule would result in “guaranteed failure” and tank the supply chain even further.
“Implementation of that rule will set us up for guaranteed failure. The reality is we’re experiencing a significant shortage of trucks and trailers to haul hogs across Canada and the situation is worse than publicly stated,” the chair of the Canadian Pork Council Rick Bergmann told the Commons agriculture committee on Feb. 14.
“We’ve talked with different drivers, different driving businesses, transport companies and so on and they are pulling their hair out. If this in fact happens the problem has gotten much worse.”
Bergmann insisted that such a policy would be “the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”
“A mandate on interprovincial trucking would be very devastating to our country, to our business. We have made our position known. We notice that people love eating meat.”
In January, a last-minute Liberla government flip-flop on reversing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for cross-border truck drivers led to nationwide protests, fuelling the Freedom Convoy and other demonstrations that continued for nearly a month.
The convoy movement, which eventually called for an end to all COVID-19 restrictions and mandates across the country, gathered support around the world.
The Public Service Commission of Nova Scotia (PSCNS) has confirmed that it rejected all 56 requests it received for religious exemptions from COVID-19 vaccines, Rebel News reported on Wednesday.
The report comes from a freedom of information (FOI) request made in response to Nova Scotia premier Tim Houston mandating that all public sector employees in the province be vaccinated by Nov. 30 or be put on unpaid leave.
There were 56 religious exemptions requests and zero approvals as of Dec. 13, according to the FOI.
“In establishing and implementing a review process, the employer sought appropriate legal assistance to ensure an understanding of the obligations pursuant to human rights law, incorporating the concepts of religion/creed as established in statute and case law,” said the PSCNS.
The government’s response to the FOI said that exemption requests were reviewed by senior staff with the appropriate knowledge and experience within the PSCNS and Department of Justice.
Rebel News previously reported in December that internal government documents showed Nova Scotia voters felt “betrayed” that Houston’s newly elected Progressive Conservatives did not reject the vaccine policies put forward by the previous Liberal government.
More than 1,000 public sector employees in Nova Scotia were reportedly put on unpaid leave when the mandatory vaccine policy came into effect.
Among provincial ministries, Nova Scotia Health had the most employees placed on unpaid leave, with 323 people affected. This was followed by long-term care (179), education (174) and home care (96).
After the province announced last week that it would be lifting all COVID restrictions by March 21, however, Nova Scotia says it is now looking at ways to bring back public sector employees who were put in unpaid clearances for refusing to be vaccinated.
Houston confirmed following a cabinet meeting last week that talks are ongoing about bringing these employees back.
However, he cautioned that it might not happen for all employees, because vaccines might be necessary on the front lines of hospitals and long-term care homes.
Ontario announced Thursday that Ontario workers would no longer have to be vaccinated as of April 4.
A British Columbia dentist is speaking out against the province’s looming vaccination deadline for private-sector healthcare professionals, saying his licensing college should tell Dr. Bonnie Henry “to crawl back into whichever hole she came out of.”
Robert Johnson, a dentist in Salmon Arm, B.C. posted a strongly-worded video to social media on Wednesday in an effort to raise awareness and rally opposition three weeks ahead of the March 24 deadline imposed by the province.
“Stop doing things that clearly make no sense,” Johnson said. “There’s no science, there’s no logic. There’s no basis for most of this garbage. So, stop doing it.”
In his 10-minute video, Johnson said that chief medical health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry’s mandates have no “scientific, logical, legal, ethical or moral basis,” and that they will have a devastating effect on the province’s already-strained healthcare system.
“There’s a point at which ignorance becomes malice, where it’s simply not possible to be that ignorant except intentionally and maliciously,” said Johnson.
“So, when I look at Bonnie Henry’s mandates as far as I’m concerned there is no scientific, logical, legal, ethical or moral basis for any of them. So, in my mind, that only leaves evil and incompetence, and I don’t honestly know which would be worse, but like I just said, it’s indistinguishable at this point.”
On Feb. 9, Henry announced that B.C. would be extending its compulsory vaccine mandate to cover all remaining healthcare professionals in private practice, including dentists, chiropractors, midwives, acupuncturists, denturists, pharmacists and many others.
Henry made the announcement the same week that four provinces – including Alberta, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island and Manitoba – declared they would be dropping their vaccine passports and mask mandates altogether.
Since then, all provinces but B.C. have followed suit, with some now welcoming back unvaccinated workers. These provinces follow the lead of advanced countries around the world, including the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and others.
Despite this trend, Henry has continuously doubled down, even announcing Tuesday that people should be prepared for restrictions to return in the fall, and that B.C. would support businesses who wish to keep using vax passes and masks even after policies are dropped.
“So, what I would like to know is, what planet is Bonnie Henry on, because here on Earth, we’re not playing this game anymore,” Johnson said.
“And I also would like to know why there is not one person at the College of Dental Surgeons of B.C. or any of these other colleges and regulatory bodies that has the common sense, critical thinking skills or integrity to tell Bonnie Henry to crawl back into whatever hole she came out of and not come back out again, please and thank you.”
True North had reached out to the B.C. Dental Association (BCDA) after Henry’s announcement on Feb 9., as the BCDA appears to have defended the existing safety and medical privacy of dentists’ offices as late as November.
