Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre promised to strike down a key element of the Liberal government’s environmental policy Friday as he and other party leaders got back on the campaign trail following the national leaders’ debates in Montreal.
The campaigning Friday also coincided with the opening of the first of four days of advance polling across the country.
Both Poilievre and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh stayed in Quebec to make announcements Friday morning, while Liberal Leader Mark Carney made his way to Niagara Falls, Ont.
Carney used the border city as a backdrop for further comments about how U.S. President Donald Trump and his tariffs have changed Canada’s relationship with its closest neighbour — once again framing the election around an issue that helped rejuvenate Liberal support.
“It’s said that there are no atheists in foxholes. There should be no libertarians in a crisis,” Carney said. “What happens in a crisis is the private sector retreats. Government needs to step up. Government must lead and catalyze private investment.”
At a recycling facility in Montreal, Poilievre said his party would end the ban enacted by the Liberals in 2022 that prohibits the manufacture and sale of six single-use plastic items, including straws, grocery bags and cutlery
If elected on April 28, he also said he would end Liberal plans to standardize plastic packaging and labelling to make it easier to recycle, referring to it as a “plastic tax” on food packaging.
“How long would the other fresh produce here stay edible if it could not be plastic wrapped? The answer is a lot less time,” Poilievre said. “There’ll be more waste in our foods, more food that goes into the garbage, and therefore more costs that Canadians pay for food they don’t even get to eat.”
The plastic ban in place does not currently extend to food packaging except for takeout containers.
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The previous Liberal government banned the items after designating plastic manufactured items as toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.
A Federal Court quashed that designation in November 2023 saying it was too broad to say all manufactured plastic is toxic. The federal government appealed the decision and was granted a stay, allowing the ban to remain in place pending the conclusion of that appeal.
The Liberals also began implementing a plan to require up to 60 per cent of food packaging be made from recycled plastic by 2030.
They were looking to increase how much plastic gets recycled in Canada, with studies suggesting as much as 90 per cent of plastic waste ends up in landfills.
The Liberals say about three million tonnes of plastic waste is generated in Canada every year, about the same weight as 13 big cruise ships, and that the material has a value of about $8 billion.
Poilievre claims the plastic ban will cost the economy $1.3 billion over the next decade, and the average family $400 annually.
While Poilievre could reverse the federal rules if elected, some jurisdictions like British Columbia and Montreal have their own bans and regulations in place for single-use plastics
Plastic straws have generated an unexpected amount of political discussion in recent years as countries grapple with how to reduce the amount of plastic waste generated. Many consumers have found paper straws to be unacceptable alternatives.
The United States was also moving to phase out plastic straws but on Feb. 20, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order overturning that plan.
Carney accused Poilievre of importing American plastic policy into Canada with this proposal, saying the banned items all have “readily available, readily affordable, you know broadly affordable” alternatives.
“So I don’t see the need to follow the U.S. either in terms of the respect for rule of judgments of judges, U.S. firearm policy or with respect to plastics,” he said. “We make our own decisions here in Canada.”
In Yamachiche, Que., about an hour east of Montreal, Singh announced his party’s Quebec platform. The document puts a more regional focus on NDP policy planks, such as plans for an east-west clean electricity power grid, and argues Quebec could sell it’s hydroelectricity to the rest of Canada.
Singh was flanked by several NDP candidates at his announcement and said his party will focus on protecting farmers and the environment.
Singh said protecting Canadian sovereignty means defending food security, including ensuring supply management in the dairy industry is safeguarded.
U.S. tariffs have pushed resource projects to the forefront in the campaign, and the NDP’s Quebec platform states that no pipeline would be built through Quebec without provincial consent.
Singh continued his pitch to elect more New Democrats, saying his party is the only one putting regular people first.
“You saw as prime minister, (Carney) made a choice to give a tax cut that mostly helped millionaires. And at the same time, he’s proposing to cut services you need. You’re worried about all that. You think his priorities might not be the right priorities. You have the power to vote for New Democrats,” Singh said.
He added the NDP’s full, costed platform will come “very soon.”
Carney said the full Liberal platform will be released on Saturday.
The Bloc Québécois became the first party to release its costed platform Friday, publishing a document that promised $133 billion in new federal spending over five years.
The main items in the platform include $22 billion for a wage subsidy related to the trade war with the United States, and a $15 billion fund for public transit. The party also wants to increase health transfers to the provinces by $11.6 billion.
The Bloc only runs candidates in Quebec and cannot form the government so the promises are things the Bloc could push the party in power to do but couldn’t enact on its own.
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