Pierre Poilievre makes 1st visit to the Yukon as Conservative leader

Pierre Poilievregot the rock star treatment during his first visit to the Yukon as federal Conservative leader.

Hundreds turned out for a rally at the Mount McIntyre Recreation Centre in Whitehorse on Friday as the Opposition leaderrailed against Justin Trudeau's Liberal government, pledged to repeal carbon pricing and build thousands of homes across the country.

Poilievre spent the afternoon before the rally talking to workers at a Whitehorse-based construction company. He's still setting his sights on the carbon tax, saying it's a burden especially in rural areas where driving distances are longer and people still rely ongas and diesel.

"We have to axe the tax," he said. "I just spoke to a grocer from Dawson City and he had to ship his food from Edmonton. There was a 94-per cent fuel excise tax that applied to the shipping bill he got."

Poilievre also hammered the Liberal government over the national housing shortage. The Conservative leader promised a mix of carrots and sticks to push municipalities to approve housing projects more quickly.

"Big cities will be subject to fines if they block housing construction and failto meet building targets," he said during an interview with CBC Yukon, reiterating a promise to sell off federal buildings and Crown land to use for housing.

"The smaller towns will not face those fines, but they will be eligible for building bonuses. So if, for example, ifWhitehorse was able to boost its annual housing completions by more than 15 per cent, I'd give them a big fat bonus from Ottawa."

Poilievrealso slammed Liberal gun control policies as several people in the crowd held up signs saying "Protect hunters."

The agenda appeared to land with some of the Conservative faithful at theWhitehorse rally.Bronwyn Doyle just moved back to the Yukon after eight years in Alberta.

"The atmosphere, the feeling, it was jovial, it was light," she said. "Everyone was in good spirits."

Chris Vainio said he was there to hear ideas and said she wasn't disappointed.

"I know I'm not the only one here that maybe learned something or maybe came away with questions and maybe agreed with some things and maybe didn't agree with others" he said.

One subject Poilievre did not touch on during his speech was the Conservative Party's endorsement earlier this month of a resolution aimed at banning gender-affirming care for youth.

About 69 per cent of party delegates agreed that young peopleshould be barred from gender-affirming care, which sometimes includes hormone-related treatments that delay puberty or promote the development of masculine or feminine sex characteristics.

Poilievre declined to answer repeated questions from CBC News about whether he supports that policy.

Conservative Leader swats away question about party policy on gender-affirming care

1 year ago

Duration 1:57

During a rally in Whitehorse, Pierre Poilievre declined to answer questions from CBC News about whether he supports the policy.

"I'm taking the opportunity to tell you to stop spreading disinformation because that's why so many people have lost faith in CBC, because you spread disinformation to help Justin Trudeau with his agenda rather than informing people of the facts,"Poilievre said.

Asked again if he supported the policy as passed by his party, a party staffer ended the interview.