Poilievre mum about fakes in ‘Our Home’ video on Quebec City visit

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

The images in news reports and on social media of Pierre Poilievre visiting a brewery and a factory in Quebec City last week are authentic; less so the images used in a video the Conservative Party of Canada posted last week called “Our Home.”

“Our Home” featured Poilievre giving a speech in a cowboy hat at the recent Calgary Stampede, interspersed with clips supposedly depicting typical Canadian scenes.

However, keen-eyed observers quickly noted many of the scenes were stock footage taken at various spots on the planet. For example, the fighter jets are Russian, the young student is at a university in Ukraine, the outdoor family dinner is in Tuscany and the “foothills of the Rockies” are in Indonesia.

Poilievre happened to be in Quebec City on Aug. 20 when the story broke about the images in the video. When re- porters asked him about it, his only response was, “The goal of the video was still to share my common sense plan, that is to say, cut taxes, build housing, fix the budget, stop crime; and there were mistakes, so it was removed.”

While in the Quebec capital, the Conservative leader, with Quebec lieutenant and Charlesbourg MP Pierre Paul-Hus and Portneuf MP Joël Grondin in tow, visited a brewery warehouse, a factory where worksite trailers are made and a distillery in Limoilou.

Poilievre reacted to the announcement that morning of the Coalition Avenir Québec’s plan to freeze temporary foreign worker entry in Montreal.

“The immigration system is out of control. Quebec is at a breaking point because of [Prime Minister] Justin Trudeau’s radical policies. The population is exploding, with- out housing, without jobs and without the means to care for the people who arrive,” he said.

He also directed attacks at the Bloc Québécois, with polls showing they are neck-and- neck with Conservatives for the lead in Quebec.

“Voting for the Bloc means helping Justin Trudeau implement a policy that is costing the people of Quebec dearly,” Poilievre said, denouncing what he called the Bloc-Liberal coalition.

In a Radio-Canada interview from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet dismissed Poilievre’s comments, saying he and his party have consistently voted against the Liberal government.

Prior to his Quebec City visit, Poilievre spent a day in Saguenay, where he took a stand against the federal government’s plan to protect a caribou herd at the risk of local forestry jobs.