VAUGHAN, ONT. — Pierre Poilievre is pledging that if his Conservative party forms government after this election, it will keep a number of social programs the Liberal government created with the help of the NDP.
At a campaign stop Tuesday in Vaughan, Ont., Poilievre was asked whether he would cut the national dental-care and pharmacare programs -- something that’s been a popular point of attack among his opponents.
“We will protect these programs and nobody who has them will lose them,” Poilievre said. “We will make sure that nobody loses their dental care.”
He did not specify what he would do with the pharmacare program, which he has said previously he would end.
That program currently covers the cost of birth control and diabetes medication in three provinces and one territory that have signed deals with Ottawa. Legislation that Poilievre opposed in Parliament calls for deals to be signed with all provinces and territories, and for an expert report on how to create a universal pharmacare program.
The Canadian Dental Care Plan was launched by the Liberal government in 2023. It came as a result of a deal with the NDP, which pushed for dental care, pharmacare and anti-scab legislation in exchange for keeping the minority government in power.
The dental-care program is currently available to seniors, children and adults with a disability so long as they don’t have private insurance and have a household income under $90,000.
The government has said that in the program’s first year, more than 1.7 million Canadians received dental-care services.
On the eve of the election call, the Liberal government announced a major expansion to the dental-care plan to cover all eligible Canadians between the ages of 18 and 65 beginning in May.
The Conservatives said in a statement on Tuesday that they would honour existing commitments related to the dental-care program. A spokesperson also said no parent would lose access to $10-a-day child care under a Conservative government and it would honour the agreements with provinces.
Ottawa has signed multiple deals with provincial governments over the last several weeks to extend child-care funding to 2031.
Poilievre said his government would address the cost and availability of child care by eliminating bureaucracy to give provinces and families more flexibility -- but he didn’t explain how.
“We all believe there should be more affordable child care in this country,” Poilievre said, claiming Liberal policies have led to fewer child-care spaces.
“Why do we have worse child care today than when the Liberals took office? Because they’ve imposed top-down, government-knows-best rules that have shut down private daycares that don’t meet the government-knows-best model.”
Sean Fraser, the former housing minister who has decided to run for the Liberals again after briefly quitting politics, said Poilievre is being opportunistic.
“It’s unbelievable to me that someone who has railed against these programs as wasteful, now that he realizes his position is unpopular, he shifts his principals all together,” Fraser said.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said he doesn’t believe Poilievre, pointing out that he and his Conservative caucus voted against dental care and pharmacare in the House of Commons.
“What I think it says is that Pierre Poilievre realizes people actually like dental care, people actually think that pharmacare is a good idea,” Singh said at a campaign stop in Toronto.
“People like these programs, and so he’s worried that if he comes out and says openly he’s going to cut them, people won’t actually like that, they’ll actually vote against him. So he’s lying to you now.”
For the second day in a row, Poilievre was forced to go on the defensive on Tuesday.
Citing an unnamed “source with top-secret clearance,” the Globe and Mail reported Tuesday morning that agents of India allegedly interfered in Poilievre’s victorious 2022 Conservative leadership campaign.
“Let’s be honest. I won the leadership fair and square,” Poilievre said when asked to respond to the report, claiming it was part of a Liberal attack.
The Globe and Mail reported CSIS did not have evidence to suggest that Poilievre or his team were aware of the alleged interference and said CSIS did not share the information with Poilievre because he does not have a top-secret security clearance.
“What I will not do is commit to the oath of secrecy that the Liberals want to impose on me,” Poilievre said when asked about his decision not to obtain a security clearance.
At a press conference in Halifax, Liberal Leader Mark Carney called Poilievre’s decision not to get a security clearance “beyond baffling.”
“I find it downright irresponsible that the leader of the opposition, day after day, month after month, year after year, refuses to obtain his security clearance as a normal course in peace time, when times were tranquil,” Carney said.
Poilievre was at a housing development in Vaughan on Tuesday, where he pledged to remove the GST from purchases of new homes worth up to $1.3 million -- a measure he said would save homebuyers up to $65,000.
That expands on a plan the Conservatives proposed in October to eliminate the GST on new homes sold for under $1 million.
Conservatives estimate the tax cut would cost the government between $3.96 and $4.97 billion, but they believe it would also stimulate the construction of 36,000 homes per year and say that would generate $2.52 billion in revenue.
The Conservatives also say they plan to incentivize municipalities to free up land, speed up permits and cut development charges to build more homes.
Poilievre’s move to sweeten his housing promise comes a few days after Carney said his government would also eliminate the GST for first-time homebuyers on homes at or under $1 million.
The Conservatives hosted a rally on Tuesday evening in the Stoney Creek area of Hamilton, which organizers said was attended by some 4,500 people.
The event was held inside a massive modular construction facility, and Poilievre talked a lot about the ways he wants to support unions and blue-collar workers.
“The last 10 years have been about the Liberals. I’m here to say that the next 10 years are going to be about you,” he said, getting enthusiastic cheers in response. He said he isn’t running in this election to “run your life” or to take power, but to give power back to people.
Poilievre spoke for nearly an hour, his well-rehearsed stump speech about how a Conservative government would bring back the promise of Canada punctuated by chants of “axe the tax” and “bring it home,” along with some profanity directed at the Liberals.
The event started late, and people waited in long lines outside. Poilievre took the stage nearly an hour after the 6:30 start time and by 7:45, the crowd began to thin as people sought the exits and looked for washrooms.
Mike Pitt drove about 40 minutes from Niagara to attend his first political rally because, he said, it’s time for change.
“I run a business, and I’ve noticed, 10 years ago things were great and now it’s all, things are starting to slide down the other way,” he said.
Paula Park, 62, said she believes in everything Poilievre stands for.
Park and two of her friends made a trip to Washington, D.C., for the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump, whom she said is “a teddy bear.” She said the trade war with the U.S. is not a concern for her, but the election is about the economy and housing.
“I don’t buy the polls at all. I don’t buy them at all, I believe Pierre is going to take this by a landslide,” she said.
Article by Sarah Ritchie.
With files from Nick Murray in Ottawa.
