COLUMN: On Parliament Hill – Common sense solutions

After nine years of Justin Trudeau, life has never been so hard for working Canadians.

Canadian living standards are in sharp decline after Trudeau made it difficult to do business and earn powerful paycheques.

The Liberal-NDP coalition has driven up the cost of everything with their inflationary taxes and continue to keep pressure on higher interest rates with their reckless inflationary spending.

That’s why common sense Conservatives have been fighting hard in Parliament, holding the Liberal-NDP coalition accountable until a Conservative government can bring common sense to Ottawa.

I often get asked by folks, what are Conservatives doing for us in Ottawa? Well, here’s a taste of what Conservatives have accomplished since January.

Conservatives have four main priorities; axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget, stop the crime. We believe these four things best represent the priorities of Canadians from coast to coast.

To that end, this session Conservatives have opposed Justin Trudeau’s inflation-driving carbon tax at every turn.

We forced Trudeau and the Liberals to reveal their own secret parliamentary budget report which proved the carbon tax is hurting Canadians.

We opposed the inflationary taxes that increase the cost of everything by forcing multiple votes on their April 1 carbon tax hike.

We forced a non-confidence vote on the carbon tax to allow Canadians to vote in a carbon tax election.

We called for called for a summer tax break, axing the carbon tax, the federal fuel tax, and the GST on gasoline and diesel until Labour Day.

We fought to pass Bill C-234 in its original form to axe the carbon tax for Canadian farmers.

We introduced Bill C-396 to remove the GST from the carbon tax.

We called for a pause on the carbon tax on home heating.

We got the House together to call on Justin Trudeau to convene an emergency carbon tax meeting with all 14 first ministers.

Only a Conservative government will axe the tax.

Conservatives have also offered common sense solutions to end the housing crisis.

Conservatives have advocated firing the government gatekeepers who keep new homes from getting built affordably (or in some cases getting built at all) with their endless red tape and exorbitant fees. We proposed penalizing municipalities that do not get homes built and a building bonus for those who do.

The Liberals are also trying to take our commonsense idea of using federal land for housing.

We also forced a vote on Bill C-356, the Building Homes, Not Bureaucracy Act which would get homes built faster (sadly this too was defeated by the NDP-Liberal costly coalition).

We’ve proposed numerous bills and ideas to fix the budget.

Conservatives have highlighted the inflationary spending in the Liberal-NDP budget and demanded a path back to balance to bring down inflation and interest rates sooner.

We’ve opposed Justin Trudeau’s agenda of economic vandalism at every opportunity, including fighting back against the latest Liberal tax on doctors, homebuilders, plumbers and small business owners.

Conservatives were successful in passing Bill C-241 at third reading to allow tradespeople to deduct travel expenses.

We have also conducted numerous investigations into the myriad of Liberal scandals and demanded the Trudeau Government ensure taxpayers are repaid all funds paid to ArriveCan contractors and subcontractors who did no work.

We have also announced that within 60 days of our election, Pierre Poilievre will name a Tax Reform Task Force of entrepreneurs, inventors, farmers, and workers to design a Bring it Home Tax Cut that will allow workers to bring home more of each dollar they earn to reward work and cutting the paperwork and bureaucracy in the tax system by at least 20 percent.

Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh also continue to ignore the crime and chaos in our streets, letting dangerous, repeat, violent offenders out on bail and funding dangerous drugs with taxpayer dollars.

Conservatives stood up for law-abiding Canadians who are tired of chaos and crime and called for an end to the government’s taxpayer-funded dangerous drugs regime, forcing them to stop their policy of legalizing hard drugs in B.C.

We proposed concrete measures to address the auto theft crisis that’s being caused by Liberal-NDP soft-on-crime policies.

We passed Bill C-270 at second reading to end internet sexual exploitation, Bill C-320 at third reading to promote transparency and rights for victims of violent crime, and Bill C-321 (at third reading) to support and protect first responders and health care workers who face violence while serving our communities.

Conservatives introduced numerous bills to ensure tougher sentences for criminals.

Bill C-379 to seek tougher penalties for repeat car thieves.

Bill C-381 to protect Canadians from becoming victims of extortion.

Bill C-351 to keep serial killers in maximum security prison.

Bill C-376, which prohibits violent criminals from owning weapons.

Bill C-370 to protect victims of serious crimes.

Bill C-364 to enact harsher penalties for perpetrators of rural crime.

On top of that, Conservatives have exposed historic corruption at Trudeau’s Green Slush Fund, on the ArriveScam app, and in government contracts with their friends at McKinsey.

We are exposing and holding this failed and corrupt government accountable at every turn.

Life wasn’t so hard before Justin Trudeau, and it won’t be this hard after he’s gone.

Only common sense Conservatives will continue to fight for Canadians by axing the tax, building the homes, fixing the budget and stopping the crime.