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KINGSTON, Ont. — Pierre Poilievre said Thursday he disagrees with calls from former Reform Party leader Preston Manning that a vote for Liberal Leader Mark Carney amounts to a “vote for Western secession.”
Manning, whom Poilievre, the federal Conservative leader, has known since his teenage years in Calgary when he become involved with the erstwhile Reform Party, penned an opinion piece in The Globe and Mail, arguing that Carney poses a threat to national unity, particularly in Western Canada, which has long been aggrieved with the policies of the Liberal government around natural resources.
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Manning wrote: “Voters, particularly in central and Atlantic Canada, need to recognize that a vote for the Carney Liberals is a vote for Western secession — a vote for the breakup of Canada as we know it.”
While campaigning at a manufacturing plant in Kingston, Poilievre was asked whether he agrees with Manning’s statement.
“No, we need to unite the country,” he told reporters. “We need to bring all Canadians together in a spirit of common ground. Let’s unite our nation because after the lost Liberal decade of blocking resource jobs, driving half-a-trillion dollars out of our economy to the U.S., taxing away our workers and selling out our country, we can’t give the Liberals a fourth term in power.”
Concerns abut Canadian sovereignty have been heighted among voters as U.S. President Donald Trump had repeatedly said he wants Canada to become the “51st state.” All federal leaders have condemned the president’s statements.
Poilievre’s comments on Thursday come as he crisscrosses the country campaigning trying to unseat the incumbent Liberals when voters go to the polls April 28.
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While outlining his plans for dealing with an unreliable U.S. trading partner, he has largely stuck to running a campaign centred on improving the cost of living and reducing crime in urban areas.
Successive polls still show the Conservatives behind the governing Liberals in key battlegrounds they must win if they hope to form government, such as the Greater Toronto Area in Ontario and British Columbia’s lower mainland, two regions where Poilievre has visited often.
He is set to host a rally in Oshawa later Thursday.
More to come.
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National Post
staylor@postmedia.com
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