Lewis, Poilievre, Charest trade shots on trucker convoy, abortion issues
OTTAWA — What was supposed to be a friendly debate between contenders for the leadership of the federal Conservatives ended up in fiery exchanges over the trucker convoy and the abortion issue.
Pierre Poilievre, Leslyn Lewis, Jean Charest, Scott Aitchison and Roman Baber were reunited on the same Ottawa stage Thursday as part of the event hosted by the Canada Strong and Free Network, an organization started by the founder of the Reform Party Preston Manning.
Only candidate Patrick Brown was absent. His team said he was busy selling memberships before the June 3 deadline.
Lewis, an Ontario MP, wasted no time in confronting fellow MP Poilievre about his support for the truckers who occupied Ottawa for three weeks this past winter, which she said came too late.
Responding to a question on whether the Conservatives stood up for freedom enough during the pandemic, Poilievre began by saying, “Well, I did stand up for freedom during the pandemic from the very beginning ... I was among one of the loudest voices.”
He was quickly cut off by Lewis, who swore it was not true and that he was “not one of the loudest voices.”
“You did not even go to the trucker protests. You actually went and you took a picture in your neighbourhood, at a local stop. You did not speak up for the truckers,” she said.
Charest was the first to get booed when he accused Poilievre of “supporting the illegal blockades” in Ottawa earlier this year.
Charest has said in previous interviews that the rule of law “is not a buffet” that Canadian parliamentarians can pick and choose from, targeting specifically Poilievre.
“The average trucker has more integrity in his pinky finger than you had in your entire scandal-plagued Liberal cabinet,” shot back Poilievre.
The two other contenders, Aitchison and Baber, tried to intervene to restore peace.
“I actually like all these people,” said Aitchison, pointing to his colleagues. “They're good folks. And here we are calling each other names.”
“Here again, we're politicizing the issue instead of talking about the underlying issue, which is making people do something against their will,” lamented Baber, referring to COVID-19 vaccination.
Throughout the evening, Poilievre consistently accused Charest of being a “Liberal,” a label he's tried to affix to the former Quebec premier since the beginning of the race.
Lewis also went after Poilievre on the abortion issue, which has been making headlines for days. He has until now only said that a Poilievre government would not “introduce or pass any laws restricting abortion.”
“Pierre Poilievre has run from some of the media the last few days because he doesn't want to be clear whether he's pro-life or prochoice,” said Lewis.