(Ottawa) The provinces are forced to intervene to secure the borders because the Trudeau government has ignored its responsibilities to protect them for the last nine years, believes the leader of the Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre.
Posted at 11:27 a.m.
“Justin Trudeau is a weak Prime Minister who has lost control of spending, lost control of immigration and lost control of the borders,” said the Conservative leader the day after the meeting between Justin Trudeau and the premiers of the provinces .
This meeting was urgently called by Mr. Trudeau to discuss President-elect Donald Trump’s intentions to impose tariffs of 25% on Canadian and Mexican products on the first day of his return to power, January 20. .
During this meeting, provincial leaders demanded that Ottawa quickly present a detailed plan to secure the Canada-US border. This was particularly the case of the Prime Minister of Quebec, François Legault, and his Ontario counterpart, Doug Ford.
At the end of the meeting, the Minister of Public Safety, Dominic LeBlanc, indicated that Ottawa plans to make new investments to ensure increased surveillance at the Canada-US border. These investments will allow the RCMP to hire new police officers, the Border Services Agency to recruit more officers, and law enforcement to purchase drones and helicopters, among other things.
But this response did not seem to convince François Legault nor Doug Ford. “I clearly asked Mr. Trudeau to table a detailed plan to better secure the borders to avoid Mr. Trump’s 25% tariff. […] I didn’t get a clear answer. […] I think it’s important that we table a plan,” said Mr. Legault during a brief press briefing in Quebec on Wednesday evening.
On Thursday, however, the Quebec Prime Minister changed tune. “I am happy this morning to see the reactions [des ministres] Dominique Leblanc and Chrystia Freeland who finally seem to understand the message that we need a plan to secure the borders against immigration and avoid the 25% tariff [douaniers] “, he said.
The Premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith, for her part indicated that her government will take immediate measures to secure the border between her province and Montana.
Mr. Trump turned to his network, Truth Social, on Monday evening to announce that one of his first acts on his inauguration day would be to sign an executive order to implement these measures.
“This tax will remain in effect until drugs, especially fentanyl, and all illegal immigrants stop this invasion of our country!” Both Canada and Mexico have the right and absolute power to easily resolve this long-standing problem,” he wrote.
According to Pierre Poilievre, the reaction of the provinces was predictable.
“Justin Trudeau broke the border. We didn’t have these problems before Justin Trudeau. We didn’t have Roxham Road before Justin Trudeau. We didn’t have these illegal border crossings before Justin Trudeau,” said Mr. Poilievre.
“All the chaos at our border is the result of Justin Trudeau. It’s his job to come up with a plan. Today we now see prime ministers taking responsibility for the border. Justin Trudeau wants to be responsible for all these areas of provincial jurisdiction and yet he does not take care of the work that is most the responsibility of the federal government, namely the border,” he added.
“So we have Quebec sending Sûreté du Québec police officers to secure the border. Premier Danielle Smith is proposing using provincial drones and other police enforcement measures from her province to secure the borders there. Doug Doug Ford is considering something similar. So now we are getting a series of measures from prime ministers who have no choice but to try to hold the border together with duct tape and rubber bands,” he continued.
Mr. Poilievre made these attacks after announcing that the Conservative Party will vote against the government’s bill aimed at granting a GST holiday on certain items between December 14 and February 15. The Conservative leader maintains that such a measure is electoral and will cause inflation.
He once again called for federal elections to be held as soon as possible. If he takes power, he promises to abolish the carbon tax and the GST on the construction of new homes under $1 million “permanently.”
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