TORONTO — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he will release his party’s election platform Tuesday, making the Conservatives the last of the major parties to reveal detailed spending plans.
The Conservatives say their costed platform will be unveiled after advance polls close on Monday, prompting Liberal Leader Mark Carney to accuse Poilievre of “hiding” his full plan.
Poilievre was asked about the timing of his platform Monday morning at a news conference in the Greater Toronto Area, after he outlined a campaign promise to build 2.3 million new homes in five years.
“Tomorrow, we’ll have a platform for all eyes to see which will bring change to Canada,” Poilievre told reporters. He used the opportunity to take shots at the Liberal platform, which he called “crazy and costly.”
The Liberals and New Democrats released their costed platforms over the weekend. The Liberal plan, out Saturday, includes $130 billion in new spending over four years. Poilievre said that level of spending would drive up the cost of living and “risk the very stability of our economy.”
“Many have been concerned that Mr. Carney would be just as bad as (former prime minister Justin) Trudeau. On Saturday, we learned he will cost even more,” Poilievre said. “You will have the same costly, reckless results if you give Justin Trudeau and the Liberals a fourth term in the face of Mark Carney.”
Speaking to reporters in Charlottetown on Monday, Carney defended his platform as a plan to get government spending under control and accused Poilievre of hiding his own plans.
The Liberals attacked Poilievre’s spending plans over the weekend, claiming his campaign promises add up to $140 billion in new spending over four years. They said he would have to make cuts worth $140 billion to fulfil his promise to find a dollar in savings for every dollar in new spending.
“Cutting to the core of institutions, cutting to the vulnerable, cutting to all Canadians at any time, let alone in a crisis, is not the way you get out of a crisis,” Carney said. “It’s not the right approach.”
Poilievre dismissed the $140-billion spending estimate, rejecting the claim as “Liberal math.” He said his government would cut $10 billion from the amount the government spends on consultants and would also cut spending on foreign aid and the bureaucracy. He also said a Conservative government would generate $70 billion in new revenue by “unlocking the power of our resource sector and stimulating economic growth.”
He said the Conservatives’ plan to cut the GST on new homes sold for less than $1.3 million would add 36,000 homes per year to the 245,000 homes currently being built in Canada each year. The party calculates that encouraging cities to cut development fees would add a further 25,000 homes per year, for a total of 306,000 housing starts in the first year of a Conservative government.
The Conservative platform would also tie municipalities’ federal infrastructure funding to their pace of home construction approvals -- cities that approve 15 per cent more housing each year would get full funding, while cities that approve fewer homes would collect less.
The party has estimated that would lead to 535,000 new homes in the fifth year of its plan.
Poilievre is also promising to identify 15 per cent of federal land within the first 100 days of a Conservative government to be sold off for home building. The Conservative leader cited a Globe and Mail report from last year that found 288,000 housing units could be built on underused federal land.
The party has added that number to the annual housing start figures to reach a total of 2.3 million new homes.
“The good news is we don’t have to choose a costly fourth Liberal term of failure,” Poilievre said. “We have a chance for change and hope that home ownership will be restored.”
Later in the day Poilievre attended a town hall hosted by the Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP), a nonprofit and non-partisan senior advocacy organization with some 300,000 members.
The event was held at ZoomerPlex, the home of many of Zoom Media’s outlets, which is owned by Moses Znaimer -- who is also the chairman of CARP’s board of directors.
Znaimer introduced Poilievre and while he didn’t formally endorse the Conservative leader, some attendees felt the event was too partisan for what was billed as a non-partisan forum.
Among them was Barry Weisleder, an attendee who already voted for the NDP in advanced polls but attended the event to hear Poilievre speak.
During a question-and-answer period after Poilievre’s speech, Weisleder tried to get a question to the Conservative leader, but was unable to as Zoom Media organizers had a list of people who were selected to ask questions.
One attendee stood up and insisted on asking Poilievre a question. The leader responded by saying he is happy to take questions from anyone.
Poilievre answered a question about his views on protests across Canada, with the attendee disagreeing with Poilievre’s position on those demonstrations being antisemitic.
After Poilievre responded to that question and a follow up, the event was brought to a close.
Speaking to reporters afterward, Weisleder said he thought the question-and-answer would be non partisan, but described the event as “one-sided.”
“I think it’s fair to say that the Canadian Association of Retired Persons has some explaining to do,” Weisleder said, at which point Znaimer joined into the scrum with reporters.
“Your facilitator said we’re going to hear different questions from different points of view. That did not happen.”
“Too bad,” Znaimer replied.
Asked by a reporter if CARP or Zoom Media were registered as third parties with Elections Canada, Znaimer said they were not.
“I’m just making the point that the whole mass of mainstream media has been a raid against the Conservative Party, against Poilievre. So we’re giving him a decent platform,” Znaimer said, later acknowledging he was trying to get seniors to vote Conservative.
“The point of the exercise was to contrast the appearance of Mr. Poilievre here today, with the appearance of Justin Trudeau 10 years ago. I thought it was an intriguing idea.”
“I thought the speech was amazing. I believe in democratic Canada, anyone can have an opinion, including Moses,” said Henrieta Shenderey, listening to the interaction nearby. She called the unscheduled question “an ambush.”
Gail Brown, who is an undecided voter and wanted to get a feel for Poilievre in person, also said the event felt “too polished.” She said she had mixed feelings coming out of it.
“If I hear him talk one more time about people living in a nice house in a nice community that is crime free, to me that is just a lot of fluff,” Brown told reporters.
“He was good at statistics, however, and I liked him as a person.”
CARP president Rudy Buttignol said the organization also invited the Liberal Party and the NDP to participate in a town hall event. A spokesperson for the NDP said they have no record of receiving an invitation. The Liberal Party did not immediately respond to inquires on whether it received an invite.
Speaking to reporters, Buttignol emphasized how the organization is non-partisan. Asked if the opening remarks by Znaimer and the subsequent questions to Poilievre were non-partisan enough, Buttignol said he didn’t know.
“It seemed reasonable considering who was in the house,” he said.
“When you invite somebody into your town hall, there’s always the feeling that you’re the host, they’re the guest and you be respectful of them. And I thought (Znaimer) was respectful of the person we were hosting. In this case, the leader of the Conservative Party.”
-- By Maura Forrest in Montreal and Nick Murray in Toronto
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 21, 2025.
