HON. PIERRE POILIEVRE PC, MP, CARLETON

Pierre Poilievre is a former Minister, a six-term Member of Parliament and currently the Conservative Shadow Minister for Jobs and Industry. He champions the free market in which everyone gets ahead on merit, not government handouts, and people take ownership of and responsibility for their own destinies.

To make room for personal freedom and responsibility, he believes in limiting government. For example, Poilievre led the fight against crippling Liberal tax hikes on small businesses in the fall of 2017. This tax revolt forced the government to set aside some of its most damaging proposals. He is also fighting out-of-control deficit spending and tax increases.

Poilievre has also championed jobs for people with disabilities, introducing a bill that would allow workers on disability assistance to keep more in wages than they lose to claw backs and taxes.

More recently, he has begun warning Parliament of the growing risk of a debt crisis, as the country's public and private debt is now almost four times the size of the economy. Moreover, the central bank's policy of printing money to fund this government debt is ballooning asset and consumer prices, which increases the price of the things the rich own and that the poor must buy. Poilievre argues that money printing amounts to an "inflation tax", a sneaky way for governments to raise money by raising prices for the people.  

EXPERIENCE

Poilievre has served as Minister of Employment and Social Development, Minister of Democratic Reform and Minister Responsible for the National Capital Commission. He was also the Conservative Shadow Minister for Finance.

COMMUNITY

Poilievre is well known for championing causes brought to him by constituents.

In the fall of 2017, two Carleton residents – Kimberley Hanson and Madison Ferguson – brought to Poilievre’s attention the fact that the Liberal government had changed its eligibility criteria for diabetics claiming the disability tax credit. The DTC allows a disabled person to claim a tax credit worth up to $1500 per year. Poilievre took their case public and began asking questions in Question Period and at parliamentary committees. Advocates representing other Canadians with mental conditions – such as autism, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia – also came forward to say their constituents were also seeing increased rejections, and wondered if the eligibility criteria for their illnesses had changed. After months of intense criticism, the Liberal government was forced to reverse their unfair tax on disabled people.

In 2016, he worked with the Liberal government to help save the life of a local small businessman. Colin Perera was in the late-stages of kidney failure when his nephew in Sri Lanka offered to come to Canada to provide an organ transplant. Immigration Canada denied his visitor visa. After Poilievre learned of the problem, he worked with the Immigration Minister, John McCallum, to secure a rare ministerial permit so the nephew could enter Canada for the operation. (Colin had his surgery in the spring of 2016.)

Similarly, a Canadian Armed Forces Major from Osgoode informed Poilievre that the government prevented him from spending time with his new baby, when it denied his parental leave under Employment Insurance. Major Jim Duquette’s benefits had expired while he was on military deployment in the Middle East. According to the rules, prisoners could defer their benefits while in jail, but soldiers could not do the same during a mission. Poilievre convinced the government to introduce the Fairness for Military Families Act, which allows soldiers to defer their parental leave until after they return from military missions, giving them precious time off with their small children.

FAMILY

Poilievre lives in the Eastern Ontario village of Greely with his wife Anaida and their daughter Valentina. He grew up in Calgary and graduated from the University of Calgary with a degree in International Relations.