What Andrew Scheer told Conservatives after Maxime Bernier’s exit

A day after MP Maxime Bernier quit the Tories to start his own party, these are Conservative leader Andrew Scheer’s remarks at his party’s policy convention in Halifax on Aug. 24.

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We are certainly one big, strong, united, national Conservative party.

And next year, we will be a strong, stable, national Conservative majority government.

Mais par-dessus tout, merci à chacun d’entre vous d’être à Halifax ce week-end.

Je sais que nombre d’entre vous avez fait un long trajet et dépensé beaucoup d’argent pour être ici.

I’ve even heard of some folks driving all the way from British Columbia.

And I want you to know how much that means to me. I’m looking out at more than 3,000 committed Conservatives—nearly 70% of whom are attending their first ever political convention.

Et je n’ai jamais été plus honoré, plus fier ou plus content de diriger ce grand parti. J’attends ce week-end depuis longtemps. Et vous aussi, je le sais.

It’s great to be among friends. To forge new relationships. To connect with fellow con-servatives you haven’t seen in years.

Especially in the middle of a gorgeous Atlantic summer in a city as beautiful and historic as Halifax.

And, indeed, we have a lot to celebrate.

We’re out-fundraising the Liberals by a margin of 2-1.

We’re nominating impressive candidates.

We’re standing up for Canadians every single day.

And we’re winning on the issues that matter to Canadians.

Nous gagnons la lutte contre la taxe sur le carbone, nous nous battons pour le libre-échange, nous soutenons une immigration légale et ordonnée, et nous défendons l’équi-libre budgétaire.

Et grâce à tout ça, nous remportons des élections à des endroits où personne ne nous donnait une chance.

In Chicoutimi-Le Fjord, we went from 16% of the vote just three years ago to 53% of the vote in June. I think even some of our Alberta MPs are jealous of that number.

We didn’t win by compromising. We didn’t win by trying to impress people who will never like us. Or by changing are or what we believe in. We won the best way there is to win.

The only way, as far as I’m concerned. We earned it. We worked harder. Our ideas were better. What I’m saying is this:

If we can win a fair fight on our principles in Chicoutimi-Le Fjord, there is nowhere in this country we can’t win!

Ce chemin a été ouvert le dix-huit juin dernier, dans Chicoutimi-Le Fjord, une circons-cription que nous avons perdu il y a vingt ans.

C’est le travail acharné de toute notre équipe qui a contribué à cette victoire historique au Saguenay.

Je suis tellement fier d’avoir dans notre famille le nouveau député de Chicoutimi-Le Fjord, Richard Martel.

Et si nous restons unis.

Si nous continuons de travailler fort.

Si nous demeurons fidèles à nos principes.

Dans quelques mois, le chemin des victoires conservatrices va traverser tout le pays!

Folks, this weekend is about a lot of things.

It’s about celebrating how far we’ve come in the last year.

It’s about affirming our principles and articulating our vision.

But most importantly, it’s about all the people we fight for every single day.

Like a father and son I met in P.E.I.

They own a lobster boat together and every day, they’re up at 3 a.m, braving the ocean conditions to earn a living for their families.

They told me it’s hard, gruelling work, and they absolutely love it. They wouldn’t want to do anything else.

Their number one input cost is fuel. And they’re terrified of what a carbon tax will do to their lives.

It’s about the two dozen workers at a plastics plant I visited in Markham, Ontario who have had their work weeks cut from five days a week down to four because it was too ex-pensive to have the plant run all week.

The owner told me that everything the plant does in Markham he could do south of the border, at less cost and greater profit.

Now he doesn’t want to do that. He loves Canada and loves his workers. But with rising costs, he doesn’t know how much longer he can hold out.

I was in New Brunswick a few weeks ago visiting the Moncton Farmer’s Market and as I was making my way through the booths I saw this woman who was selling soaps.

She looked right at me as I walked up to her booth.

She extended her hand to me with a troubled look on her face.

I shook her hand and she said, “I’m so sorry. I am so sorry.”

I was taken aback. I’ve started plenty of conversations with Jill like that, but it was new to be on the receiving end.

And she kept apologizing – “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” And I thought “What on earth did this woman do?” Finally she said.

