New Delhi: Canadian Leader of Opposition Pierre Poilievre Saturday deplored the hostility shown to Indian diplomats at public events in the country, calling it “totally unacceptable” and vowed to repair ties with New Delhi in an interview with Namaste Radio Toronto, a station that focuses on the Nepalese community in Canada. Poilievre also called for charges against those who target Hindu temples or templegoers in Canada.
His comments came in the backdrop of an escalating diplomatic row between India and Canada. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused India last week of breaching ‘International law and the Vienna Convention’ by seeking parity in the strength and rank of Canada’s diplomatic presence in India. Trudeau, Poilievre told the radio station, is “not worth the cost” of housing and mortgages after having been in power for eight years.
Here’s a complete transcript of Pierre Poilievre’s interview with Namaste Radio Toronto:
Interviewer: Namaste! Good morning. We’re here for a one-on-one interview right now. For this session, our guest is the honourable MP Pierre Poilievre. He will interact with us in an exclusive interview. Thank you to all the viewers who are watching us on our Facebook and our radio and also the listeners too. So today we have a guest here – Honourable Pierre Poilievre, who is also the candidate, opposition leader, and party leader of Conservative Party of Canada. Welcome and thank you for providing the exclusive interview to Namaste Radio one-to-one.
Pierre Poilievre: Namaste and thank you very much. Happy Dasain.
Interviewer: Dear viewers, as you can see, Mr Poilievre has shared his wishes for Dasain. We are (here) on the occasion of Dasain, and we’re having the discussion on the occasion. So I’m going to start a few questions regarding (sic). As you already mentioned today, Tuesday is the major day of the Nepali or Hindu. We’re celebrating Dasain but we already started Dasain festival. My question to you – you must be familiar of the vandalising of a Hindu temple and Hinduphobia. So what you have you stand to support the Hindu or the people who follow the religion (sic).
Pierre Poilievre: Well, conservatives share the Hindu values of faith, family and freedom. Freedom includes the ability to worship without fear or without vandalisation. And I strongly condemn all of the attacks on Hindu mandirs (temples), the threats against Hindu leaders, the aggression shown to, for example, Indian diplomats at public events is totally unacceptable and I will continue to oppose it. I think there should be criminal charges laid against anyone who attacks either the property or people at Hindu mandirs, just like anywhere else. I also believe we need to reinforce the security infrastructure programme that will allow temples, gurudwaras, mosques, synagogues, churches and anyone else to add more security whether it’s fencing, security guards, video cameras so that we protect our places of worship against violence and vandalism.
Interviewer: Thank you for standing together with us. Another question – regarding what you just mentioned about India, regarding the Canada – India relationship is getting (into) a bitter situation right now as the diplomats of Canada have to leave the country from India. So what is your stand and the Conservative Party (inaudible) stance on that relationship? [sic]
Pierre Poilievre: Well, this is another example of how Justin Trudeau is not worth the cost. After eight long years, he’s turned Canadians against each other at home and he’s blown up our relations abroad. He is so incompetent and unprofessional that now we are in major disputes with almost every major power in the world, and that includes India. We need a professional relationship with the Indian government. India is the largest democracy on Earth. And it’s fine to have our disagreements and to hold each other accountable, but we have to have a professional relationship and that is what I will restore when I’m Prime Minister of this country.
Interviewer: Thank you for doing that. And at the same time – I have a quick question, Sir. We have been especially the Nepali diaspora, the Nepalese speaking diaspora throughout Canada has been lobbying to have a visa and trade office in Kathmandu, Nepal. And if you become a Prime Minister, what will be your stand on that one?
Pierre Poilievre: I think there’s a good argument to make for having a visa office there that would allow for ease of applications to bring loved ones here, to bring business travellers from Nepal who would come to Canada and build our commercial ties. We have a growing community who would benefit from that here, but also could be a good opportunity for our economy to expand its exports into Nepal. And so I don’t want to make promises until I’m 100 percent sure I can keep them but it’s something that I’m very much interested in.
Interviewer: Given the situation right now, what happens [sic] to Canada Nepal relationship sorry Canada – India relationship, if the visa office was established in Nepal, it would be more helpful with people you know, especially the students they desperately want to come to have good education, being delayed over there [sic].
And also you know Nepal being an independent and sovereign country they were never ruled by anyone and they don’t have their own visa office because Canada, we [Canada] open our embassy in 2008 [sic]. The ripple or diplomatic relations should be done before and so you know, if you take our world and think about it, you know, if you become or at least this situation, if you can lobby for us, will be better for the Nepalese diaspora.
Pierre Poilievre: That makes sense. That makes sense. And we need better services, I mean. After eight years of Trudeau, the visa system is grinding to a halt. Is so slow, we just have the Auditor General slap down the Trudeau government for the delays in processing permanent residency applications. People are exhausted with all of the endless waiting and waiting and waiting. We’ve got to speed it up, get it done. And that’s what a common sense Conservative government will do.
Interviewer: Thank you for that question. I have one more question regarding what’s happening in the world, you are aware of it. So what is your view on the foreign relations, especially Canada’s role as a G7 nation and standing on the world stage with respect to the other countries? [sic]
Pierre Poilievre: Well, after eight years of Trudeau, our reputation is in tatters. Beijing is interfering in our country, openly running police stations in Canada to abuse our people. Justin Trudeau is considered a laughing stock in India, the world’s biggest democracy. President Biden is walking all over Trudeau and treating him like a doormat and slapping him around like a rag doll. We haven’t been able to get our softwood lumber deal in eight years, exemption to buy America or the Keystone pipeline approved and none of the major economic goals that we have with the United States have we achieved anything under eight years of Justin Trudeau.
