Poilievre’s Windsor warehouse campaign rally draws thousands

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Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre docked on Friday in his first campaign in Windsor.

Poilievre supporters are packed with people in the warehouse on Dodge Drive near Central Avenue, as politicians reiterate his strategy to promote Canadian economic activity, including reducing income tax tax by 15%, removing federal sales taxes for new Canadian cars and eliminating up to $1.3 million in federal sales tax.

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“Let’s start with the obvious fact that Donald Trump’s destructive tariffs are totally unacceptable and wrong, and we will fight them,” Poilievre said in what his party calls “Canada’s first rally.”

“We will also fight to protect workers’ work. Conservatives will build a funding to provide liquidity to manufacturers to keep paid workers paid, keep them employed and minimize disruption until we hope we can resolve this dispute.”

Poilievre said “no one can control” what the president does, and argued that liberal leader Mark Carney is magically handling Trump’s false promises in some way.

“We will work to protect our sovereignty from day one while ending tariffs, but we must focus on what this country can control.”

Poilievre said the country “cannot afford” the Liberal government during its fourth term.

“We need to change the government with a Conservative government, which will make Canada’s change number one.”

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Polievre’s speech was briefly interrupted when a woman in the crowd fainted and needed medical care. Once the medical staff leaned towards the woman, Poilievre walked down the crowd and bent down to talk to her.

A Conservative staff member told reporters that the woman was overheated but expected to be good.

Essex conservative candidate Chris Lewis came to power ahead of Poilievre’s speech. He called on supporters to volunteer, share the party’s social media posts online and vote.

Kathy Borrelli, a conservative candidate for Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore, led the crowd to sing.

There are also conservative candidates for Windsor West, Harb Gill, and conservative current candidates for Chatham.

Before the rally, a small group of protesters showed the street across the warehouse. On the way to the event, some of the rally exchanged challenges with some protesters in a tense verbal dispute before moving on.

Election Day is April 28.

tcampbell@postmedia.com

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