“I’m so sorry … for voting Liberal.”

We shared a couple of laughs but the more I’ve thought about that encounter since then the more I realize that it’s not all that funny.

Cette femme—une propriétaire de petite entreprise qui travaille fort—faisait confiance à Justin Trudeau et au Parti libéral.

Elle l’a cru quand il a dit qu’il protégerait la classe moyenne.

Elle a cru qu’il avait ses meilleurs intérêts à coeur. Qu’il réduirait les impôts de la classe moyenne et donnerait un répit aux petites entreprises.

Justin Trudeau has failed this woman by failing to deliver what he promised. And those failures have consequences.

She told me she fears for the future. That it’s getting harder to stay afloat. That she’s worried about making ends meet with new taxes and rising costs.

But here’s the real problem. Justin Trudeau has no idea what she or any middle class Canadian family is going through because of him.

He has no concept of how to stretch a dollar. How to make it to the next payday. How to stick to a monthly budget.

Do you think he’s even seen a monthly budget?

He just doesn’t get it.

He doesn’t understand the problems Canadians face. And he can’t be trusted to fix them.

But I can tell you, I do.

My story begins on Cawthra Road, a four-lane road linking the Lake Ontario waterfront in Mississauga to the web of major freeways in the Greater Toronto Area.

Apartments, banks, schools, and warehouses line both sides today—but 70 years ago it was a dirt road where my grandparents—William and Eileen Enright, built a home.

My grandfather was a factory worker at Massey Ferguson while my Grandmother stayed home – just a tiny bungalow. My mother Mary was born first. Eight more kids came after. It wasn’t an easy life.

From a young age, mom sacrificed. She helped raise her brothers and sisters while Grandpa worked double-shifts and Grandma grew vegetables in the backyard and patched up the hand-me-downs as they were passed on from kid to kid.

Right after high school, mom became a nurse, got hired as one of the original nurses at the Childrens’ Hospital of Eastern Ontario.

Before she moved to Ottawa, she saved up enough money to pay for a second-floor addition to her parents’ house. It must have felt like a mansion.

And so it was growing up. Mom simply went from sacrificing for her siblings to sacrificing for children of her own.

We lived in a small townhouse in Ottawa. We didn’t have a lot of money. We’d have had more if the government didn’t take so much. But we got by.

We didn’t own a car so we took the bus everywhere. Mom would buy everything second-hand so my sister could have dance lessons. So I could play baseball.

My mother was my hero. She passed away last year—right before I was elected leader.

But I like to think she passed away knowing that she instilled in me a lasting obligation to make life even just a little bit better for the people around me.

To raise my three daughters and two sons with the same strength and optimism she showed me. To give of myself so the burdens of others might be lighter. Just as she did her whole life.

That is her legacy to our family. I want it to be my legacy to this country.

This country has bestowed such fortune and opportunity on my family that I stand before you running to be the next Prime Minister one generation removed from having nine kids in a two-bedroom bungalow along a dirt road.

That, right there, is Canada, ladies and gentlemen. And it’s worth fighting to protect.

Mesdames et Messieurs, comme l’histoire de notre parti le montre clairement, les conservateurs gagnent quand nous appliquons nos principes les plus forts et les plus fondamentaux aux problèmes modernes auxquels les Canadiens et les Canadiennes font face.

Il ne se passe pas un jour sans que je me sente humblement privilégié de diriger ce parti et de suivre les traces des grands leaders conservateurs.

I’m proud to say that we are the party of Canada’s first prime minister, the father of our federation, and the visionary who made this land possible, the great Sir John A. Macdonald.

And I think it’s a disgrace that we’re allowing extreme voices in this country to erase our proud heritage.

But hey, if we’re suddenly going to sanitize our history with the benefit of hindsight, then we better keep going.

The Liberal Party of Canada’s elite donor program is called the Laurier Club.

Liberal prime minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier—the architect of the Canadian Navy and a pioneer of free trade with the United States—signed an order-in-council in 1911 banning black immigrants to Canada.

They might want to rethink that one. And we better rename the university, while we’re at it.

