One thing is clear, after nearly ten years of Liberal Government, led by Justin Trudeau and supported by people like our newly-sworn-in Prime Minister, Mark Carney: Canada needs stronger ethics laws to create Government that works for Canadians, not just for well-connected elites.
For much of the time I’ve had the honour of serving as your Member of Parliament, I sat on the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics. I witnessed loopholes get exploited for the personal gain of the well-connected… like Justin Trudeau and a number of his cabinet Ministers, being found guilty of ethics violations. I fought then and fight now for accountability and good governance. But one thing is clear: The Liberals don’t want to fix these loopholes.
Justin Trudeau already has countless scandals that we know of, and the rest of his caucus just followed in his footsteps—remember “The Other Randy” scandal just this past summer? The Green Slush Fund documents? And that time an interim ethics commissioner was appointed, and she turned out to be the sister-in-law of a cabinet minister? It’s clear the Liberals have set a terrible precedent for ethical governing, and the new unelected Liberal Prime Minister doesn’t even want to try to turn that around.
Mark Carney sneakily exploited a loophole in the Conflict of Interest Act and refused to disclose his finances and assets to Canadians. This loophole allowed him to become Prime Minister for up to four months without ever having to tell Canadians about his financial interests, even though they may oppose the interests of working Canadians.
This raises a lot of questions. How can Canadians trust him? How can Mr. Carney properly negotiate with the United States if he still has shares in a U.S.-headquartered company? How can he support Canadian energy when it will compete with his foreign energy interests? How can he save jobs if one of his own companies is laying off workers to pay out shareholders? And those are just a few examples.
Canadians deserve to know whether their Prime Minister is working for the best interests of the country or for their own personal gain.
Within just a few days of winning the Liberal Leadership Race, Carney’s numerous conflicts of interest have become apparent. Carney supported Justin Trudeau’s decision to kill Canadian pipeline projects while he sneakily invested in pipelines in Latin America and the Middle East. Carney also decided to move his company’s headquarters and Canadian jobs to Donald Trump’s hometown of New York City just six days after the US administration first threatened unjustified tariffs on Canada. He even let one of his companies fire 1,000 workers to boost shareholder profits while he was waxing lyrical about saving Canadian jobs.
Pierre Poilievre and Canada First Conservatives are committed to closing this loophole that allows conflicts of interest when running for office. We will amend the Conflict of Interest Act so that all party leadership candidates of any national party must disclose their financial holdings to the Ethics Commissioner within 30 days of becoming a candidate and make them publicly available to Canadians within 60 days. We will also require all future Prime Ministers and Ministers to sell assets that create conflicts of interest to stop politicians from ever using political office for their own benefit.
Conservatives will end the Carney Loophole. We will put Canadians back in charge of their Government. We will ensure that our leaders work for you, not for themselves.
Canada first. Canada always. As your representative, I will continue to work for this, for the benefit of our region of Battle River—Crowfoot, and for the country. Only Conservatives will make sure our leaders put Canada First. Let’s bring home accountability.