Trudeau Forces Freeland And Canadians Off Debt Cliff

The following is a transcript of the Hon. Pierre Poilievre’s remarks from December 16th, 2024. These remarks have been edited for length. Check against delivery. 

December 16, 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Ottawa, ON –  Mr. Speaker, I rise today flabbergasted by the news that has just been made public. The government has finally revealed its true deficit number.

Remember, this outgoing and now former Finance Minister told the world that she was putting in place “guardrails” to limit the damage that her deficits could do. Her deficit plan was $40 billion, a mind bogglingly large number that was already contributing to rising. Again, this $40 billion was too big. It was out-of-control as it was, but at least to her credit, she said, ‘no more than that.’ And she decided she would have a guardrail.

We know a guardrail is meant to stop vehicles from flying off cliffs. Well, as she was trying throughout the year to avoid going off the cliff, there were two people on the bus who had other ideas: the Prime Minister and Carbon Tax Carney. And the two of them went to the front of the bus, they grabbed the wheel, they pulled it sharply to the left, smashing into that guardrail, and she tried to resist. So they pulled even further to the left and they stepped on the gas. The bus flew off the cliff, and now Canadians are at the bottom of the ravine in a big pile of debt.

But instead of taking responsibility, the Prime Minister told her that she should take all the blame. That when the ambulances and the police cruisers arrived and the fire department, that she take the blame for running the bus off the cliff and that Carbon Tax Carney and the Prime Minister could innocently sit back, and that the Prime Minister could then put Carbon Tax Carney in charge of driving the next bus.

The good old boys in the back room would protect themselves and make the Finance Minister take all the blame. It reminds you of the way they treated the former Attorney General, a brilliant and brave First Nations woman who refused to bend to corruption. It reminds us of the way they treated Jane Philpott and so many other brave women who have dared question this self-described feminist Prime Minister, some feminist indeed, throwing the bus off the cliff and throwing women under the bus.

That is his real record. His real record on finance is yet another $62 billion deficit. For context, outside of this government, there is no government in the history of Canada that has ever run a $62 billion deficit. Not even in the 90s when the Wall Street Journal said that we were a ‘third world basket case’. Not even during the massive global economic crisis did the deficit come anywhere close to that. And here we are with the global economy growing, with the American economy booming in stable times. This deficit is 100% at the feet of this irresponsible Prime Minister and his personal economic advisor, Carbon Tax Carney.

Now, Carney says he doesn’t even want the job of Finance Minister. He doesn’t even want to try and drive the crashed-out bus after he helped run it off the cliff. And they couldn’t find anyone all day. In fact, no one will appear today even to defend this incredible disaster of a budget. Look at the consequences in human terms. We have 1,400 homeless camps in Ontario, 35 homeless encampments in Halifax alone. We have 2 million people lined up at food banks. Scurvy is making a comeback. The government admits that one in four children are going to school hungry every single day. Unemployment is rising, and according to this budget, expected to exceed 7% by the end of next calendar year. The gap between per capita GDP and Canada and the US is now 30,000 in Canadian dollars. It was equal 10 years ago.

This is the worst gap since at least the Second World War. And some say the worst gap in a century. Canadian workers are only getting 55 cents of investment for every dollar an American worker gets. A half a trillion Canadian investment dollars, which works out to almost a quarter of our economy, has left to go to the United States where it builds pipelines, factories, warehouses, pipelines, business centers.

There are real people whose lives are on the line here and we have a duty to work for them. They see us all as a last hope.

Canadians have been robbed of the promise of Canada. It was a very simple promise that if you worked hard, you got a good life. Now, it wasn’t fancy or extravagant, but you got a house with a yard where you could have kids playing safely and you could have a nice dog that you could afford to feed along with the kids and your kids could play safely in the streets. That was the promise. Now, politicians break promises all the time, but you know what was bad about breaking this promise? This promise didn’t belong to this Prime Minister.

It wasn’t his promise to break. It belonged to all of us. And our purpose is to bring home that promise for that young man, that young father and that older female worker, so that they can once again take back control of their lives. Live in a safe country where their hard work earns them a good wage, where the rent and their food is affordable and where when they go to bed at night, they know that they will be safe throughout their sleep and that they will have their car in their driveway in the morning. A country where people are proud again to fly the flag where they know the government is a servant and not a master.

Where they understand that every day the House of Commons, this place, works for the common people, not for the ego of one man desperate to cling onto his job. We must remember that we are servants in this place. We have a job to do on behalf of the people who sent us here. Our personal dramas are not important. The dramas that should seize all of our concern and imagination are the daily dramas of the working women and men that build this country. We are in it for them. We’re going to give them back control of their lives in the freest country on Earth. Canada. Let’s bring it home.