William Lyon Mackenzie King—another Liberal prime minister, the man who navigated Canada through the Great Depression and led the country during World War II – closed Canada’s doors to Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. When asked how many Jewish refugees would be allowed to enter Canada, an immigration official said “None is too many.”

The Liberals really ought to take him off the $50 bill.

Do you see how divisive this is approach is? How destructive this is to our Canadian identity?

We can and we should celebrate the giants of our history like Laurier and King.

But we must not allow political correctness to erase what made us who are. If we look back on our history and our leaders and only see the blemishes, we miss out on a beautiful story of a country that has progressed into one of the safest, freest, and most prosperous in the world.

Je suis devenu chef de ce parti il y a seulement quinze mois environ.

Ça a été une campagne difficile et vigoureuse, et un grand pas en avant pour notre parti.

Nous avons choisi le deuxième chef seulement que ce parti avait eu en treize ans.

Quand j’ai gagné, nous étions à environ dix points derrière les libéraux. Justin Trudeau était toujours la coqueluche de l’élite internationale et des célébrités.

Mais les choses ont changé depuis.

A year ago when I met people, it was a polite handshake, a smile, and a “best of luck.”

Now it’s the two-hand grasp, the serious square look in the eye, and a “Andrew, you just have to beat these guys.”

And why?

Because the Liberal Party has finally shown its true colours. I’m talking about the real Liberal Party.

The tax-hiking, rule-breaking, perk-loving, deficit-spending, debt-mounting, virtue-signalling Liberals Canadians have come to know and despise.

Justin Trudeau says Canada is back? I say the Liberals are back.

Back to ignoring the rules and abusing the privileges of power.

Just recently, we saw the Fisheries Minister interfere in an independent process to award an Atlantic surf clam fishing licence to fake company with deep ties to the Liberal Party.

Bill Morneau, the Finance Minister, introduced a law regulating pension companies while still holding one million shares in his former family firm—that managed pensions.

In 2016, Justin Trudeau accepted a private helicopter ride to a luxury island vacation in the Bahamas from an organization that was registered to lobby his government.

The Prime Minister broke the law, as the Ethics Commissioner clearly confirmed, but it was no big deal to Trudeau, because the gift came from “a friend.”

Ladies and gentlemen, this is how Liberals have always governed this country. For their friends. And not for you.

If Justin Trudeau is engaged in this kind of corruption only three years into his term, just imagine what he’ll get up to if he’s re-elected.

The Liberals are also back to raising taxes and squeezing the middle class.

From coast to coast I hear the same thing.

People are getting by, but they aren’t getting ahead. There’s only a little left at the end of the month. And everything keeps getting more expensive.

But Justin Trudeau doesn’t get it.

The federal government should not make life more expensive.

As Prime Minister, I’m going to make sure the government takes less money off every paycheque so you can get ahead, not just get by.

Les Canadiens et les Canadiennes, partout au pays, me disent qu’ils se demandent vrai-ment si leur avenir sera meilleur.

En fait, plus de la moitié des Canadiens sont tous les mois à deux cents près de ne pas être capable de payer leurs factures ou leurs prêts.

Depuis que les libéraux ont gagné en deux mille quinze, plus de quatre-vingts pour cent des Canadiens de la classe moyenne paient plus d’impôt, pour une augmentation moyenne de plus de huit cents dollars.

Et les libéraux ont annulé tous les allégements fiscaux pour les étudiants et les activités des enfants. Tout ça rend la vie plus chère.

Gas prices have reached record levels. And what was Trudeau’s response? When he was asked about how this was affecting Canadians, Justin Trudeau actually celebrated it.

He said higher gas prices are quote “exactly what we want!”

Ladies and gentlemen, this kind of out-of-touch, elitist thinking is typical Liberal arrogance and it makes me absolutely sick.

Millionaire Liberals like Justin Trudeau may want to pay higher gas prices, but the hard-working Canadians that we are fighting for don’t!

Yes, the Liberals are back.

Back to embarrassing Canada on the world stage and damaging relationships with important allies.

Under Justin Trudeau, Canada’s international trading prospects have never looked more grim.

And that’s a problem, when one in five Canadian jobs rely on free trade.

Now, it’s true. The President of the United States is anti-free trade. And Donald Trump has been crystal clear all along that he’s out to cause us pain and to steal our jobs.

