Thousands of people packed into a warehouse in Surrey, B.C. for a Conservative Party rally with party leader Pierre Poilievre Thursday night (March 27).
The event, called "Canada First," was held in an industrial building (9690 192nd St) in the Langley Township-Fraser Heights riding. More than 5,000 people, including local Conservative candidates attended.
Conservative Party of Canada candidate Tako van Popta, the incumbent and running again in the riding, kicked off the night by welcoming the crowd and introducing Poilievre's wife, Anaida Poilievre.
Anaida shared why her husband is qualified for the role of Prime Minister of Canada.
"My husband was born to a teenage mother, and he was put up for adoption to two school teachers," Anaida said. "He's been working his entire life. His family has worked so hard and they lived paycheque to paycheque."
She added that she and her husband worked hard to get where they are and that "nothing was handed" to them.
"Leadership is born from true love for our country, from true patriotism," Anaida said. "It is not born from the boardroom of the elite. It is not born from fancy degrees and fancy titles. The opposition looks down on my husband because he spent most of his life right here at home fighting for us."
The crowd erupted into a loud cheer and applause when Poilievre took the stage.
Poilievre shared many of his campaign promises, such as his plan to axe the carbon tax and jail violent repeat offenders.
He called out Liberal Party Leader Carney for cancelling carbon tax. "He's going to make it disappear in the pumps for the 30 days leading up to the election, so that Canadians will forget that there is a carbon tax until they go and vote," he said. "If God forbid, they (Liberals) get back in, Carney will bring in a bigger, leaner, heavier carbon tax than ever before, with no rebate."
He also spoke about the Tax-Free Savings account top-up he announced earlier in Coquitlam.
"We're going to keep the existing TFSA the same as it is. You'll keep being able to contribute $7,000 a year, but on top of that, our government will let you contribute an additional $5000 as long as all of that extra money goes to Canadian companies," he said. "We're going to reward the hard-working Canadians who set aside money by investing in Canadian companies."
Poilievre said he would also cut back on foreign aid and direct that money into the military.
"We're going to rebuild Canada's armed forces...and fulfill our allotment, expanding our numbers in both the regular forces and the reserves, we will put money into buying four powerful, massive Arctic icebreakers," he said. "We will double the size of the 1 Canadian Ranger Patrol and we will build the first post-Cold War Arctic base in Canada."
He also spoke about his plan to tackle the toxic drug crisis.
"We're going to ban the drugs. We're going to stop giving out tax-funded opioids," he said. The government will instead focus on investing money into treatment and rehabilitation. "So that we can help people who are addicted, cleanse their bodies of these poisons, through detox, counselling, group therapy, physical exercise, yoga, sweat lodges for First Nations, transitioning into housing and a job."
"The message that I have for anyone out there that might be suffering with addiction, have hope, hang on, hope is on the way."
He is scheduled to hold a press conference in Nanaimo on Friday (March 28), and his next Canada First rally is on Saturday (March 29) in Winnipeg.
News media were not allowed to interview Poilievre at the rally.
-With files from Tom Zillich
