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Poilievre reveals platform, says government must ‘start pinching pennies’

Click to play video: 'Poilievre reveals Conservative election platform promising 70% deficit reduction, 15% income tax cut'
Poilievre reveals Conservative election platform promising 70% deficit reduction, 15% income tax cut
WATCH ABOVE: Poilievre reveals Conservative election platform promising 70% deficit reduction, 15% income tax cut – Apr 22, 2025

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Tuesday released his party’s election platform, a day after millions of Canadians have already voted in the advanced polls and with less than one week until Election Day.

The Conservative plan comes after the Liberals and the NDP both released their platforms over the weekend.

The Tory platform promises to cut the deficit “by 70%” while simultaneously lowering income taxes by 15 per cent.

Poilievre said a Conservative government would cut the deficit “with less spending on bureaucracy, consultants, foreign aid, and handouts to insiders and special interests, while boosting growth with resource jobs.”

“Canadians have been pinching their pennies long enough. It’s time for government to start pinching pennies,” Poilievre said.

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The platform forecasts $100 billion in deficits over the next four years, along with billions of dollars in tax cuts and new revenues.

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Poilievre said the Conservatives believe they can reduce the projected size of the deficit this fiscal year — $46.8 billion — to $31.3 billion through higher revenues and spending cuts.

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The platform predicts $20 billion in revenue coming from counter-tariffs on the U.S. this fiscal year — a figure Poilievre said he borrowed from the Liberal government’s own projections.

“What I’m committed to is redistributing that money to Canadians through tax cuts and through targeted aid to industries that are directly affected. I have said that we will be cutting taxes by more than $20 billion,” he said.

These tax cuts, he said, would include an already-promised 15 per cent reduction in federal income tax, cutting the sales tax on homes and cutting the sales tax on Canadian-made automobiles, among others.

The platform says that 15 per cent tax cut is being phased in over four years — something the Canadian Press noted Poilievre did not mention when he announced it earlier in the campaign.

The party projects the tax cut will cost just over $1 billion this year, rising to $13.6 billion in 2028-29.

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“We will use the money to cut taxes on work, investment, energy and home building. And also to eliminate the capital gains tax on any monies reinvested in Canada,” he said.

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He said the Tories would also launch a loan program called the Keep Canadians Working Fund to support businesses during U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war on Canada.

“It’s going to target those businesses that we know can survive and thrive in the future but are trying to avoid layoffs in the short term while we go through this unfortunate and frankly wrong-headed tariff dispute that the president has wrongly pursued,” he said.

Poilievre also vowed to “never hike taxes and pass the Taxpayer Protection Act to ban new or higher federal taxes without asking taxpayers first in a referendum.”

Liberal Leader Mark Carney criticized Poilievre’s platform for having “phantom numbers” in the plan.

These numbers are a joke. We aren’t in a joke. We are in the worst crisis of our lives. It takes a serious government. It takes a serious plan,” Carney said.

Poilievre said he would also incentivize municipalities to cut taxes on home building.

“What I’ve said to the cities is, you need to follow my example of cutting taxes on home building. If you do, I will pay half the cost of your building tax reductions,” he said.

Poilievre said he will set home-building targets for municipalities.

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“If they hit that target and beat it, they’ll get more money. If they refuse, then they’ll be getting less money. It’s very simple. We cannot continue to pay local bureaucracies to block home building. We have to incentivize more construction,” he said.

With files from The Canadian Press.

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