What would a Pierre Poilievre government mean for Montréal?

On today's episode of Metropolis we discuss what kind of policies we expect from a Pierre Poilievre led government. Host Kalden Dhatsenpa, Dru Oja Jay and new journalist and filmmaker Katherine Ottawa-Nequado discuss the policy expectations of a conservative government.

filmmaker Katherine Ottawa-Nequado discuss the policy expectations regarding immigration, housing, media, and indigenous issues. 

With Justin Trudeau resigning as the Prime minister and as the leader of the Liberal Party, all eyes are on Pierre Marcel Poilievre and the Conservative Party of Canada. 

Poilievre has been an MP since 2004 and the leader of the Conservative Party since 2022. Some say that he has brought Trump-style approaches to Canadian politics.  If elections were held today the Conservatives would win by a huge supermajority, Canada 338 is currently projecting 237 seats for the Conservatives eld by Pierre Poilievre. Well ahead of the 172 needed to form a majority. 

A majority Conservative government would represent a total break from the last 9 years of federal policy. The liberals have long touted themselves as champions of immigration. Though recently immigration targets have been reduced by 20%. Expect more of this with Pierre Poilievre. Poilievre has not been afraid to use inflammatory language when discussing issues of immigration. At one rally he said that they will "screen adequately to stop terrorists and others that are against our Canadian values from coming into our country"

The language here is very telling, it supposes a significant enough number of immigrants that are coming into Canada are actually terrorists.  Or that the risk is high because the border is too porous. This kind of rhetoric is commonplace for right-wing parties around the world. We even see some liberal and left parties begin to fall into the gravity of such rhetoric.