Poilievre talks crime as tariffs upend campaign

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OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre tried to shift the focus to his preferred terrain of law and order Friday, with imminent tariffs on Canada’s auto sector still dominating the headlines.

Poilievre announced Friday morning a Conservative government would hand down life sentences to the most egregious human traffickers and gun smugglers.

“I will always put (the) public safety of Canadians first, and ensure that these monsters rot in jail forever,” said Poilievre in a video announcement posted to social media.

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Poilievre said anyone convicted five or more counts of human trafficking, or of importing or exporting 10 or more illegal firearms, will get an automatic life sentence if he becomes prime minister.

He also repeated a previously announced promise to bring in automatic life sentences for anyone convicted of trafficking, producing or exporting more than 40 milligrams of fentanyl.

The Conservative leader is clearly hoping his tough-on-crime message lands in the seat-rich Greater Toronto Area, as the video weaves in crime clippings from the Southern Ontario commuter cities of Barrie and Markham.

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Studies show violent crime is on the rise in urban centres across Canada, and has risen especially sharply in the outskirts of Toronto.

A report on urban crime released in September by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute found violent crimes such as sexual assault have seen double-digit increases in the Toronto-adjacent York and Peel regions since the mid-2010s.

The Conservative leader’s GTA-tailored anti-crime agenda would be a slam dunk under normal circumstances.

But U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to tank Ontario’s auto sector makes the current federal campaign anything but normal.

Trump said on Wednesday he was imposing 25 per cent tariffs on all auto imports, including imports from Canada.

The tariffs, slated to come into effect in less than a week, could affect more than 100,000 jobs in Ontario’s auto assembly and parts manufacturing sectors.

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Liberal Leader Mark Carney was quick to get ahead of the tariff bombshell, announcing a $2 billion auto workers‘ fund in a Wednesday morning appearance in Windsor, Ont.

A defiant Carney later told Trump, “We won’t back down. We will respond forcefully. Nothing is off the table to defend our workers and our country.”

Polls show Trump’s tariff threats have grabbed the public’s attention heading into the April 27 federal election.

A March 24 Leger study, for example, found that the U.S. tariffs are the number one issue for a third of voters, with just two per cent combined saying crime and the opioid crisis were the election’s top issue.

Poilievre’s unwillingness to pivot from his pre-planned campaign messaging is a source of frustration for some of his fellow conservatives.

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Conservative strategist Kory Teneycke said earlier this week he thinks Poilievre should throw out the old script if he wants to have any hope of winning the election.

“I’ll make the case tonight and hopefully this will permeate the Conservative party war room somewhere — you’ve got to get on the f–king ballot question that is driving votes or you are going to lose,” Teneycke said in remarks to Toronto’s Empire club on Wednesday.

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