Labour group president brands Poilievre a 'fraud' and 'ideologue'

The president of Canada’s largest labour group has branded Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre a “fraud.”

Bea Bruske, who leads the Canadian Labour Congress, said in a speech in Ottawa today that Poilievre has a “20-year-track record” of “voting against rights and benefits and decent wage increases for workers.”

Both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh are set to address the delegates today, but Poilievre has not been invited.

In a statement sent to NowMedia, a spokesman for Poilievre said Canadian workers "have never been worse off" than they are under the "Liberal-NDP government" and insisted that "only common sense Conservatives will stand up for Canadian workers."

But in her speech Bruske, who ran in Manitoba as an NDP candidate in 2019, said workers "must be under no illusions" about Poilievre.

"We must do everything in our power to expose Mr. Pierre Poilievre for the fraud that he is," she said.

She also accused Poilievre of staying silent during “union-busting acts” in Alberta.

“Mr. Poilievre, he talks so much about gatekeepers, but he failed to stand up to union-busting gatekeepers like Danielle Smith,” Bruske said.

She added that Poilievre is an “ideologue” who will make Canadian workers feel “less safe and have fewer protections."

Her remarks come as Poilievre remains – according to all major national polls – the clear favourite to become the next prime minister.

He has focused much of his campaign on affordability, bashing the carbon tax, cost-of-living crisis and high housing costs.

After the Trudeau government unveiled its 2024 Budget earlier this week, Poilievre said the financial plan was “like a pyromaniac spraying gas on the inflationary fire that he lit.”

"After nine years of Justin Trudeau’s inflationary deficits and punishing taxes, Canadian workers have never been worse off," Poilievre's spokesman said in response to Bruske's comments today.

"Under his Liberal-NDP government, work doesn’t pay and thousands of hard working union members can’t afford to put food on the table or a place to live."

He added: "While Jagmeet Singh has sold out working Canadians secure his own pension and a spot in Justin Trudeau’s government, Pierre Poilievre is the one listening and speaking to workers on shop floors and in union halls from coast to coast to coast.

"Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh have abandoned working Canadians. Only common sense Conservatives will stand up for Canadian workers and bring home the lower prices and powerful paychecks that they deserve."