But standing up to Donald Trump starts by making sure Canada is strong.

We need to stop pumping cheap fuel into the American economy. We need to get our re-sources to new markets. And we need to compete with other countries on taxation and regulation instead of rolling over.

And I’m not only talking about NAFTA.

From Japan, to India, to Australia, Justin Trudeau has embarrassed Canada and has failed to open new markets—and that failure has consequences for Canadians.

Earlier this year, I was in the United Kingdom where I met with Prime Minister Theresa May, laying the ground work for future negotiations when I’m Prime Minister.

In October, I’m headed to India to do the same. And don’t worry, I don’t dance and I’m not bringing a chef.

The point is, international trade is a serious endeavor requiring serious leadership. It’s time for the grown-ups to be in charge again.

Les libéraux ont toujours été le parti des fédéralistes paternalistes et centralisateurs.

De notre côté, nous avons toujours travailler à l’autonomie des provinces.

Nous voulons collaborer. Pas temps à perdre avec les chicanes.

Et nous allons respecter le désir des Québécois et des Québécoises de se libérer du far-deau du double rapport d’impôt.

Justin Trudeau n’écoute pas ceux et celles qui en ont assez, chaque année, de devoir rem-plir deux rapports d’impôts.

Il n’écoute pas et ne comprend pas le quotidien du monde ordinaire.

Vous-savez pourquoi mes amis?

Parce que Justin Trudeau vit dans son monde de calinours, de licornes et de petits lapins!

Eh bien, nous vous avons entendu, nous allons agir.

Le retour à la raison est proche!

Quand je serai premier ministre, les contribuables québécois ne rempliront qu’un seul rapport d’impôt comme l’ensemble des Canadiens.

Sérieusement, je prends cet engagement populaire dès maintenant, car je veux faciliter la vie des Québécois.

The Liberals are also back to bankrupting the country.

Remember when Justin Trudeau talked about his deficits? His temporary, tiny $10-billion deficits?

Not so tiny—and not so temporary.

This government has racked up $73 billion in new debt—but what do we have to show for it? What do you have?

Your wages haven’t gone up. But I know your taxes have.

This failure has real consequences.

Canadians don’t have more money left over at the end of the month. And they have less money to spend as they see fit.

Every year that we’re in a deficit, we’re borrowing money from my kids and from yours. Deficits today mean higher taxes tomorrow. It really is that simple.

Not one of us—not a single one of us in this room—would leave a credit card bill to those who come after us.

What Justin Trudeau is doing is robbing from our children and it’s just wrong.

Under my leadership, the deficits will come to an end. We will balance the budget and once again get Canada’s fiscal house in order.

Ils ont des plans environnementaux qui peuvent sembler être bons, mais qui ne font rien pour réduire les émissions, et qui punissent notre industrie.

En matière d’environnement, les conservateurs vont maintenir de faibles émissions et continuer à améliorer notre performance environnementale, mais nous n’allons pas dé-truire le moteur économique de notre pays.

The best way to reduce global emissions is not to shut down Canadian industry.

It’s to grow it.

In China, manufacturing a ton of aluminum produces 17 tons of CO2. In Canada, it produces two.

That means we would actually grow our economy and reduce global emissions if that aluminum was made in Canada.

That’s what we should be doing.

Not punishing people for heating their homes or driving their cars, but luring investment away from large emitting countries and bringing it home to Canada!

Now speaking of pointless gestures that will cost Canadians a lot of money and do nothiing for the world’s climate…

Let me talk about the carbon tax.

There is no idea in Canada that has had a worse year than the carbon tax.

I remember not so long ago when pundits and experts were writing obituaries for conservative parties for not supporting a carbon tax.

Now they’re writing obituaries for parties that do support the carbon tax.

Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals in Ontario? Gone. Thank you Ford Nation.

Jason Kenney and the United Conservative Party are about to take care of the NDP in Alberta.

Even Liberals are running away from it. In P.E.I., the Liberal government will submit a plan this fall that won’t include a carbon tax.

I was watching the Ontario election. One of the most frustrating days, a poll came out that said the people of Ontario oppose a carbon tax at a rate of seven out of 10.

