BURST
New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh and Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre made campaign stops Saturday in B.C.’s Lower Mainland battleground.
Before taking part in Canada’s largest Vaisakhi parade in Surrey, which drew about 500,000 people last year, Singh pledged to guarantee access to a family doctor by 2030 and launch universal pharmacare, securing free diabetes medication and birth control to every province and territory by year’s end.
He added that the NDP would bring in national rent control and cap prices on grocery essentials like pasta, frozen vegetables, and infant formula — and eliminate the GST from basics like home heating, diapers, and internet.
To fund these investments, the NDP would end fossil fuel subsidies, close corporate loopholes, and crack down on tax havens. The plan introduces a one to three per cent wealth tax on fortunes over $10 million and a two per cent surtax on corporate profits.
“(Liberal leader) Mark Carney gave millionaires a tax break — and if New Democrats aren’t there to remind him to think about working people, he’ll forget,” said Singh.
Saturday marked the second day of advance polling in B.C.
Poilievre was in Richmond to announce that a Conservative government would give judges the power to sentence drug addicted offenders into mandatory treatment.
“Richmond has been particularly hard hit, and I’m very thankful to the Chinese community in Richmond for being the leading voice against these radical drug liberalization policies of the last decade,” he said Saturday.
“There’s nothing compassionate about giving taxpayer-funded hard drugs that ultimately get resold to buy fentanyl, heroin, crack and worse.”
He said possession would remain a crime, but the government would allow judges to order treatment as an alternative to prison when the offender’s crime involves small quantities of drugs for their own use, or other minor non-violent offences.
“When someone is too sick to choose help, we won’t leave them without hope. We will help them take back control of their lives.”
For more serious offenders, a Conservative government would ensure that serious fentanyl traffickers are sentenced to life in prison, he added.
“I’m going to lock up fentanyl traffickers for life. They will never get out of jail. They will come out in a box,” he said.
He also pledged to require rehabilitation, so more serious offenders struggling with addiction can participate in evidence-based therapeutic programs in prison, where such treatment is available.
He said Tories would pay for 50,000 more treatment beds, end safe supply, and shut down safe drug injection sites.
“We will shut down those centres. We’ll ban taxpayer-funded hard drugs and redirect those funds to real treatment detox rehabilitation and recovery houses,” he said.
“If you profit off the suffering of others, a Conservative government will make sure you pay the highest price,” he said.
He said over the last decade thousands of people have lost their lives to the opioid drugs, and blamed the Liberal government.
Carney was in Whitby, Ont., Saturday, where he announced that a Liberal government would spend $130 billion on new measures over the next four years, including more military spending to prepare against U.S. President Donald Trump’s annexation threats.
He said that, while he was ready for a multi-year trade war, he didn’t want tariffs to be in place any longer than they had to be.
“We don’t want to rely on those tariff revenues… so we concentrate them today and will deal with them tomorrow,” Carney said.
The Liberal platform gives no timeline for a return to balance but says that the operating budget, which accounts for more than 95 per cent of federal spending, will see a modest surplus of $220 million by the 2028-9 fiscal year.
Advance polled opened Friday and are open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday, Sunday and Monday over the Easter long weekend. Voting day is April 28.
With files from The National Post