Then you have his incredible embarrassment where he brought a Nazi to the parliament to be recognised when the Ukraine president was in our chamber. Everyday, in every way, Justin Trudeau is an embarrassment. He’s an embarrassment to Canada and to all Canadians, and we can’t keep him as Prime Minister.
Interviewer: Yes indeed. And so given the situation on October 25th, the mortgage rate might be higher if it’s going up then you have seen lots of people have turned out their home, you know they can’t afford the mortgage. So on that, what the party or your stand will be for the people of Canada? [sic]
Pierre Poilievre: Well, after eight years of Justin Trudeau, he’s not worth the cost of housing and mortgages. You know, he printed $600 billion of cash, which inflated our housing market. Housing costs have doubled under Trudeau. Then he said don’t worry, take out a big mortgage. Debt is consequence free because interest rates are low. So what? Canadians believed him. They took out $1,000,000 mortgages to buy overpriced houses. And then all of a sudden, surprise, rates are now rising faster than at any time in monetary history. I met a guy in Vancouver whose mortgage payment has gone up to $7500 a month? He’s a shipyard worker. He’s not a doctor or a CEO. He’s a shipyard worker. He’s paying $7500 a month. How is that even possible, this is, you know, it’s like it’s $90,000 a year in mortgage payments. And by the way, two-third of his payment is interest. He’s not even paying down the mortgage at a rapid rate. Twenty percent of mortgages today are a net negative amortisation. That means that people are not even paying off the interest. Every month their mortgage gets bigger and when they renew, they’re going to go bankrupt.
So my common sense plan is to cap government spending and cut government waste so we can balance the budget and bring interest rates down. That is the only way Canadians will save their homes or have any hope of buying homes. That’s common sense. Now let’s bring it home.
Interviewer: I thank you for, you know, approaching the immigrants or the ethnic communities or ethnic media [sic]. I really appreciate that one. Why should, as a leader of a Conservative party, why should the ethnic or small individual minority or the immigrant community need to vote for Conservative in an upcoming election?
Pierre Poilievre: Because Canada’s common sense conservatives share the immigrant values of faith, family and freedom. Faith, family, freedom. And what we’re going to do is bring home the Canada that immigrants dreamed of. My wife came here as a refugee for the chance, her family just wanted the chance to work hard and earn a beautiful life. But that’s not possible after eight years of Trudeau, who’s not worth the cost. What I will do is bring home lower prices by axing the carbon tax. That will push down gas, heat and grocery bills. By balancing the budget to reduce interest rates and inflation.
I’ll bring home powerful paychecks with lower income taxes that reward hard work and with a Blue Seal exam that allows immigrant professionals to prove they are qualified. Get licensed to work as doctors, nurses, engineers and other high paid professionals. We’ll bring homes people can afford. By requiring our municipalities permit 15 percent more home building per year. Or they will lose their federal money. But if they beat the target, they’ll get a building bonus.
Interviewer: True.
Pierre Poilievre: We’re also going to require every federally funded transit station be permitted for high density apartments all around so our newcomers can live right next to the bus or train. We’re going to sell off 6000 federal buildings, thousands of acres of federal land to build, build, build, build, build millions of new homes for our newcomers to enjoy. And we’re going to bring home safety. People are afraid.
The crime and chaos that Justin Trudeau has brought is terrifying. Many immigrants say they feel more danger here than they did in their home country. So my common sense plan is jail. Not bail. Jail not bail for repeat violent criminals. Treatment, not decriminalise crack, for our addicts to bring them home drug free. And we’re going to seal the borders to keep out drugs and guns rather than harassing lawful licenced hunters and sport shooters.
It’s common sense. Makes sense. Let’s bring it home.
Interviewer: Okay. Few questions is left. So as a Canada standing you know trying to negotiate with the two world (inaudible) war countries like Russia-Ukraine or Israel-Palestine they’re trying to do the ceasefire. Your stand as opposition leader will be the same as a ceasefire? The Prime Minister hasn’t opened up to talk about the ceasefire with Israel and Palestine right now. What will be your stance on that? [sic]
Pierre Poilievre: Well, we have to destroy Hamas. Hamas is a genocidal death cult and as long as Hamas is in power in Gaza. The conflict will never end.
My goal is to protect all innocent life because all of it is equally precious, whether Palestinian or Israeli. To do that, we need to defeat Hamas. Make sure there’s enough aid and relief for the Palestinian civilians. And once we defeat Hamas, Israel should continue to work towards peace with the Arab nations as it did with UAE, Bahrain also with not an Arab country but and as in country Morocco [sic], let’s try to get, let’s hope that those Accords could be extended to Saudi Arabia and and the goal has to be a two state solution. You have Palestinian democracy living in harmony with a Jewish state in Israel. That is the destination to which we must all work to reach.
Interviewer: Thank you, Honourable Pierre Poilievre, thank you for this exclusive interview one to one with us Namaste Radio, and thank you for being with us and also we wish you happy Dasain and we also wish you prosperity and a successful life ahead.
Pierre Poilievre: Thank you, Namaste, and thank you to all of your wonderful listeners. Thank you.
Interviewer: Thank you. That’s good as of late.