Pierre Poilievre’s Active Night in Alberta’s Candidature Forum

On a bright Tuesday evening in July, Pierre Poilievre, representing the Conservative Party, was warmly received by several hundreds of attendees from Alberta during a political debate lasting over two hours. The candidature forum was organized by the Camrose and District Chamber of Commerce, putting spotlight on 10 contenders aspiring to represent Battle River-Crowfoot during the byelections scheduled for August 18th.

‘The purpose of my presence here is to provide a national direction to locally significant issues’, Poilievre communicated to the eager audience. The Conservative party’s headship is largely anticipated to secure a victory in the vast eastern Alberta district, which is envisaged to be one of the safe Tory seats nationally.

In the legislative elections held in April, Damien Kurek successfully secured more than 82% of the votes for their party. However, Kurek resigned, freeing up the seat for Poilievre, who had previously lost his seat in the Carleton district of Ottawa, providing him another shot at entering the House of Commons in the fall season.

A league of Poilievre’s supporters had gathered outside the venue much before commencement, several of them displaying placards featuring his name. Once inside, the visual displays in support had to be removed. The debate was run on a tightly kept schedule, with the moderator ensuring no candidates usurped more time than allotted by promptly shutting off the microphones.

The questions fielded during the event covered a wide range of topics including economic affairs, proposed privatization of healthcare, restructuring the election process and immigration policies. Detractors took note of Poilievre for not being a resident in the district he was aiming to represent, insinuating this was merely a step to further his political ambitions.

Several times during the discussion, other candidates shared the stage targeting Poilievre with their verbal barbs. Surprisingly, there was noticeable consensus among the candidates when the discourse veered towards immigration. All agreed on the historically vital role of immigration but stressed the current necessity for Canada to restrain the influx of migrants.

We need to ensure a higher count of people leaving as compared to incoming in the next couple of years, in order to control our population size’, Poilievre articulated.