Trudeau sharpens political attacks on Poilievre ahead of Parliament return

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sharpened his attack on his chief rival Thursday as he tried to rally his caucus for the upcoming parliamentary sitting.

Liberal MPs are holding three days of caucus meetings in Ottawa to plan for the return of the House of Commons, and to shore up party morale after months of polls that suggest as many as half of them would lose their seats if an election were held today.

That morale-building includes fighting back with more vigour against the Conservatives and leader Pierre Poilievre, whose pointed attacks on Trudeau as being out of touch with the real problems Canadians are facing have been successful.

In a 30-minute speech to the full caucus Thursday afternoon, Trudeau mentioned Poilievre at least nine times by name, and his party at least 10 times.

“Let’s remember that on the things that matter deeply in the daily lives of Canadians, Pierre Poilievre and his team voted against the Canada Child Benefit, the Canada Dental Care benefit,” Trudeau said.

“They voted against $10-a-day child care and voted against programs for seniors.”

Trudeau also moved to link Poilievre to the rhetoric of U.S. right-wing TV personality Tucker Carlson, who gave speeches at events in Calgary and Edmonton this week.

Carlson has been vocal in supporting Russia over Ukraine, a position also appearing more frequently from Republicans and supporters of Donald Trump.

Trudeau and the Liberals have been linking Poilievre and the Conservatives to that stance, following Poilievre’s decision in November to vote against an update to Canada’s free trade agreement with Ukraine.

“My very first call this year was with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who wanted to know that Canada still stood with him, that Canadians still stood with him,”