In a letter sent to the Comox Valley Record responding to a patient’s concerns about COVID, they wrote, “(v)accinations are an important part of preventing COVID-19, but they do not protect 100 per cent against transmission” and that “BCDA knows of no transmissions of COVID-19 between dental professionals and patients in B.C. or across Canada.”
Nonetheless, the BCDA contacted True North to affirm its full support for mandatory government vaccination of dentists in private practices, even as the Canadian Dental Association had called for mandatory vaccination policies for all oral health professionals back in September.
Johnson concludes his video by ridiculing the BCDA’s advice for his dentistry practice that he should hire someone else to run it if he loses his licence over what they called ‘choosing not to get the vaccine.’
“I was like, I can’t, you can’t, you’re not serious,” he said. “You have to be joking. Like, this is actually a hilarious joke at this point.”
True North reached out to the B.C. Healthcare Collaborative, who posted Johnson’s video, but received no response by publication time. The organization’s website, which hosts a blog and gallery of affected workers, announces, “(w)e are vaccinated & unvaccinated B.C. Health Care Professionals who are seeking medical autonomy for our patients & health care workers.”
B.C. began firing workers last week who had been forced onto unpaid leave by vaccine mandates in the fall, despite a crippling labour shortage with frontline care.
Health minister Adrian Dix admitted that one week in January alone saw 27,937 shifts unfilled.
News that Quebec’s former top doctor Horracio Arruda had scrambled to find studies justifying the province’s latest curfew earned scathing reactions from all of Quebec’s opposition party leaders.
Radio Canada reported Wednesday that Arruda’s assistant had emailed the province’s public health institute’s Associate VP for Scientific Affairs and the Senior Strategic Medical Advisor for Public Health asking for evidence to back the curfew at 10:31am on Dec. 30.
That was six hours before Premier François Legault announced he was reimposing a province-wide curfew to deal with the rise in cases led by the Omicron variant.
Arruda recommended the government reimpose a curfew on Dec 29. However, he did not provide material to justify his recommendation.
In the French emails to public health experts, his assistant wrote, “Horacio would like you and your teams to provide him with an argument in connection to the curfew in anticipation of reporters’ questions at the 5pm press conference.”
The assistant wrote that Arruda wanted to know two things – “1) What are the studies? 2) What is being done elsewhere?”
They were asked to provide this information in a tight argument.
Arruda’s office heard back from Quebec’s public health institute’s Associate VP for Scientific Affairs, Éric Litvak, at 2:36pm – less than three hours before the press conference.
In his response, Litvak stated that “on the INSPQ side, we do not have an existing analysis that specifically addresses the curfew and unfortunately we are unable to produce one today with such short notice.”
Quebec’s Liberal Opposition Leader Dominique Anglade, who has been critical of Legault’s pandemic response, called the story “scandalous.”
Anglade added that if justifying the curfew was a charade, then government contracts may be too.
Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon reacted to the news by denouncing what he called “a public health subordinated to the interests of politics, a government…without transparency or accountability, and politicians lacking integrity”.
Manon Massé, co-leader of the far-left Quebec Solidaire stated that “measures that are not based on science are political measures.” She added, “(h)ow many other decisions like this are hiding in François Legault’s closet?”
Conservative Party of Quebec leader Éric Duhaime also reacted to the news, stating that it “possibly demonstrates how the decision was purely political and that public health was the foil to cover the decisions of François Legault with a scientific veneer.”
Ça démontre possiblement comment la décision était purement politique et que la santé publique était le faire-valoir pour couvrir d’un verni scientifique les décisions de François Legault.
Legault’s chief of staff Martin Kosikinen responded to the criticism on Twitter.
“Do you think that a curfew pays off electorally?” he asked. “If so, your political career will be short.”
He added that curfew was a recommendation of public health.
Respectueusement, pensez-vous qu’un couvre-feu est électoralement payant ? Si oui, votre carrière politique sera courte. La Santé publique nous a recommandé un couvre-feu pour réduire la vitesse de la transmission du virus. Pas plus, pas moins.
However, Quebec’s public health institute did not have an existing analysis specifically addressing the curfew. An access to information request in February also revealed the INSPQ had “no documents” justifying the curfews.
It should also be noted that the curfew was opposed by prominent health experts in the province, including Montreal’s public health director Dr. Mylène Drouin.
Drouin told the Quebec government back in Dec. 2021 that she opposed bringing back the curfew, citing concerns about its impact on vulnerable populations.
Arruda ended up stepping down days after the curfew announcement, stating in his resignation letter that he felt criticisms of his positions had led to an erosion of public trust.
Quebec imposed some of the harshest public health restrictions in the Western world in response to the Omicron variant. On top of the curfew, restrictions included lockdowns, bans on gatherings and vaccine mandates that limited access to groceries.
Legault also announced Wednesday that he would lift the mask mandate in indoor public settings by mid-April, except for public transit, where he said that masks will still be mandatory until May at the earliest.
Interim Conservative leader Candice Bergen joined The Andrew Lawton Show for a wide-ranging discussion about the state of the Conservative party, including its opposition to carbon taxes and vaccine mandates, as well as its efforts to hold Justin Trudeau to account over his invocation of the Emergencies Act to stop the truckers’ convoy.
