FERGUS – It didn’t matter that it was a Thursday afternoon on a rainy day. A crowd of several hundred still packed a hall to hear from rising Conservative superstar and party leader hopeful Pierre Poilievre.
The Poilievre for Prime Minister campaign held a meet and greet at the Centre Wellington Community Sportsplex starting at 1 p.m.
After being introduced by Ashish Sachan, a Guelph Conservative candidate in previous federal elections, Poilievre took to an open square in the middle of a gym to outline his problems with how the country is being run and how he plans to fix it should he be Prime Minister.
Whether he was suggesting defunding the CBC, decrying the rising cost of living, vaccine passports, or woke politics, the crowd seemed to love every word he was saying.
“Lately it has not felt so free in this country has it?” Poilievre asked the crowd, who responded with an overwhelming “no.”
He described the situation of a few hypothetical people struggling recently both from mandatory COVID vaccinations, such as truckers or healthcare workers, and those facing financial hardship due to a rising cost of living.
“That’s what happens when governments create cash to pay their bills, they inflate the price of everything starting with the assets of the rich but finishing with the cost of living for everyone else,” Poilievre said, joking that it is “Justinflation.”
He went on to outline a vision to improve housing through converting underused federal building into affordable housing among others and increasing the country’s capacity to produce oil and gas, claiming he will ban overseas oil from Canada within five years.
Free speech wasn’t forgotten either as he lamented about who he called “modern-day woke folk.”
“They want to silence anyone who disagrees with them, they want to expand the power of the state to censor what we see and say online,” Poilievre said. He was referring to Bill C-11 which he claimed “will give the CRTC the power to regulate what shows up in your news feed.”
Poilievre drew a crowd of people who weren't all necessarily local. A man from Collingwood said despite being a nearly lifelong party member he had never gone to a leader candidate's speech and a woman with him remarked at how many young people appeared to be in attendance.
Sachan joked with the crowd before introducing Poilievre he was told nobody would come out to an afternoon event on a weekday.
This didn’t appear to be the case as the room was almost shoulder-to-shoulder and people had to park on the grass as the parking lot was full. Daniel Gillen, who is an organizer with Poilievre’s campaign in the area, said Fergus was chosen as a location because the event was short notice and they couldn’t find an appropriate spot in Guelph.
He said over 1,000 people had RSVP’d for the event but they usually see anywhere from 20 to 40 per cent not show up.
It very much felt like a campaign speech, although Poilievre is one of several candidates for the Conservative Party leadership and a federal election isn’t on the horizon. With that in mind, Poilievre encouraged attendees to become a party member if they weren’t already so they can vote for him to be party leader which would pave his way to his goal.
“I am running for Prime Minister to put you back in control of your life by making Canada the freest nation on Earth,” Poilievre told the crowd.