And I read the article and one of the pundits quoted said something like “the people of Ontario don’t support the carbon tax because they don’t understand it.”

Can you believe that?

Now I’ve travelled all over this country.

There is a carbon tax revolt brewing.

And I can tell you the reason more and more Canadians don’t support a carbon tax is precisely because we do understand it!

And even Justin Trudeau is starting to cave. But he can’t even do his own policy right.

Instead of cutting the carbon tax—or getting rid of it altogether—he’s decided to give big businesses and big polluters a huge break.

This summer, he quietly exempted 90 per cent of their emissions from his tax. That means the single mother will pay the tax on 100 per cent of the gas she buys to drive to work and the groceries she buys to feed her kids, but industrial polluters, and big businesses with their powerful lobbyists, will enjoy a massive loophole.

Now, Conservatives know the carbon tax isn’t just bad for big business—it’s bad for absolutely everyone.

And that’s why, come 2019, my first act as prime minister will be to get rid of the carbon tax—once and for all!

More and more Canadians are seeing through all of these Liberal deceptions.

Liberals always try and wrap themselves up in good intentions, but their policies invariably hurt the very people they claim they want to help.

They try and convince people that they are moved by compassion. But we all know that there is nothing compassionate about their policies.

There is nothing compassionate about a deficit. There is nothing fair about leaving the next generation of Canadians a mountain of new debt, and more and more of their tax dollars going to pay bankers and creditors.

Il n’y a rien de compatissant à taxer la prospérité. Ou à chasser les investissements. Ou à fermer des usines et mettre des travailleurs à pied.

Il n’y a rien de compatissant à menacer des millions d’emplois avec une attaque sans pré-cédent contre les petites entreprises.

Ou à étouffer les familles qui tentent de joindre les deux bouts avec plus d’impôts.

There is absolutely nothing compassionate about allowing thousands of people to cross the border illegally from a safe place like upstate New York, jumping ahead of those in refugee camps fleeing violence and tyranny, waiting for Canada’s help.

This failure, again, has real consequences—for both taxpayers and for asylum seekers.

I won’t let the Liberals claim a monopoly on compassion, ladies and gentlemen.

Especially not when it’s conservative principles that actually help people who need it the most.

Now there has been an awful lot of talk about diversity in the last couple of weeks.

Justin Trudeau says that diversity is our strength.

But I think he’s missing the big picture. The reasons why waves and waves of immigrants from all corners of the world have chosen Canada.

It is because we are free—free to worship and free to speak and free to believe.

It is because we are open—open to the persecuted and the oppressed and the broken.

It is because we are equal—equal in opportunity and in legality and in value.

It is because we are all these things that we are diverse.

Diversity is a product of our strength. And our strength is and ever has been our freedom.

As John Diefenbaker said, “I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and for all mankind.”

There is unity in our diversity, ladies and gentlemen.

Some will have you believe our right come from the identity groups the government puts us in, but conservatives know that our rights come from the fact that we are individual Canadians.

In our politics today, the forces of political correctness are converging on contrary ideas and even on legitimate criticism. On deeply held personal convictions and complex matters of individual choice.

Justin Trudeau wants this. He wants to impose his personal views on the country and demonize those who don’t accept them.

But Conservatives won’t let Trudeau avoid accountability for his decisions by smearing and name-calling those who dare to criticize him.

Nous savons déjà que le contexte politique au Québec sera très différent en 2019.

Le Bloc et le NPD foncent dans un mur.

Merci beaucoup Martine!

Il n’y a qu’une seule alternative sérieuse à Justin Trudeau et c’est nous!

En effet, il reste, sur le champ de bataille, deux adversaires historiques: les conservateurs et les libéraux. Vous savez, deux partis c’est assez: un bon et un mauvais. Et le contraste entre conservateurs et libéraux n’a jamais été aussi clair.

Le choix se dessine déjà: un parti à l’écoute, compétent et qui ressemble aux Québécois; le Parti conservateur. Ou un parti qui accumule les échecs, qui démontre son incompétence et qui pousse les idées de Manon Massé; le Parti libéral.

Mes amis, je suis très confiant en vue des prochaines élections.

Je suis sur le terrain partout et à l’écoute des Québécois.

Les gens viennent vers nous.

