Poilievre visits convoy camp, claims Trudeau is lying about ‘everything’ – CBC.ca Achi-News

The Conservative leader is facing questions after stopping to cheer on an anti-carbon tax convoy camp near the New Brunswick-Nova Scotia border, where he vehemently accused the prime minister of lying about “everything.”

In response, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Pierre Poilievre of welcoming “the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists.”

In videos posted on social media, the Opposition leader is seen thanking and encouraging protesters who have camped out in what some participants have described as a “holding the line protest” in convoy style since the carbon tax increase on April 1 – a nod to the 2022 convoy protest in downtown Ottawa.

In a video filmed by the protesters, who have been living at the site for three weeks, Poilievre tells the group to “keep up” and calls their protest “an old-fashioned Canadian tax revolt”.

“Everybody hates the tax because everybody’s screwed over,” Poilievre is heard saying in the video, which shows protesters with “Ax the tax” and “F–k Trudeau” signs and banners. A car with Make Canada Great Again scrawled on the back window is seen parked on the site.

“People believed his lies. Everything he said was bullshit, from top to bottom.”

In another video of his visit, Poilievre, who has been beating Trudeau’s Liberals in the polls since last summer, is seen leaving an RV with a picture of a black and white Diagolon flag on the door.

According to RCMP documents presented at last year’s Emergencies Act inquiry, national police believe Diagolon is a militia-like network whose supporters subscribe to an “accelerating” ideology – the idea that civil war or the collapse of western governments is inevitable and it should be accelerated.

The founder of the group argues that characterization and argues that it is a false meme.

In that video, a man asks Poilievre for a picture and suggests that he is standing in front of the famous Trudeau exploitative banner. Poilievre can be heard suggesting they pose elsewhere.

Trudeau says Poilievre will do ‘anything to win’

Poilievre’s visit to the protesters has caused an uproar among his political opponents.

“Every politician has to make choices about what kind of leader they want to be,” Trudeau said when asked about Poilievre’s comments during Wednesday’s media availability.

“Are they the type of leader who is going to exacerbate divisions, fears and polarization in our country, make personal attacks and welcome the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists? Because that is exactly what Pierre Poilievre continues to do, not only when you see him engaging with members of Diagolon but also when he refuses to condemn and reject the approval of Alex Jones.”

Jones, a notorious broadcaster who has been ordered to pay more than a billion dollars in compensation to the families of Sandy Hook victims after claiming the school shooting was a hoax, called Poilievre “the real deal” and repeated his support recently. In 2012, a gunman killed 26 people in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, most of them children between the ages of six and seven.

“This is the kind of man who says Pierre Poilievre has the right ideas to bring the country to the right,” Trudeau said during a stop in the Toronto area, where he touted his recent budget. Recent polls suggest that last week’s budget release has done little to sway voters.

“So the fact that Pierre Poilievre has not stood up to condemn that endorsement, the fact that he continues to encourage the kind of divisive attitudes towards Canada that I don’t think Canadians want to see, really shows that he will do anything to win.”

Poilievre’s team says they are not following Alex Jones

In a statement issued to CBC News, Poilievre’s spokesman, Sebastian Skamski, said “we are not following” Jones “or listening to what he has to say.”

“Unlike Justin Trudeau, we don’t pay attention to what some American says,” the statement said.

Skamski did not respond to a CBS question about whether Poilievre was aware of the Diagolon symbol.

Poilievre denounced the group as “scum” after its founder threatened to sexually assault his wife during an online stream last year.

Skamski said Poilievre spotted an anti-carbon tax protest while driving between stops in Atlantic Canada.

“As a vocal opponent of Justin Trudeau’s punitive carbon tax that has increased the cost of groceries, gas and heating, he made a short, impromptu stop,” he said.

“If Justin Trudeau cares about extremism, he should look at the parades on the streets of Canada openly celebrating the killing of Jews by Hamas on October 7.”

The comment appears to cite a recent pro-Palestinian rally on Parliament Hill. Ottawa police say they are investigating allegations of hate speech after a widely shared video showed a man on a megaphone praising a Hamas attack on Israeli civilians that killed more than 1,200, according to Israeli figures. More than 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in Israel’s military operation since then, health officials in the territory said.

Both Trudeau and Poilievre have condemned the protesters’ rhetoric.

In a separate news conference, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh accused Poilievre of deliberately dividing Canadians.

“A leader should not be someone who is irresponsible with language, who creates division, who incites hatred,” he said.

“He’s someone who has been endorsed by Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson. This is a divisive person who gives life to people and gives them breath to continue his irresponsible attitude, to his divisive attitude.”

Poilievre’s visit is ‘dangerous,’ says pollster

David Coletto, founder and CEO of polling firm Abacus Data, said part of Poilievre’s strategy in visiting the protest camp may have been to mobilize members of his base drawn by Maxime Bernier’s populist Canadian People’s Party – and it took four percent of the voting in the last election.

“But I think it’s a very risky play because I think this is a protest that apparently masquerades as policy criticism but is really extremism,” he said.

“And that’s always been the Achilles heel of the Conservatives in Canada.”

Coletto said Poilievre is high in the polls thanks to people who are upset with the prime minister and want change. He added that a coalition “is quite fragile.”

“This could be a sign that the Conservatives could be getting overconfident that pollsters like me are telling them over and over again that they have a 20 point lead nationally that means he can go and do things he might otherwise , if it became common, turn somewhat. of his new fans away,” he said.

“I think he’s in danger of breaking that new coalition.”

Trudeau’s comments on Wednesday follow new Liberal attack ads linking Poilievre to Jones.

Coletto said so far there is no evidence that they are making Canadians less confident in the Conservative leader.

“But that doesn’t mean over time, does the accumulation of all these points of evidence lead to someone perhaps saying, ‘I’m uncomfortable with him as prime minister of Canada?’ he said.

“So I think it all depends on how often this could happen and, more importantly, how many people are aware of it.”

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