Former PM Campbell calls Poilievre ‘a liar and a hate-monger’
Former prime minister Kim Campbell called Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre a “liar and a hate-monger,” and suggested she won’t vote for his party in the next federal election.
Campbell, who was a Progressive Conservative prime minister for just over four months in 1993, made the comments on the “Beyond a Ballot” podcast in an episode released on Thursday to mark International Women’s Day.
“I think there might be some quite good people in the Conservative party. I have problems with their leader,” said Campbell.
Asked what she meant by that, Campbell said, “I think he’s a liar and a hate-monger, is what I think he is. So that about sums it up.”
In response to Campbell’s comments, Poilievre spokesperson Sebastian Skamski told the Star in an email Friday that “Ms. Campbell’s own political record speaks for itself.”
Campbell did not respond to an email asking for her to elaborate on her characterization of Poilievre.
Campbell’s broadside occurred during a discussion about current Canadian politics, in which Poilievre’s Conservatives are consistently clocking large leads over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals and the other parties in national polls.
After noting she is not a Conservative party member, Campbell suggested she could not vote for the federal Conservatives, in part because she believes climate change is an “existential issue.”
Under Poilievre, the Conservatives have rallied strongly against the federal carbon pricing system and have promised to “axe” the system’s levy — along with accompanying quarterly rebate payments — on fuels like consumer gasoline and home heating. The Liberals also routinely accuse the Tories of failing to take climate change seriously, since the party has not released a detailed plan to show how it would reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions.
“I find that the current Conservative party does not, in my view, address the issues as I think they need to be addressed,” Campbell said.
She also raised her concerns about Russia and said that “people who want to play footsie with Donald Trump … don’t get it.” But she did not clearly indicate what she thinks about the Conservative party’s stance on both issues.
“The choices are not great for me,” she said, referring to how she might vote in the next election.
Campbell remains the only female prime minister in Canadian history. Under her leadership, the governing Progressive Conservatives were reduced to just two seats in the House of Commons in 1993, when Jean Chrétien’s Liberals won the first of three majorities.
That election also saw the emergence of the Reform Party and the Bloc Québécois as forces in federal politics, which split the political right.