Ils veulent discuter avec nous.

Ils sont intéressés par nos idées.

Ils constatent que derrière l’image, le bilan de Justin Trudeau se résume en trois mots: Échec, échec et échec!!!

Nous sommes à l’écoute de la population et la plateforme conservatrice sera la vôtre.

En 2019, les idées, l’écoute et la compétence auront le dessus sur l’image, l’arrogance et les discours vides.

Il nous reste encore plus au moins un an à endurer les échecs des libéraux, avant que le ciel redevienne bleu.

Ne laissez jamais personne vous dire que les valeurs conservatrices ne sont pas des va-leurs québécoises.

Mes amis, les conservateurs du Québec peuvent se présenter dans n’importe quelle région la tête haute.

Since the last federal election, our greatest results and achievements have actually been in the province of Quebec.

And in 2019, with the same determination and pride, and with a renewed platform and a solid organization, you can lead your troops to the best results yet.

Je m’engage personnellement à poursuivre les efforts pour continuer à connecter davantage avec les francophones au pays.

Ma détermination est grande et je souhaite qu’on utilise toutes les tribunes pour passer notre message conservateur.

C’est dans cet esprit, que je n’ai pas hésité une seconde à aller sur le plateau de l’émission Tout le monde en parle.

Et je suis toujours en vie.

Mais j’ai besoin de vous.

Notre caucus a besoin de vous. Ensemble, nous redonnerons au Canada ce qu’il mérite.

Un gouvernement conservateur solide et efficace avec une équipe québécoise forte et dé-terminée!

Ladies and gentlemen, Conservatives are united. And we are winning.

Across provincial borders, conservatives are coming together. And winning.

Look at what Jason Kenney has done in Alberta. What Doug Ford achieved in Ontario. What Scott Moe is doing in Saskatchewan. They’re winning.

And we’re winning too.

Nous sommes unis dans nos principes et notre but—en défendant vigoureusement les at-taques envers nos libertés économiques et individuelles et offrant une vision du Canada où tout le monde peut réussir.

Conservatives know that people—all people, no matter where they live or what they do–are best served when governments stand down and allow individuals, families, and communities to determine their own destiny.

And you watch how Canadians will respond if we allow that fundamental belief to continue to guide us.

But I need all of you.

I’m gonna say right now that it’s going to be hard.

The Liberals are going to throw everything at us. It’s going to get harder and harder.

But I want you all to take it with a smile. Because all that means is that we’re winning.

But as you’re out there, knocking on doors and talking to your neighbours, I want you to allow yourself to dream.

To dream about the country we are building.

What if we had a government that understood that a free people making free decisions was the best way to improve quality of life and create prosperity?

What if we had a government that believed there was enough space in our public debate for values and viewpoints it didn’t agree with?

What if we had a government that didn’t always just look back into our history looking for reasons to be ashamed, but instead for reasons to be proud?

What if we had a government that the best way to fight against protectionism is to make Canada the most attractive place in the world to invest and to create jobs?

And what if we had a government that was led by a prime minister that actually understood the everyday problems Canadians face and governed with a clear plan to help them? This is what the Conservative Party will offer.

Un pays où nous ne sommes pas seulement là pour payer des taxes pour grossir la taille du gouvernement, mais là pour être servi par un bon gouvernement.

A country where people aren’t just there to pay taxes to a big government, they’re there to be served by a good government.

Where we work with First Nations as partners in our shared prosperity, instead of talking down to them with empty gestures and symbolism.

Where wealth isn’t taxed and regulated and controlled, but created and unleashed and multiplied.

Where hard work is rewarded, not punished.

Where the government realizes that the best way to ensure that more Canadians get ahead, is by lifting people up, not tearing people down.

Where we can build big, nation-building projects—the kinds of things that bring us closer together as a people, and make it easier for one part of the country to benefit from the prosperity of another.

That is why a Conservative government will repeal the Liberal regulatory changes and get Energy East back to the table!

Ladies and gentlemen, this is my positive Conservative vision. Where taxes are low, government is limited, opportunity is equal, freedom is celebrated, and people are put first!

Ladies and gentlemen, that’s what we’re going to build to get there. Thank you! Merci beaucoup!