OUTLOOK - Moose Jaw-Lake Centre-Lanigan MP Fraser Tolmie is confident that a Conservative government will form in Canada later this year.
Speaking on the phone with this reporter last week, the local Member of Parliament says that in the wake of the news that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will step down from his role in March, he says the PM should have done more some time ago.
"Quite honestly, I feel that the Prime Minister should have called an election," said Tolmie, talking to SaskToday. "I feel he should have run on his record. We've been calling a non-confidence vote for close to a year now. We believe that his policies have truly damaged the Canadian people, I think he's cut and run, and his own party have obviously given him notice that he is not their leader. They wouldn't win with him, and actually, he's doing what he's doing for his own self-interest as opposed to the Canadian people."
Tolmie believes that Trudeau lost the confidence of his own people, though he says there will always be a few die-hard supporters that will go down with the proverbial ship.
"I think there are some die-hard Trudeau supporters who would go down on the ship with him, but my suspicions are that the only reason they would do that is because they were sniffing around and trying to get a cabinet position," said Fraser. "But truly, the Canadian people have been speaking for a great amount of time now that Trudeau's policies have hurt them and that he should not be in power and he has not listened. Knowing that, I feel that he should face the consequences of the voting public to let him know that they do not appreciate his leadership or what he has done to our country."
With the federal landscape in Ottawa looking rocky at best right now, what with the almost shattering of the current Liberal government in power, this puts the Conservative Party in a bountiful position as Canada now enters an election year. Political pundits are debating over whether Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is just biding his time to let Canadians make up their minds or should he pounce in order to grab their attention right now in the thick of all the drama surrounding the current government.
Tolmie says it's really neither of those things, and rather that Poilievre has been consistently spreading his message for some time now on where Canada needs to go in the future.
"I don't think it's either one of those options," said Tolmie. "Our leader Pierre has truly had the foresight of where this country needs to go. I think he has been saying the same message for the last two years in which he's been in power. I think we're finally paying attention to what he's actually been saying because what he's been saying is actually what Canadians are experiencing and his message has not changed. That being that we need to axe the tax, we need to fix the budget, we need to stop the crime, and we need to build homes for people in this country that are in need."
The local MP says that support for both Poilievre and Conservatives across the country has been growing and that the current government is out of touch with what's important to everyday Canadians.
"I believe that there's been an overwhelming majority of support across Canada for our leader, the vision that he has for our country, and for the practical reasons that we have in place that actually resonate with Canadians on the challenges that they're facing," said Tolmie. "The Liberal Party has been out of touch, they're out of time, and they need to be out of government."
Fraser says that what he hears routinely from Saskatchewan residents on the state of Ottawa is a barrage of questions from Canadians who want to see a changing of the guard. That is, when the language isn't getting 'a little blue'.
"When's the next election? When can we get this guy out of office? When can we make Pierre our leader? When can we get back to something that is normal?" said Tolmie. "That's what I'm hearing on the doorsteps, that's what I'm hearing within the communities, that's what I'm hearing on the phones and that's what I'm hearing when I'm in the grocery store or the gas station. Wherever I go in the writing of Moose Jaw-Lake Centre-Lanigan, I'm hearing the same thing; we need to get this guy out of office. And I will say this: The language that I've just used is not the language that the people have been using. They have something a little bit more stronger and a little bit more blue than what I'm using with you right here. They want to get Trudeau out and the Liberals out, full-stop."
Tolmie says that the path to victory and power once again for a Conservative government will be the fact that what MPs and leader Poilievre are saying aren't just their own views and opinions; rather, that these are the issues, problems and challenges that Canadians are sharing with them in the hopes that they can be addressed by the federal government.
Fraser says that in 2025, time will officially be up for the current Liberal government.
"I think it's the same thing that we've been identifying with; the challenges and the problems that everyday Canadians are facing," he said. "The message that we've been sharing isn't our message, it's the peoples' message. They are being overtaxed, overburdened, crime is up, and quite honestly, time is up for the Liberal government."
